Natalie Crushin' on a Werewolf

Settling into a new house can feel like a never ending process; finding the perfect spot for the take out menus, choosing and hanging curtain rods, figuring out how to fit too many plugs into too few outlets, organizing the baking utensils from the serving utensils from the grilling utensils (OK, so maybe it’s only maddening for OCD people like me). One of the things I do enjoy is hanging pictures. A house doesn’t feel like a home until you have photos of the ones you love surrounding you.

Paul and I decided to give the kids a little latitude in choosing what they wanted to hang on their bedroom walls. Max was easy, he asked us to find him a Star Wars (the Clone Wars) or a Bakugan (newest kiddie craze…little plastic balls that open up when you drop them on a playing card partially made of metal, who knew?) poster. Natalie said she didn’t know until we stepped into an FYE store. Before her Nanay (my mother) left last week for a visit, Natalie had a melt down in the airport so my mother did what any self-respecting grandmother would do, slipped her a twenty and said everything was gonna be just fine. Natalie had been holding on to that crinkled twenty since she left last Thursday.

As I perused the 2 CD’s for $20 section, Natalie grabbed my hand and led me over to a poster bin. She handed me the twenty, pulled out a poster of Jacob the werewolf from book series Twilight and asked if she could buy it! Color me shocked but I didn’t think tween idolatry would start at 6! Jonas Brother I get, fascination with a boy that plays a werewolf borders on a little nutty, but I go with it.

Lest you think I’m a Twilight hater, I have to cop to the fact that I absolutely loved reading the series. Natalie would walk up and ask what I was reading and I would tell her it’s a story about a girl who loves a vampire. She was hooked! Why does she love the vampire? Does the vampire want to suck her neck? Are they gonna get married? I never explained the love triangle between Bella, Edward and Jacob until the movie came out on DVD, and then she was even more fascinated.

I am clearly so not prepared for this stage. I’m not saying that I think that she fantasizes about marrying Jacob, or does she? Regardless, I never dreamed my daughter would choose as her first poster an actor that plays a werewolf in a teen romance novel. Wait until I tell her Nanay what that guilt money bought!