My Daughter M is Generally Awesome in Days of My Destiny

I can just see how she is growing up, and although I mention it in my writing, I never really delve in it, or explain it.

Lately she's been trying really hard with her younger sister, to be extra patient, or to speak gently to her even when the youngest is shouting at her for something or other. For example, sometimes L might want what M has, and M will tell L that she will give it to her when she's finished with it. Well L, being just under 3, starts shouting at M that she wants it NOW! Usually in recent months, M might just shout back at her, or throw the object in frustration. If the shouting occurred, then L would shout back and they'd both just end in screams and tears (much to my .... frustration!!). But lately, if L tells M she wants something now and can't wait another minute for it, M will calmly repeat, "No, L, I'll give it to you when (x)." I really admire M for the strength she is gaining in this area, because it's not even easy for the grown-up in the house to do that all the time (that grown-up being me, although that is debatable!).

M's drawing is really thriving, too. She's always been really good at drawing. When she was in childcare at 2 years of age, the teachers would constantly give me drawings she'd made when I'd pick her up, because they were amazed at how well she drew for her age. Of course it never surprised ME, because we drew together all the time. So for example, when other kids would draw a big fat messy line that looked somewhat like it was trying to be a circle to represent their mum or dad, or any person - which was age-appropriate - M would draw a big fat, neat circle, two very obvious eyes, two straight lines for arms and maybe the lines for legs. So anyway, it wasn't something I ever really made a big deal out of, because I've always had the philosophy that there's no need to be THAT proud or boasting about it at that age - because all kids will eventually learn how to draw. But now that she's at school, I see that she still is a really great drawer. It comes through even in her writing - her writing is so ... neat and steady for her age. Her writing is more like a 10-year-old's than a 5-year-old's, I'm not even exaggerating. Her drawings are beautiful, too. She likes using colour and sometimes even adds depth to her drawings. I love the detail she uses in her drawings, she is thoughtful and just beautiful.

Last weekend she really behaved like a 2-year-old more than an almost-6-year-old. It was a really difficult weekend in those moments (it was otherwise a really BEAUTIFUL weekend as a family, just chilling all weekend). Well yesterday morning at the bus-stop, she said to me, "Mum, my mouth really hurts in here and here." I looked inside her mouth to where she was pointing - it was her gums. They are white as anything in two spots where two new molars are about to come through!!!! It explained it all!!!!

M really cares for her appearance, too. She likes to look good, but not in a vain way (well ... I don't know if any 5-year-old would be VAIN about their looks at this age, but you never know lol). She likes to look NICE and well-presented. She chooses clothes that match nicely.

The other day she came home from school asking me to buy her "scungees." I'd never heard of the term, and don't even know if I spelled it correctly, but basically they are boy shorts to wear under her school dress. She said she really wanted scungees because everybody could see her undies when she would hang upside down in the playground. Lol, it was really cute. Of course I bought her the scungees, and she was SO excited :)

You know, I've always said that she is "stubborn." I've met other parents who describe their own children as "strong-willed", and I've always sort of inwardly rolled my eyes thinking, "Yeah... STUBBORN." But seriously, "strong-willed" is a much more positive word, and as M grows, I see that more than being 'stubborn', she really is STRONG-WILLED! And that's a great thing! While a year ago she might have been "strong-willed" for the wrong reasons (which then meant she was "stubborn"), NOW I can see that she really puts this strong will to GOOD USE. She really tries her best to just "do the right thing" in a lot of areas in her little life. She channels her stubbornness positively, and I can now positively and confidently say that my child is strong-willed. And even better than that, and more accurately than that, she is HEADSTRONG.

She has always pronounced the letter S as 'th'. I tried to teach her how to say 'S' properly a couple of years ago but she couldn't quite get it, and I didn't worry too much because she was still so little, and I knew that a lot of kids do this. Anyway in recent weeks, she's been trying her best to get it right. I don't know if this was prompted by the teachers, or if she has perhaps noticed how other kids talk, etc. Either way, she's been trying really hard and correcting herself when she realises she's not supposed to say 'th'. It's been hard for her, for example sometimes instead of saying the word 'something' she might accidentally say 'thumsing' and then try to correct herself but accidentally might say 'thumthing' and so on. She'll keep going until she gets it right. I can see it's an effort for her. Sometimes it's as though her mouth and mind are confused or tired, so instead of 's' or 'th', she might accidentally say 'sh' or 'zh' instead. When I first heard her do this, I corrected her. I thought she was copying somebody and it annoyed me that she was talking incorrectly. So for example I might've said to her, "It's SOMETHING, not SHUMTING." It was then that she revealed to me that she really WAS trying to say it properly. I was like awwwwwww, poor baby girl! So ever since then I've been encouraging and supportive, all the way.

She loves reading, and she reads well - REALLY well. She reads with enthusiasm and knows a lot more about punctuation than other kids might. This is because I've always read to her, so she's always heard an enthusiastic reader, but also, I introduced some grammar bits and pieces along the way in a casual manner, so that by the age of 3 and a half, she knew that a full-stop meant you could pause for a bit and take a little breath to then keep going, or that somebody had stopped talking. By the age of 4 she knew that the symbol ? at the end of a sentence means that somebody is asking a question. I never did it with the intention of creating a genius, or trying to make her better than anybody, I just did it for fun, and because sometimes she would actually ask what symbols meant. Before starting school, she also had already learned that the two little lines at the start of a sentence (inverted commas) meant that somebody was talking, and that when you saw them again at the end of a sentence, it meant that person had finished talking. I kind of taught her with the concept of... well, if that wasn't there, then how on earth would we know that that person finished talking? We'd read the rest of the book thinking that the person was STILL TALKING!!!!! Lol. So you know, it was all in a casual manner. Anyhow so she loves her reading and she does it well. At school next week, she will be participating in the "Small Schools Public Speaking" competition. It's something that the school is participating in and so they're getting all the kids to write and practise a speech. They've been doing this for about two weeks, and this week and next week, M's homework is to practise her speech. So her speech is next Friday - and by today, she already knows her speech. It is 14 sentences long, and she can say most of it without pausing to think too much. I'm serious!!! She's only 5, people!!!!!!! It's about her dog and what colour he is, what games she plays with him and how he is "the best dog in the whole wide world and my favourite animal on the farm." That is the last sentence, and I had to laugh when I first heard it, because WE DON'T HAVE A FARM, lolololol.

(We rent on 2.5 acres and on it we have 6 chickens, 1 rooster, 2 chicks, 1 lamb and 1 dog - but we don't run a farm of cattle or anything like that, lol!)

Anyway.... so while she was practising her speech at home that first night, I said to her... "Maybe instead of'"he is such a cute dog,' you could say, 'He is SUCH a cute dog!" I made one or two other suggestions like that regarding expression, for example instead of "when I get home from school he always gets really excited," I told her she could either emphasise the word "always" or "really" to give the speech some life. When she agreed with certain ideas, I underlined the words on the page for her so she'd know when to add emphasis. When she practised it again, she SHOUTED the words I'd underlined, lol, so then we had to talk about the difference between a lively speech and a shouty speech, lol. Anyway she really liked the idea of emphasising, so she then took the matter in her own hands and decided to underline and emphasise certain words. So now for example instead of saying, "He snuggles into us," she is going to say, "He SNUGGLES!!!!! into us." lolololololol.

She's just generally an awesome little person with a really beautiful heart. She's turning into somebody I really admire and am truly proud of.