What Age Am I Going To Be Tomorrow?

That was Olivia’s question last night after dinner, after she’d blown out yet another candle on a cupcake.

We’ve made a pretty big deal about six this past week or so. Her actual party was over a week ago and so this birthday thing has been a long, drawn out event for her. So it makes sense that she’d wonder about something like that.

We explained that she’ll be six for quite some time now and told her to enjoy having to use two hands to show her age now.

I was lucky enough to be able to take a half day off work yesterday and take cupcakes to Olivia’s class to help celebrate her birthday.

I can tell whenever I walk into her classroom that her little mind is blown by the fact that her two worlds are colliding and she isn’t sure how to react to such an event. She goes a little crazy for a few minutes with the glee of having MOM right there in the same space at her school friends, her teachers, her routine.

After snack, I was able to sit with Olivia at one of the classroom computers and watch her play one of the games on pbskids.org. She did so well. She knows every letter of the alphabet, upper and lower cases.

Over the weekend, Olivia was counting. She got to 49. When she stopped at 49, I looked at her and asked what came next. She gave me a mischievous grin and said, “Fifty ten!”

Six just might be the year of mischief. And you know? That would be great. Olivia has an amazing sense of humor and she has so much energy.

The problem with all that energy? If it isn’t channeled well, it can turn fairly quickly into naughtiness. She’s maturing, growing, proving doctors wrong every single day as far as what can be expected from a child with 5p- syndrome.

Olivia seems to think that turning six means it time to wear mascara and lipstick to school. I disagree and thankfully, I’m taller than she is and can put the makeup away high enough that she can’t get to it.

It’s tough to be six but I have a feeling there are more fun times than tough times. I hope so, anyway.