Ella turned five today.
Five.
It seems like such a big number, as if she's now graduated into an official kid. Apparently Ella thinks so too. I made the mistake of calling her Little Miss Birthday Girl today and got an earful. (Mom, I am NOT little.)
For Ella, this day has been a long time coming. She has been talking about turning five since the school year started last fall. A couple of weeks ago she lamented to me that she already felt like she was five. And as early as last December, she was planning her birthday party in explicit detail (which won't be until May 1st, by the way, and today she was not quite understanding/appreciating the concept of having your actual birthday on a different day from your party). In fact, she even had our babysitter Diana write down a list of rules for her party. Here are some of the highlights:
- If you break one of my toys my mom can fix it.
- If you have a cold don't come to the party.
- If you burp at the party say "excuse me."
- If you are sick cough on your elbow.
- If you have a runny nose you are not invited. (Can you tell she dictated this list during cold and flu season?)
- You can't take any toys home.
- Put everything away. Ella will tell you where it goes.
- Find your phone if it gets lost or keep it in the car. (I believe this rule pays homage to my most overused phrase: "Have you seen my phone?")
- Don't cry if you break your cupcake.
As I probably should have anticipated from the above list, Ella woke up in full diva mode this morning. At least a birthday is one acceptable excuse for such behavior, in my opinion. When Claire started crying this morning Ella complained that she was ruining her birthday. Then, not only did she demand to wear a purple shirt, but she declared that she also expected everybody else to wear purple as well (but "green or blue is okay too Mommy"). I know that purple is Ella's favorite color – as evidenced by the purple bike she received, the purple balloons Matt and I spent the better part of last night blowing up, the purple cake, and the fact that I mixed up purple cream cheese for the bagels Ella brought into her class for snack today (her school has a very strict snack policy, which means this is one of the only ways to get festive with snack) – and yet I did not adequately plan for the purple shirt request. Thankfully, once Ella got over the lack of purple in her wardrobe she thought her new pink "5" shirt was pretty cool.
She walked into school this morning with her hand stuck out in front of her just like the picture at the top of this post and told anybody who would listen, "I'm five!" When her buddy Will came home with her after school for lunch and an ice cream outing before their Tuesday afternoon art class, she declared they could still be best friends "even though I'm five." And at one point I overheard her telling him, "My dad can't work all day today because he needs to come home for my birthday." Indeed, Matt made sure to be home a couple of hours early for cake, present opening, and a pizza & salad dinner (in that order). She got to stay up a little late playing with her new Geotrax sets ("just what I wanted!") and went to bed with the promise that she would be able to spend some time outside riding her new bike tomorrow.
I am so happy for Ella that she has finally turned the magical age she has been waiting so long to reach. I know she is more than ready to be a big kid. Me? Not so ready. But the idea is growing on me. I actually think having a big kid is going to be a lot of fun.
(But Ella? I'm still going to pretend to forget how old you are and "accidentally" call you four. And I hope you continue to think it's pretty much the funniest thing ever…at least for a little while. Don't worry, I'll come around to the idea of "five" sooner or later.)
Leave a Reply