Mean Mommy's got some competition

I think this might be a new low, rifling through my daughter's belongings for writing material, but I just HAD to show this to you, dear readers. Look! Her first book! She is so secretive about her work, like many authors I know, she has hidden it in various locations in her room, which, of course, I discover during the course of my usual clean-up each day. Finally I just had to ask her to tell me where she had put it and swear I would respect her privacy. Which is a total lie, as you can see.*

She has recently been reading the Nancy Drew series so I suppose this was the inspiration for this "mystary" novel. There are so many things I love about this writing I don't even know where to begin. I love that she has chosen to keep the last name Drew for her character, but substitute her friend's first name, yet leaves herself entirely out of it. I love that she uses dialogue ("hmm...mm") and that she is also the illustrator. I love that she sets the Kelly character up as the theif who uses the guise of borrowing her "six colored pen" to steal her friend's party invitations. She based this on the four colored pen I bought her, but is using artistic license to make the pen even more enviable. I love that she used her real kindergarten and first grade teacher's names.

But most of all, I love that she is writing! The fact that she just had to put this down on paper, in the middle of the night, wearing her spelunker's headlamp (I'm not shitting you, my dad bought them as night lights and they are GENIUS), using her four-colored pen, makes me dance with joy. I can help but sneak into her room every night to see what she has written. There are very few times as a parent you get hard proof that what you do affects them in a positive way (Not like, say, letting her drink water out of a wine glass and watching Project Runway with me Sunday evenings.**) I will revel in this one for the next month, using it to distract me from #2 still not wanting to go to school (Tears, still? Really?).

So forgive me, dear readers, for forcing you to look at my kid's stuff, and please, I want no emails about how great a writer she is and all that jazz.*** I struggled with the decision to do so, feeling like one of those moms who use their kids' pictures as their Facebook profile shot (talk about an identity crisis, get some therapy, woman).

One thing that upsets me about this book, though? She's already completed the first chapter of her first book and my book? I've got nothin'.

*Family members, you obviously can say NOTHING about this or I am screwed and will never be able to work this deal with her diary when she's a teenager.

**Keep your shirt on, I pre-screen them so I can fast-forward any bleeped language, inappropriate dialogue or the entire drag-queen challenge (too many fake breasts).

***Comments about what an inspiring parent I am, however, are welcome!