Girl's Gone Child: The Month in Moments: November

***

Yesterday out of nowhere, Fable stopped mid-sentence, put her hands over her ears and said, "Mom, I'm having a moment. I'M HAVING A SERIOUS MOMENT!"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm a human," she said, "I can't believe I'm a real live human."

"YES! YOU ARE A HUMAN..!" and then I fell down the rabbit hole and woke up in 1987 on my parent's driveway when I, too, had my first HOLY SHIT I AM ALIVE WTF moment. Unlike Fable I was alone but my mind was equally blown.

"Out of nowhere it occurred to me that I was myself. I was Rebecca..."

"Exactly!" she said, eyes wide. "I'm Fable! I can't believe it! It's crazy! I'm a real person!"

And then Archer chimed in.

And Hal.

And we all exchanged stories about the various times in our lives when our minds were blown by just... being -- the trip that is existing.

"It's a serious mind bend, right?"

"I don't even understand how it happened."

"I feel like I'm looking through the eyes of someone... and that someone is me?"

"Totally. That someone IS you. Pretty powerful, right?"

"And crazy."

"And crazy."

A lot went down this month. Fable lost her first (and second) tooth, we went to Disneyland for the first time as a family of six (eight, including my parents) which was magical as always. Bo and Revi lost their minds and we talked about how exciting it is that we're all getting older and becoming more of a team. It isn't "the babies" and the "big kids" anymore, but all of us... we can all go to places together now and survive. (Last year we went to Disneyland with the big kids but left Bo and Revi at home because it was too much. So this felt like a graduation in a way...)

We spent last week at my parents' house -- the kids had the whole week off. Lots of beach days and game nights and WWW's amazing food and late night game nights and my dad pretending to be a monster because PLEASE, PAPA, PLEASE! BE A MONSTER, PLEASE!

And love and love and spills and tantrums and life and life and life and games. And games. And Fable's incredible portraits and all of us sitting very still at the table trying not to sneeze as she drew.

And painted. And pastel...ed.

Me + Revi. It looks like I'm nursing her but we're actually just chilling.

***

This year flew by. They always do, I guess, but this year flew by faster than last year and last year faster than the year before. And this is exactly how I feel at the moment/always: