My Daughter at Six Years Old

Last week my wonderful child turned six years old, which is a bit nuts. It feels pretty unbelievable that I am the mother of a six year old but she also seems so grown up sometimes and she is absolutely bloody amazing.

She has come on so much in the last year – her reading and writing has improved so much, and I adore watching her sitting at her little table with a pen and paper and writing things herself, stopping to ask me how to spell something occasionally. She spends a lot of time making and writing cards to family and friends and it’s so incredibly sweet. She’s such a lovely little girl and I’m so, so proud of her.

She’s had a much better year so far at school compared to last year, which is wonderful, as she (and therefore I) found last year so hard. But this year she’s so much more confident going in every morning, and I think she’s really enjoying her days at school. She really loves to learn and improve and it’s so fascinating to watch her growing and learning. Towards the end of the last term she got upset a few times and had a few issues with her friends, and didn’t want to go again, but I think (and I’m hoping) it was just as they all got a bit tired towards the end of term.

How grown up does she look here?!

Loves: Reading, writing, making cards for people she loves, chocolate, her cousins, Brio, posing in the mirror, choosing her own clothes, dressing up in her Cinderella dress, crisps, chocolate milkshakes, colouring in, winding me up on purpose, skipping, Build a Bear, Smyths toy shop.

Dislikes: Tidying up, cleaning her teeth, fruit, me going out at night without her, me not providing her with the correct after-school snack, me making her go for a wee, letting me go to the loo in peace (you’d think that would happen less at six wouldn’t you?).

Favourite toy: She is suddenly into playing with her Brio train tracks again, and loves spending ages building them with her Dad, so we bought her a few extra bits for her birthday, which she loves. She is absolutely in love with the Build-a-Bear she had made as part of her birthday present – a bunny called Happy.

Favourite book: We’ve been reading A Boy Called Christmas together since the beginning of December and she’s really been enjoying that before bed every night. Other than that she loves picking up any of her books at the moment and reading them herself, which I love.

Challenges: Getting her to tidy up after herself; she’s very good at creating a shitload of mess and then moving on to something somewhere else. I’m sure that’s pretty normal for kids, but I can’t seem to work out how to get her to actually think about tidying something up herself. I encourage her all the time and get her to come back and help me or do it herself, but I do find it quite frustrating.

Best bits: Her birthday meal with lots of family and friends was a bit hectic but it was really cute seeing her cousins and my friends’ children desperate to play with and be with her. She’s so good with them all even though they’re all quite a bit younger than her and really wants to look after them and keep them happy, and they love her and her them. She is called Ada by her cousin and Aga by her little second cousin and it’s bloody adorable!

Ava has been so, so excited to be six for so long now, and we were counting down the days for weeks, so she’s so happy she’s a ‘big girl’ now. I love watching her grow up into this amazing, kind, caring and funny, amazing person, and I couldn’t be more proud of her.

You can read more of her updates here, here, and here.