"Did you really just SAY that?!"

I was finishing up getting dressed the other day when Alex came in and, with a smile on her face, said "Wow, mom, you look so . . . hip!" After taking a second to try to wrap my brain around the fact that my eight year old daugher just used the word "hip," I opened my mouth to thank her for the compliment. BUT, before I could do so, she suddenly looked concerned and said with a serious tone "Mom, you better change."

Hmmm.

I thought a bit about that comment the last couple of days, and I found myself compiling a list in my mind of similar "reality check" moments I've had over the years. I had so much fun remembering that I thought I'd share a few of my painfully favorite ones.

The second comes from Alex as well. When she was about four, we were having a lovely mother/daughter meal at Wendy's (her choice) and, as we ate, I watched her looking around at some of the others in the room. She seemed to be most interested in the two older, gray-haired couples and the large group of boys and girls about High School age. She suddenly had what appeared to be an epiphony, and she turned to me with all the excitement a four year old can muster, and said, "Mommy!!! You are almost a Grandma!!!!!"

"Oh, really . . . .(through pasted smile and gritted teeth) . . . why do you say that?"

"Because your skin . . . your skin . . . is crumbly!"

CRUMBLY!

The third was several months after having my son Max. Dan and I were at a party with some of my old high school friends. One of my close friends was there, and, although I had kept in touch with her over the years and had seen her when she came into town, I hadn't seen her for a while. I gain a TON of weight with pregnancy, and I look generally quite horrible during that time, and I had to work after the pregnancy to lose weight and look a little better. When we walked in late, my dear friend said in front of the big group "Suey, wow, look at you!"

I was so pleased she noticed that I had lost weight, and I opened my mouth to tell her all about it, and how painful it had been. Thankfully, before I could do that she finished her thought, "You finally look like you have some meat on your bones!"

Let's just say the room was uncomfortably quiet for a few too many seconds.

My last, and definitely not my least, happened at a Super Bowl Party. Some of us were having sort of a light conversation about sports and it grew into the topic of guys, and well, you know, it was a fun conversation. Somehow I started going off about what I liked in High School and College about a bunch of different sports, and certain uniforms, and certain uniforms for those sports, and particular body parts that looked particularly pleasing to me in those uniforms and well, you get the picture. It was kind of funny, or at least I thought it was. Then, a friend, who had been more quiet than others during this conversation looked at me and, with a straight face said, "Susan, I had NO IDEA you were so . . . so . . . so . . . SHALLOW!"

Painful? Yup. Do I want to hear it? ABSOLUTELY. I always appreciate people around me who are willing to tell me what they really think. So, I'll keep trying to have a sense of humor and, hopefully, I'll still learn something.