I wish I had a house full of six-year-olds. There are so many things to love about this stage I can't even begin to name them all. I would like to share a few examples with you though.
Example 1: I have been suffering from a cold that has turned into a sinus infection. Tuesday was the worst day of it all. I ran early in the morning and could never quite recover afterward. I managed to make dinner, but by the time it was time to eat I could barely keep my head up. This Tuesday was also the one day of the month that Tom stays at the office well into thing night...or early morning hours.
After dinner was over, Lily offered to clean up for me. I wasn't really paying much attention to exactly what she meant because I was just trying to get the other kids to bed because they hadn't had a nap that day. While I was attending to Drew and Julianna, Lily washed two dirty pans, loaded the rest of the dirty dishes, swept the kitchen floor and cleaned out a nasty lunch box that she'd been procrastinating for well over a week. I was flabbergasted. I was so touched by there kindness and willingness to be helpful. I definitely put her to bed with a good feeling in my heart.
Example 2: Our evenings with Lily have been going very well lately. Our mornings, not so much. She has been stalling getting ready again and I'm having a hard time not hounding her to get ready. Last week she was demanding that I get her something to eat and I was demanding that she comb her hair and brush her teeth. I told her, "I will not get you anything to eat until you are doing what I've asked you to do!" She was horrified...or had just recently learned a new tactic to avoid getting in trouble...because she said to me, "Mom! You can't do that! That's threatening me. You cannot threaten. That is not okay!" What I really wanted to say was, I'll show you what a threat looks like, little missy! But what I said was, "This is not a threat. You need to finish getting ready before you can eat your breakfast." With her latest argument she didn't get out of doing what I asked, but she did help me to realize that I was getting a little worked up and need to calm down about the hair combing and teeth brushing.
Example 3: Last night after dinner Tom and I were getting the kitchen cleaned up and various other chores accomplished. The children were playing quietly in the basement. It started to get late and so I told Tom to please send the younger two kids upstairs to play quietly so that Lily could go to bed (they had both had naps). When Tom went down to the basement to get them he found them with a disaster in the making. There were bottles of glue that had been emptied and mixed with water...and it was spread out pretty well over the existing play room mess. He came upstairs carrying a plastic drawer with the water and glue sloshing around and sent me down to help contain the mess.
When I got downstairs it was such a mess that I made Lily wipe down the table, told her that she cannot use her art supplies in this manner if she's going to do art alone and then I sent her to bed. She was really unhappy about my request, but she did manage to make it to her bed. I came up a few minutes later to tell her goodnight and tuck her in. Then I went back to the basement to clean up.
A few minutes later Tom heard Lily speaking loudly from her bed. "You blame me for EVERYTHING! It was not MY FAULT! Drew told me to squeeze out the glue....AFTER EVERYTHING I'VE DONE FOR YOU!! YOU BLAME ME!! I swept the floor and loaded the dishwasher and cleaned the mud room...and still I get blamed!!"
I love six-year-olds.
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