Today, Mini Me started her first day of the third grade. I can hardly believe time has gone by so quickly. I didn’t think I’d ever use the phrase “it seems like only yesterday,” but then I had kids.

When I held Mini Me in my arms for the first time, I peered into her tiny face and wondered what type of person she’d be. Time flew. She’s in her fourth year of elementary school, and now I know.

She’s awesome.

Mini Me is funny and creative. She has this MacGyver-esque sense that can repurpose just about anything into a work of art. Her love for pink and glitter knows no bounds. She loves to dance. If her favorite song comes on, Mini Me has no problem singing it loud enough (and I do mean loud) for everyone within earshot.

She’s also extremely tenderhearted. Her sympathy extends to mistreated pets, friends and family, and anyone she sees on TV. I make sure to avoid watching the news before bedtime because any story of hardship keeps her from sleep.

I remember the person I was in the third grade. Quiet. Reserved. Unsure. I had a small group of friends, and I preferred the back of the crowd, unless I was sitting in a classroom. Mini Me, so named for her physical resemblance to me, is willing to give new experiences a try. And, if you let her, she’ll often lead the way.

I want my daughter to embrace her creative, adventurous nature. As she navigates through life, she’ll experience things that further shape the woman she becomes. Some of these experiences will be wonderful, and others will, for lack of a better word, suck.

Here are a few things that I want to share with Mini Me this year to help her with the journey:

• Always be you, even when others don’t get it. This will be hard at times but worth it in the end.
• Don’t tease or put someone else down so you can fit in. Loving yourself doesn’t mean hating everyone else.
• Trust that little voice inside. If you think something is wrong, it probably is. And whenever your “spidey sense” goes off, it’s definitely wrong. Get out of that situation as fast as you can.
• Keep asking questions, even when it drives Daddy and me nuts. 
• Remember that we love you, and you can come to us about anything.

Target is a problem for me. No matter how I hard I try, I cannot walk in there and spend less than $50. There’s always something that catches my attention, and I make an excuse to buy it.

I’ve had the most success avoiding the concession counter, but today something caught my eye.

The Cherry-Pomegranate Icee.

I’m a sucker for an Icee. I live about 5 minutes from a movie theater, but I will drive another 15 minutes to a theater that sells white cherry Icees.

I was nervous about having The Talk with my daughter even before she was born. I thought about how my parents handled it, and I wanted to try something different. My first education on the birds and the bees came from the Charlie Brown encylopedia. I vaguely remember Charlie and Lucy pointing to a diagram of a baby in the womb.

When I was in the fifth or sixth grade, my school passed out a pamplet about menstruation. It was written by Kotex, and the main characters were three girls who were pen pals. They spent the entire time writing about how their bodies were changing as they navigated puberty. I showed it to my mom, and she asked me to read it and come to her with any questions. I didn’t really have any. Charlie Brown and the Kotex Girls were pretty thorough. Or at least I thought they were.

I also remember my dad trying to talk to me. We were watching an episode of The Facts of Life, and Tootie and Jeff were contemplating sex. My dad looked at me and said, “You know you shouldn’t be doing that, right?”

My response: “They love each other and are talking about marriage. Isn’t that what they’re supposed to do?” Plus, I was 11 and Tootie was 19 or 20. She seemed like an old woman to me. My dad got flustered and changed the subject.

Although everything turned out fine for me, I want a more open relationship with my daughters. I read about the things that are happening with kids these days, and the landscape is so different from when I was a girl. To me, it’s downright frightening at times. Keeping communications open with them is critical.

My first talk with Mini Me was when she was five. She had just taken a bath, and I was helping her into her PJs. We talked about what made girls different from boys and how those parts are private. I told her no one should try to touch her priviate parts, and if they did, she should go to a teacher and to me right away.

She nodded, and then proceeded to ask me about our next’s days itinerary. Every so often, I would broach the subject again and pepper in new information. We talked about strangers, what to do if she were lost, and I reminded her every time that there was nothing that she couldn’t ask me.

She took me up on my offer two years later. We were on our way home from a birthday party, and I was beat. The radio station that usually plays popular music and home loan commercials decided to run a series of Planned Parenthood ads that day. Mini Me picked up on the subject matter before I could change the station.

“Can teenagers get pregnant?” she asked.

“Um, yes.” I said.

“Were you pregnant in high school?”

“No,” I said.

“Why not?”

“Huh?” I wasn’t really sure where she was going with this.

“How is it that some girls get pregnant in high school, but you didn’t?”

“Um, I didn’t spend time with boys in a way that I could get pregnant.” I was dodging, but I just wasn’t ready.

“Spend time like how? You mean like eating lunch?”