Teenagers are a kick

I really do adore teenagers. They are the most creative and goofy characters.

Take for instance my older daughter who, when discussing all her many activities at school and life, suddenly blurted out, "I'm an overexceeder, Mom. I just can't help myself."

"No, honey," I said, "that's overachiever."

She looked at me like I was crazy and hinted that maybe I was a little jealous because she invented new words and I had never done that.

And so it went. This is also the girl who put her face down on her desk when asked by one teacher to put her test face down. I understand that traveled through the channels in the teacher's lounge. And it was cute. Our Little OverExceeder kind of felt that it made her notorious, and she was so proud of that fact. In fact, we brag about it to everyone we know even today!

But now her sister, our Little UnderAchiever, is coming up in the ranks. She can be seen hiding behind her bangs (thank God they're not green), or passing notes about her teacher to the girl on the left. She doesn't want to seem too smart, so she won't be the one waving her hand in the air when the teacher asks a question. NO, she will hide behind her cloak of invisibility and it is her job, not mine, to remove it.

The older one always told us what was going on. In fact, she told us WAY more than we wanted to know. The little one? Well, getting stuff out of her was like prying the door molding off the wall.

So with her, we've had to resort to a higher power.

Wendy's and Target. They're about as high as you can get.

In the past, we've had to beg for information and bribe her with things like a Frostie at Wendy's or new socks from Target if we want to get anything out of her. She has so many socks that I had to buy her a new dresser. Then there was all the garbage from the Frosties and the sock packages. My garbage man started asking questions about the socks, and really, it's so personal. This has become a costly endeavor, never mind the probing eye of the garbage man, and we would like to change. But, alas, we are parents of the worst sort (American) and seem totally unable to evolve. It is because of this that our Little Underachiever is so unique and stubborn. And we are so proud of her!

There are times when we could have used a little help, but we never asked. These teenagers are of our making (it's like genes meet jeans) and we love them just the way they are. We think they're wildly creative and they think we're really old and stupid. But it works for us!