Great Fun etc: She's Growing Up

I knew she was growing up fast when she started crawling. She was five months old.
When the running started at ten months I knew I had my hands full.
Once the talking started it never stopped. Sentences came early.
Logic, arguments and triple-barrelled words issuing forth from a two-year-old intent on being a big girl.
Then there was the fashion obsession. Two years old and a fashionista already.
Battles over less-than-pleasing leggings and dresses and already those words:
"You're not going out in that!"
A first crush at two. Big brother's buddy. Handholding and proclamations: "I'm gonna marry him when I grow up."
Slow down girly, slow down. Please!

So it continued through three and four.

The growing up. Fast.

Teenage attitude made an appearance before we'd even made it to five.

Role models were re-calculated, movies banned, attitudes checked.
Four-going-on-fourteen is not much fun. They say toddlers and teenagers have a lot in common.
I believe it.

But twining in and around all this fast-growingness was laughter.
Loud raucous tummy-jiggling laughter. High-pitched infectious rib-tickling giggling.
Soft-limbed snuggles and thousands of kisses. Words whispered and shouted, "I love you mama!"
There was dancing, twirling, skipping and a whole lot of never-sitting-still.
Five arrived and brought schooldays with it.
ABC's and finger-counting. Hopscotch and playground politics.

The growing up continued apace.
We raced to keep up with a child made from thunderstorms and velvet, lightning and sugar roses.
Then came six.
Six we could handle.
Six was a simple continuation of five, without the surprises.
We knew what we were getting at six.

A firecracker who explodes with laughter or tears.
A sweet girl running to help.
A kind hearted soul, capable, fast, articulate, fashion-savvy, friendly.
A girl who knows herself, her likes and dislikes. A fiercely loyal friend.
A little lady who hates to back down but can be wooed by a gentle voice.
An artist, a dancer, a singer of songs.
A race-winning runner with liquid mercury zinging through her veins.

That's our girl at six.

But Seven.
That's a whole other world.
Seven is serious big-kid territory.
Seven is no longer just beginning.
Seven is fully launched.

And here we stand, on the threshold of Seven.
Celebrating our daughter.
Thankful for seven years of the blessing that she is.
And the lessons she has taught us.

We have just one favour to ask...
Will you please stop growing up so fast?