The seven habits of highly effective five year olds

When your birthday just gets a bit much.  

I have a five year old.  She is a girl.  She is one out of the box.  

She is what I would call a big personality.  Many people find her endearing.  I also find her endearing but the main word I would use to describe her is relentless. 

She does many things that Sarah never did.  Nor did Josh, or even me or Mike (anecdotally). And at preschool, she keeps company with a group of kids who are equally eccentric. 

1. For instance, at preschool one of her favourite pastimes is chasing boys.  I believe she has even kissed one.  She was engaged to one last term, but they broke up.  Oh how I fear for the future. 

2. She wears what she wants.  Always.  If I dress her in something she doesn’t like, she just waits until I’m not looking and gets changed, craftily staying out of sight until we walk out the door so I can’t do anything about it. 

3. Rarely do 30 seconds go by without her needing (wanting) something.  It could be food, my ipad,  cuddles, food, general knowledge, food, toys, tv and most of all, to do want the big kids are doing.  She has a 90% success rate due to sheer persistence.  And being the third child, my defences are already weak.

4. She falls asleep in the weirdest places.  One of the most memorable was when she dozed off at her own birthday dinner at a restaurant, with her head resting among the nuggets and chips, dressed in a Snow White costume.  She has also dozed off on our dining chairs, the (wooden) kitchen floor and on the couch 20 minutes before her 4^th birthday party was due to start. 

Just a quick kip before the party.

5. Every morning she takes over 5 minutes to select her shoes for the day.  She doesn’t have very many pairs, but invariably the ones she selects are completely inappropriate eg. thongs when it’s freezing, boots when it’s hot. 

Yes, angelic. Very deceiving. 

6. One of her besties was on the phone to her Nanna the other day and confided all the swear words she knows, leaving Nanna a bit kerflummoxed.  The words were: fucken, fricken, shut up and my personal favourite, shiitake. 

7. She has another friend, who in company with his 7 year old sister managed to colour their fluffy white cat pink using nothing more than a tube of lipstick. 

I hope the teachers at school are ready for them all.