What Happened to My Little Girl?

GG, my second child,  turned 12 last month.

I was really struck by how much she'd grown up in just the past year.

And I don't mean just in an annoying "I remember when you were THIS high" kind of way either.

(Didn't you always hate it when people like your grandma's friends said that when you were a kid? And gestured somewhere around their knees to illustrate how high? Yeah, me too.)

But that's not really what I mean about GG. I mean she'd suddenly morphed into a Teen Ager.

I'll show you. So here's her eleventh birthday:


Aww... isn't she cute?
Now here's her twelfth birthday:



I know. It's like, same cake but different kid.

What happened here? I thought we had another year before the full onset of Teen Aged Monster.

But I guess not...