Jesus. Darth Tigger, we hardly knew ye.

Darth Tigger was in pre-school. He's entering 4th grade next year. He's only two years away from middle school.

Emmett in the middle, in red sleeves, last month

He looks like such a man-boy now! Not a little boy anymore.

I guess those are good years for being a girl too.

Um, yeah. Whatever.

Actually, I had a lot of good times between 9 and 12; it's just that most of them were good times spent alone, and the handful of good times with other people (a) could be counted on one hand, and (b) were entirely the result of bonding over our common state of tormented loserness, cowering from the popular pretty people.

Which brings me more or less back to Um, yeah. Whatever.

However, like Darth Tigger, Emmett is still willing to dress up like mad on any provocation, or none whatsoever. Between the pirate outfit, his collection of hats, the brocade vest that's the only part of his wedding outfit that remotely fits anymore, and his recently purchased week's worth of mustaches, he is more of a San Francisco boy than he realizes just yet.

I know there are costume pieces I'm forgetting, but I'm sure Hec can link to pictures of all of them.

9 to about 11 were good mostly. Could have been great if not for Family Weirdness.(divorcing parents...etc.)

9 to about 10 1/2 were pretty good, I guess.

I'm back in DC now. It's pouring. I took a cab back to my apartment from the train station, and the driver had the interesting habit of turning on the windshield wipers for about five seconds every time the rain let up a bit, but then turning them off again as soon as it started raining harder. Also, he was wearing sunglasses.

I guess those are good years for being a girl too.

Um. Nope. Difficult as the 13-18 years.

JZ is me, but 9-12 was better than 12-17 because I didn't mind being alone as much. (17 marked the point where life started to improve for me, because it hit me that I didn't have to be part of the same group in the same town for the rest of my life, and getting out was as simple as applying to an out-of-state college.)

One thing I've found fascinating is that the further I get from adolescence, the more I've started picking up my childhood interests. IOW, the things that fascinated me when I was 10, that I wouldn't have been caught dead doing/reading about at 14, are all back on my personal must list--everything from paleoanthropology to old-fashioned weapons.

Are there any absolute good or bad ages to be?

One day less than dead, I would imagine.