A Reminder That They Are Really Just Nine Years Old

The girls have spent months in an after school music club. They learned different percussion instruments, trained in how to lead the group and performed in a drum circle. Every week they bounced out of school bubbling about how much fun they had and tell me what they learned. They talked about it endlessly at dinner.
Tonight was their end-of-year performance. They took it very seriously. They talked about every detail. They put on their black shirts and blue jeans as if they were dressing for an opening night performance. They were full of excitement.
We had fun watching them because they were having fun. To be honest I wasn't sure what all the hand gestures meant so it took a while to get the rhythm of the event. Our girls were in the last group. By the time they picked up their instruments we had a pretty good idea of what was happening.
They were still excited when the show was over. They posed for photos with Gramma and Aunt Bonnie. They hugged their friends. It was great fun.
We were home about ten minutes when the blond twin started crying. It was a full scale, overtired meltdown. She kept saying, "I'm so tired. I just need to lie down. I'm so tired."
We sent her up to her bedroom to stretch out for a couple of minutes. When we went upstairs the blond twin started whining and crying. She came down off the bunk bed in a full blown meltdown. She couldn't stop crying when she brushed her teeth or washed her face or brushed her hair.
It was sweet, even as her crying started to wear on us. It was a reminder that they might want to be big girls, but they are still only nine years old. They are growing up, but still our little girls.