Full Disclosure

Reading to Olivia the past eight months has been wonderful. I have often wondered in these months why it took me until she was five years old to make the resolution to read to her more consistently.

The reason occurred to me this morning during a conversation with my mom. It was in the past year that Olivia wanted me to read to her. In the past year, Olivia has matured enough to want to sit still through three books, asking to ‘read’ the books herself after I’ve read them.

I told my mom this and we agreed that this puts O at about three years old. She’s pre-reading. She wants to listen to books being read to her and then she wants to look through the books herself, putting the pictures and words together. She may not read for another couple of years, but I have no doubt that Olivia will read at some point.

Yesterday when I arrived to pick up the girls, my mom said, “Her eyes look like that because she took a shower with her sister and while I wasn’t looking, she poured an entire bottle of shampoo on her own head.”

Of course she was talking about Olivia. O’s eyes were red from rubbing and rinsing and rubbing some more. They were read all the way around her lids. Again, we were reminded that socially, Olivia is about three years old. She can’t be left alone in a bathroom because she WILL make a mess. She can’t help it. She’s curious, she’s tall enough to see things that were once out of sight and out of mind.

These days, she’s moved beyond parallel play and is into actually interacting with Alyssa and Jaxon, playing real games, pretending and using her imagination. She’s no longer seeking solitude, rather she seeks out her sister and her cousin. I’m so happy to see this and it doesn’t matter that this type of play usually happens around three years old.

Because I’m usually so sunshiny and optimistic (ha!!) I fear that I’m not being honest with those who read this to get an accurate view of how 5p- syndrome affects Olivia.

These days, she’s delayed by almost three years. She’ll be six in November, has been fully potty trained for about three months. She’s plays, ‘reads’ and makes messes like a three year old. She does things that she knows will annoy her sister just because it’s fun to hear Alyssa squawk about it.

But if she continues to develop and grow in this way, when she’s 20, who will know that she’s on par with 17 year olds? And if she continues to fall further and further behind? Well, we’ll deal with that if it happens. Right now, being behind her age-appropriate peers doesn’t bother her. Maybe because she just don’t realize it. But if it does start to bother her, we’ll deal with that too.

All I know for sure is that she’s still growing, still maturing, still making huge strides and for that I’m grateful. I refuse to be the one to tell her she won’t one day be independent. I’ll let that news come from her own development, her own behavior, if it has to come at all.

But damn, three year olds are evil. Even when they’re disguised as five and a half year olds.