Twelve

Today, she is twelve.

What does twelve looks like when you’re Olivia?

Twelve looks like being 5’2 ½”.

Twelve is the start of liking to sleep in. Until this past summer, Olivia was up at the crack of dawn, ready to attack the day. As she enters the final stretch of being a preteen, she’s discovering the joy of extra sleep. Yay for me!!

She can do so much and yet…she doesn’t actually want to do a lot of the things she can do. For example, she’d rather not feed herself, thank you very much. She DOES do so, (for the most part) because we make her but she’d much rather sit back and allow someone else to shovel food into her mouth.

She’s incredibly creative and loves to write. She writes what she calls ‘fan fic’ a lot. She creates stories around both her imaginary friends, real life friends and family and fictional characters from movies and television shows she enjoys. She loves for me to read these stories and honestly, she’s pretty darn good at coming up with scenarios.

She quite tech savvy these days. She loves her tablet and has yet to ask for a phone. She has no one she’d want to text/message anyway.

She still thinks most of her peers are weird and annoyingly social. She would rather spend time at home with me and Tom and Alyssa or at her Gram’s.

She’s very much into fashion and wants to be sure her clothes are well accessorized. She notices every change I might make to my own accessories. If I change earrings, she notices. If I wear a bracelet, she’s the first to point it out and tell me that she likes it.

She’s amazing at spelling, struggles with math. She hates gym and music classes but loves art and technology. She’s so very glad this year that the only kids performing in the Christmas program at school are the kindergarten t hrough fourth grades, and the fifth and sixth grade bands. She’s in fifth grade but not in the band (I feel like Ms. V should sent me a thank you note for that) and so she gets exempted from the program. She gets to be in the audience, where she prefers to be.

We can take her to things like the musical where her sister was a cast member and she’ll sit through the performance with minimal complaint. She doesn’t like movies much, though and will find excuses to get up, such as having to use the bathroom every ten minutes.

The musical this year, though, was just interesting enough that she sat through it, often awed by the special effects of the plant moving and then eating people. It was fun to watch her watch the show.

She annoys her big sister just by being herself. Sometimes, yes, it’s deliberate, she is, after all, a baby sister. But sometimes, she can just breathe too loud and it will annoy her sister. But that’s life and I often find it amusing to watch them interact. Olivia doesn’t take Alyssa’s annoyances personally and that’s probably a good thing.

In so many ways, she’s twelve. In others, subtler ways, she’s still about eight years old.

I would still, in a freaking heartbeat, take 5p- away from her. I would give her all her chromosomes and watch her soar. She’s amazing just as she is but I would take away the challenges if I could.

I would give her friends and listen to her tell me to leave her hair alone, she’ll do it herself. I would check her homework each night instead of having to sit beside her and sometimes beg her to do it. I would buy her a musical instrument and go to mini-Bomber cheerleading sessions because if she didn’t have 5p- syndrome, she’d probably be a cheerleader.

And let me state here that I don’t care about cheerleading. I don’t care about band. I care about Olivia and all that she’s probably missing out on because of 5p- syndrome. I want so much for her

I’m grateful for her health and her happiness. I’m so very glad that she’s high-functioning but I wish, so very badly, that she were just her, without the 5p-, without the labels.

But since I can’t wish the 5p- away, we embrace her for who she is. The loving, funny, sweet, smart, empathetic (sometimes) girl she is. She makes her own joy and we should all try to be a little more like my Olivia.

I hope her twelfth birthday is the best one yet. I am so very glad I get to be her mom.