Madeleina Growing Up

Kids grow up so quick. One minute you're checking the temperature on their bottle of milk and the next you're seeing if the martini is cold enough. What happened to hanging around for a couple of years? It feels like "now that you're old enough to actually make conversation you don't want to talk to me?"
I mean, my Italo has a baby for goodness sake! A Baby? He IS a baby!!!!! He's the kid I take to ballgames. He's the little leaguer who can't speak English but can play the hell out of shortstop as long as someone tells him in Spanish what the play is. He's got a baby? Did he steal it? I mean, comon, the kid can't be 14...what the hell is he doing making me a grandpa?????
Truth is he's 24 and already acts like me as a dad.
But Madeleina is a different story. I already talked about her attitude on bad days in my last post. Her attitude on good days is brilliant. Her school moved, for instance, about two weeks ago, and the new school is only a mile or so from our house. So she's decided to walk home most days. I had to send a note to school saying that was okay, that I didn't believe there were dogs on that patch of road, etc, and finally the school is letting her.
And she's discovering all sorts of things, including today when she took a shortcut through a bunch of tree branches only to come on those thorn weeds we have in Texas, so her legs are all cut up.
I check on her, even when she's walking. I'm the guy in the pickup who stops near the 12 year old girl and waves. She waves me off and I drive off alone. Just letting her know I'm there. Living in Johnson County, however, you can bet I expect the police to come knocking one day soon to ask if I'm the man trying to lure a little girl into my car.
"That's my daughter, Madeleina. I'm just making sure she's okay on her walk home..."
"Yeah, sure. Guy behind you phoned us saying you were waving a little girl into your car..."
"Only my Madeleina...."
"So you know her name, do you? You filthy...."
Or something like that. Somehow I know this doesn't end well.
Today she surprised me and asked for some of Meat, the pig we grew and then killed last June.
"I don't really want to eat her but it's better than going to waste in that freezer."
I feel the same, so tonight we're having ribs. Kind of gross, of course, but that's what having farm animals comes to and why you don't name them. You just can't have more than a certain number of pets and pig, when she hit about 350-370 pounds, well, she had to go.
So good for Madeleina to realize it.
She's way far ahead of Italo, who won't even eat one of our chicken eggs yet.
Of course, I made a whole lot of veggies: Asparagus in balsamic vinegar, the cucumber/red onion/garlic/vinegar salad, stuffed zuccini (with good parmesan cheese) and broccoli with a light curry sauce to make up for when Madeleina actually looks at the ribs and decides they'd be better off with Boots, the blind wonderdog.
Have a good evening, everybody. I know I will.