What?

Olivia has picked up a new word. It’s got it very on inflection and everything.

These days, no matter the situation, when we’re having an interaction, she’ll almost always respond to a question, suggestion or even instruction with, “Whaaat?” and following that question, she’ll repeat what was just said, to prove her incredulity that you actually said that.

And example:

Last weekend after dinner, I was taking Olivia upstairs to change her clothes. She’d made a mess with her spaghetti and needed a wardrobe change. It was near seven in the evening so I was going to put pajamas on her. Tom announced that he needed to go outside for something. As is typical, if one of the adults is going outside for even thirty seconds, the kids want to go to.

So when Tom said he was going outside, Alyssa declared she was going too. And Olivia followed suit, demanding that I wait to change her clothes so she could go outside with the fun people.

I refused and made Tom and Alyssa wait for Olivia. When we got upstairs, I started to put her pajamas on her and she said, “What? I’m going to go outside in pajamas?”

I laughed and said, “It’s just our backyard. You’ll be warmer.”

She willing put on her pjs and a pair of shoes and happily joined her dad and sister in the cooling evening air outside.

I don’t know where she heard someone say what like this but it’s flipping cute. This kid is just so amazing. She listens to everything going on around her, paying close attention to the social interactions. Her teacher mentioned being worried that O doesn’t seem to play with the kids in her class yet. I assured her that O’s just taking it all in, trying to figure out the dynamics. She’ll get there, she always does. She just does it in her own time. We can’t judge her based on some generic timetable. It doesn’t work that way for my O.

I think that two months from turning five is my new favorite age.

Well, except for eight. Even with all the attitude that seems to have accompanied eight, I still find it’s one of my very favorites yet.

I kind of can’t wait to see what nine brings for Alyssa. Eight brought her an amazing sense of independence. She’s more vocal about what clothes she wants to wear, she’s very clear about what she wants to watch on tv and listen to on the radio. She is old enough and mature enough to do most of her homework without help.

She can (and often does!!) take her dishes to the sink after eating. And!! She rinses them and puts them in the dishwasher. It’s seriously awesome.

She knows where her dirty clothes are supposed to go and they actually make it there 90% of the time. She loves to read these days and often finds the books she’s reading so funny that she feels the need to read them out loud to us so we can join in her mirth. I seriously love that. She adds just the right amount of inflection to her reading that it’s just that much funnier.

Like Olivia, Alyssa takes a bit of time to warm up to new people and new situations. But she wants to be involved, she wants to be part of the group. She loves school these days and soccer and just being a kid. She finds joy and fun in almost everything she does. She might not be one of those kids who introduces herself to every single person she meets but she takes it all in and figures it out and finds the right place for her in the grand scheme of things.

Oh yes, right now eight and four are my very favorite ages. Ask me again in about six months and I’ll probably declare that nine and five are the best ages EVER. I reserve the right to change my mind every year or so.