7 Clips... that's ok!

Kiddo is very very 5 and very very good at it.  Just ask her.  

Besides the ‘mixmashed’ shoes that have been a trend, we’ve been adding mixmashed socks as well.  That is 100% Dada all the way.  I’ve mixed my socks up for so many years now, I can’t even recall how long or why I started it.  

The other day (sorry, busy so didn’t get to blog in real time) she wanted to surprise me with her hair.  She can’t do her own hair yet, so most mornings it’s put up in a Dada Ponytail or bun, but on this particular morning, she wanted me to hide outside and wait for her to pick her hair ties and clips.  I got three hair ties and seven clips.  So, we made it work.

She is very very 5 and very very good at it.

She also very much us.  We’ve started seeing and hearing little things in her.  Things that we say or do, the inflection or tilt of a head, her body language or how she uses her face.  A million little things that are just, Oh… that’s you.  Yup… that was me.  There is a picture that I don’t have access to any longer that shows me at age 9ish, getting out of a pool at my grandparents house one summer.  In this, I’m looking happy and mischievous.  J calls it the Pool Picture Look and she says whenever I’m feisty and playful that I get that look.  It’s my Gettin’ into Trouble look.  Yeah, Kiddo has it.

The other night, we did get something unusual, however.  It was almost 9pm and we hear a door open.  Now, lil miss should be sleeping, so J and I share a look that said, someone best be sick or dead and look over to await Kiddo and her appearance.  Well, she appeared in tears.  Just sobbing.  And she told us she couldn’t sleep because she was so sad.  

We give comfort and calm her down to investigate this sadness.  Was it a school issue?  A bad dream?  Something more heinous than that?

Nope.

Kiddo writes us “love notes” and night and slides them under her door for us to find.  Usually its hearts and rainbows and a family drawing with ‘I love mumma and dada’ or some similar message.  I’ve felt puckish on occasion (see my Pool Picture Look) and I’d write her back and slide it under her door.  

Well, the deep sadness was because Mumma never sent a Love Note under the door.  

She is very very 5 and very very good at it!

So, J grabs a piece of paper and starts a love note.  I send Kiddo off to use to toilet and I fill her water bottle, but then I figure I could get in on the love note action and just solve Kiddo’s world for the night.  She’d have a love note from both.  No reason to stay up.  So, following Kiddo’s lead, I write ‘Dada (heart) Kiddo’ and in the heart, I drew two seams so it was like a baseball and it could be a baseball heart.  I wrote my name in purple and pink since purple is my favorite color and pink is hers.  The heart was blue and the seams were yellow, for Brewer Colors.  Lastly, the Kiddo was in Pink with purple highlights and sparkles.  J, for her part, writes a frickin’ novel to our child.  4 sentences.  A cover drawing and inside drawing. 

As we are showing Kiddo, she wants to know why Mumma wrote a real card and Dada just did a picture note.  “Sorry, Kiddo.  I was trying to keep it simple and easy.  Besides, I did start late because of water and everything.  I wish I knew we were doing actual cards (shooting J a look) or I would have taken more time.”

In perfect unison, of word, tone, pitch, and inflection - “That’s Ok.” In a tone that was comforting, but slightly disappointed at the same time, while at the same time conveying that instructions were unclear, so technically it’s right, so I can’t tell you you’re wrong, but I want you to think about your lack of effort type voice.  From BOTH of them.  In unison.  I laughed my ass off.

Other than that, we will change the calendar this weekend and we are 2 weeks from our 5 year old becoming a 6 year old.  I’m sure she’ll be just as good at being 6 as she was at being 5.  If not, That’s ok.

Let’s go, Kiddo… It’s almost your 6th Birthday and Songkran.  We are going to be celebrating a lot this coming month and there is nobody that Mumma and Dada would rather celebrate it all with.