My kids and notes from Year 6.0
February 23, 2021
The Big 6
Well this is unsettling. It shouldn’t be, it’s not like we didn’t have plenty of warning that we were working our way up to age six. But the transition from age five to six, especially through a pandemic, has been really really really strange. “Suddenly” it seems like JB went from my slightly post-baby child to the start of a Big Kid. There’s no trace of the baby face anymore. It’s especially jarring when I look at the actual baby and then look at JB.
Heck, some of the familial facial traits are so strongly expressed now, it’s unsettling.
Life with Smol Acrobat
Totally not-fascinating newsflash: diaper brands in the same size vary widely! Looking at Size 1 and 2, the weight ranges are the same but the diapers are very much not the same. We bought Target’s generic up&up brand ourselves, but we were also gifted a few other brands – either gifts or hand me downs from folks who didn’t use up their supply.
If you’re curious, the sizes across brands go, from smallest to largest, as follows: Target, Pampers, Huggies, All Good, Mama Bear.
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You know what’s really creepy? Smol will be fast asleep and suddenly open their eyes and look at us. Unblinking. Silently. For a few minutes. Then they close their eyes and sleep again. I don’t know what that’s about!
Pupdate
Sera seems oblivious to the lack of Seamus around here. It’s odd. She was so attached to him but maybe it was only for physical warmth? She definitely displays seeking behaviors towards the humans these days, she is concerned whenever PiC and JB are out of the house, but she hasn’t looked for Seamus at all. I’m not sure why that is but I guess that’s not totally abnormal.
Precious Moments
My biggest failure as a parent to date isn’t the fact that JB still routinely mixes us up, or that they keep referring to me as “your mom” to Smol Acrobat, or a myriad of other oddities. It’s that they casually asked: “When Sera dies, can we buy another house to live in? We’ve been here for years and I’m bored.” Knife to the money-wise heart, I tell ya. Though a friend pointed out that they have been trapped in this house in ways that we never anticipated.
*****
JB: Do I have to have a baby?
Me: Nope you never have to have babies if you don’t want them.
JB: Ok. Let’s have another! BOOP, you will have another next year!
Me: -_____-
*****
JB: Do I have to like this? (Gesturing at dinner)
Me: Nope. But you do have to eat it.
*****
JB: do you know why rattlesnakes are so polite?
Me: They’re… polite?
JB: Yeah! Before they sting you on your arm or your face, they hiss a warning at you with their tail! With their rattle! They’re the coolest snakes on earth.
Me: ….. Not ..really…no…
*****
JB very loudly to Smol Acrobat: hello my adorableness! Hello my snugglebunny! That’s MY snugglebunny, yes you are! Yes you are!
happy birthday, JB!!
Thank you!
That is so cute. Six is very much Not A Baby. I realize that looking at my kid’s beginning and ending Kindergarten pics (she’s a June baby in a year round school, so K started 3 weeks after her 5th birthday and ended a week after her 6th), there is a ton of physical maturation from 5 to 6, and yes, it’s a move from little kid to big kid.
I truly wish I’d seen this coming. I guess I know now for Smol Acrobat but it’s still startling.
My six-year-old baby is all of a sudden reading chapter books and toasting her own bagels for breakfast and cutting veggies up with a sharp knife. It’s amazing how they grow! (The contrast with a helpless infant is also large!)
Oh my goodness! What happened?? š
The contrast, yes, that really underlines in the gap in ways I really didn’t see coming.
“You don’t have to like it; you just have to eat it.” My kids think it’s really funny that I say it (particularly when I say that to their friends).
I love the rattlesnake politeness courtesy discussion. (My uncle tells me that my grandmother, growing up in the hills of Kentucky, used to wander in the woods with her older brothers and sister, hunting rattlesnakes; they’d cut off the rattles and then toss the snake back into the woods. Not very polite! And also dangerously reckless; I don’t know if I believe the story or not!)
Hah I have that to look forward to!
OH my gosh, that sounds really dangerous! Also, does that kill the snake or does it just mean it can’t warn people when it feels threatened?
HAHAHA omg polite snakes!
Spud is now playing lots of imaginary games which is adorable. Giving me pretend gifts and whatnot.
I think that’s giving the snakes too much credit, IMO š
Aww that’s fun!