My daughter is 15 now, meaning that she's eligible for a driver's permit from the state we currently reside in.  She's been talking about driving for a while now, even going so far as to tell her dad that she didn't want him to teach her how to drive because he yells too much and he'd freak her out. (he didn't like that much, btw).

I decided that today would be the day to end the talking and start the driving.  When we stopped to check the mail at the communal mail box at the end of our street, I told Shea to slide on over to the driver's side of the Explorer so she could drive me home.

Her eyes got as big as dinner plates and she said "I can't!  I can't!!" - but slid over anyway.

She did SO well.  She didn't accelerate too fast, she didn't lock up the seatbelt because she braked too hard....she only needed a little help from me when it came to cutting a hard left so we could turn around at the end of the cul-de-sac.  She even managed to pull over and park on the side of the street.  Funnily enough, as she was doing that, her dad pulled into the end of the street on his way home from work. Oops.  I wasn't going to tell him about her driving until it was all over, and here he came and caught us in the act.

Shea was worried about him being mad at her, but when we walked into the house he looked straight past me and said "so, how was it?".  When I started to answer he gave me a snotty look and said "I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to her" and continued on asking Shea how it was.  When she was done, he asked me how she did.  Of course, I said she did fantastically well.  I mean, she's our child.  How can she be anything less than fabulous? (I'm kidding).

We're going to go find a nice quiet parking lot on Sunday and Shea will get to drive again, this time using her mirrors and turn signals and maybe even getting reversing thrown into the mix again.  The more she drives, the better she'll get.....and the more comfortable I'LL be when she eventually does get her license and goes out on her own.

It seems like just yesterday she was a tiny wee newborn who decided to make her entrance into the world butt and feet first, but here she is behind the wheel of a car already.  That just blows my mind.

Now I know how my mother felt when I went off driving for the first time!