I fear that my baby girl may be growing up too fast.  I first began to notice this a few months ago and the evidence continues to accumulate.  I can trace this all back to the beginning of summer when we pulled M out of her regular daycare facility and enrolled her in private “insert religion here” school.  Lower your eyebrows and wipe that sarcastic “Ooh La La” look off of your face and let me explain. 

M's Open House brochure...something odd about it that I can't put my finger on...

M changed schools for a couple of reasons really.  We were becoming more and more irritated that her original daycare kept putting her with the younger kids each afternoon in an effort to combine children.  They do this so that they can release teachers as the parents trickle in throughout the day to pick up their spawn.  M is also now in her Pre K years and we feel that she should be getting a head start on her education.  These things considered, it was also less costly to send M to the private school with an actual educational curriculum than it was to keep her at the daycare where she played with two-year-olds and hand-me-down toys.  So, you could say that we were motivated by finances as much as the desire for our daughter to get edumacated.  If she’s not educated, how is she going to support me in my golden years?

Back to my theory on M’s recent maturity spurt.  Since she started the private school, I have noticed my three-year-old daughter having in-depth conversations with her new friends about fashion, of all things.  We sat at her recent open house and witnessed our toddler daughter having a conversation with her 4-year-old friend.  Their conversation ranged from shoes; to what accessories each had on; to sharing a delicious snack.  This is nuts…I have seen high school girls have this same conversation!  Gone are the days of Dora and Wonder Pets.  She is almost exclusive to DVD’s such as Toy Story and her crazy-ass Barbie movies.  (Have you seen any of these?  They are creepy)At this rate she will be animation free by Christmas!  Her choice in bedtime stories had transitioned out of Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Fancy Nancy into all the Judy Blume she can get her grubby little paws on.  I think I even caught her looking at the stock tickers in the Wall Street Journal the other day.  To say the least, my baby is growing up, and way too fast…and I don’t like it one bit. 

Where is my little snuggler?  Where is the girl who wants Daddy to help her do everything?  It used to be, “Daddy, will you snuggle me?”  Now it’s more like, “Bio-Father, would you mind so much as to pass me the Grey Poupon? And while you are out running my errands, pick up my dry cleaning.  I have an event with the girls from the club and I need my Minnie Mouse skort.”