Kid gum

So, Kara has been asking us if she can have gum for a couple of months.  "My friends are chewing gum."  (so begins the my friends are "blank" so I should be "blank")  So we had a couple of rules before introducing gum.  She had to 5 years old and she had to stop sucking her thumb.  The thumb thing wasn't even that big of a deal, she only sucks it at bedtime.  And really the 5 year mark wasn't even that big of a deal either.  I just wasn't ready for gum under the bed, in the hair, in my van:)  So she's been asking and asking when she gets "kid gum".  After much hesitation, I bought her some Extra bubble gum.  The minute she put it in her mouth, she had a perma grin until she spit it out about 20 minutes later.  Watching her chew the gum honestly brought a couple of tears to my eyes.  I can't express why I felt that that was such a grown up thing and that I am not ready for her to grow up.  But she looked so stickin cute chewing gum!