Growing up...

Ahhh... turning six years old.  Seems like it's time for a rite of passage... doesn't it?  My girls are asking for new adventures all the time... they're fully grasping their inner explorers.

Nora has been wanting to wear Phoebe's clothes lately... Phoebe has more girlish, flowy, soft clothes... Nora has tended to the more durable stuff.  Anyway, Nora is exploring growing up...

Here's her favorite new outfit...

To go with her early sixth birthday present... pierced ears...

And... lastly... the girls both have been asking to be able to venture further from home without me.  So, today, I let them take a walk up our dead-end street...

 ...and go down to the vacant house on the corner for a picnic snack.

So, I have to say that I think exploration is really important to childhood... and kids need to be able to do it... to learn how to rely on themselves... and to find out what it means to be out in the world.  I could see them from my windows much of the time that they were exploring...

But it seems like fear has really taken over much of our culture.  An older woman came out from her house across from the vacant house to shoo my children away... fearing what damage they might do to the house.  Really?  "What if...?", she kept saying to me. 

I know this is a touchy subject for parents... and I don't want to be part of that dialogue.  I'm very happy that my children are embracing their inner explorer... wanting to interact with nature as much as possible (but dammit... everything around here is private property with a REALLY adamant "private-ness" about it).  I have plans for a lot of camping this summer... we gotta go explorin'!!!