My five year old daughter is going through a lot right now, so I figured I would do a positng about it. In the last week especially she has had some very funny, cute, and sometimes trying moments. So let's review them in descending order.
One morning we had been playing polly pockets in the living room when my little one told me she had to go to the bathroom and disappeared upstairs. A few minutes later I heard her screaming frantically for me to get up there. As I go racing upstairs I'm trying desperately to figure out what the hell the problem could be. Camryn at this point is in near hysterics and keeps yelling down "I'm not digesting Mom, I'm not digesting". At this point I'm halfway up the stairs and it finally hits me as to what the situation is. It turns out that my little girl had come to the horrifying realization that the corn she had eaten the night before didn't break down. I couldn't help myself and I started laughing. But as I reached the top of the stairs I found out that she had a horrifying little surprise for me. Held in her little fingers was a niblet she had rescued as a powerful visual cue to illustrate her point. She's like, "Mom it looks the same, it looks the same". Now it was my turn to freak out. After I had got her cleaned up and settled down, I explained to her that corn doesn't always digest in the same way that other foods we eat does. Sometimes it comes out looking very much the way it did on the way in, and that is normal. So now she feels better, but what an adventure.
Last night Camryn and I were talking about what she wants to be when she grows up. She has often changed her mind about her career choices, as children often do. But I was stymied when she rattled off a typical week that she saw for herself in the future. She began on a Tuesday she said that on that day she would be a firefighter. Wednesday followed and on that day she said she would be a cowgirl. On Thursdays when she grows up she plans on being a doctor. Fridays are reserved so that she can be a spaceman. A bus driver is what she plans on being on Saturdays. She wants to be a hair dresser on Sundays. And my absolute favourite is Mondays, when she figures that the local market may need an extra ice-cream scooper. I didn't know what to say to her, because she seemed to have it all so planned out perfectly. So I simply settled for telling her that I believed she could be absolutely anything that she wanted to be, so long as she believed in herself. Cliche I know, but it'll have to do for now.
Her poor little legs have been through a lot in the last wekk or so. First she took a tumble down a flight of stairs at home last Tuesday. She was playing on the landing with a toy, and I had told her that she was inviting trouble in doing so. Sure enough as luck would have it she dropped her toy and lunged after it throwing herself head first down the stairs. She survived her ordeal but her legs, arms, and neck were quite sore for days afterward. This morning she was again comlaining of pain in her legs. Her movements were sluggish and she was annoyingly moody. She has been doing a lot of growing lately and has almost grown taller than her pants will allow. Poor thing. It's interesting though that the old adage grown overnight holds a form of truth to it. They say a child during a growth spurt may grow up to half an inch in as little as a day. That is absolutely incredible. No wonder they are in so much pain.
