Ch-ch-ch changes

My daughter Sweetness just turned 7 years old. I'm struck by the changes I see in her. She wants so badly to be grown up. The thing that I noticed first was the changes in her speech. She is trying out all sorts of new phrases and listening to herself to see how she sounds. You can see her pause after she tries out a new saying. Yesterday, she tried out "Say What????", just like she heard on Hannah Montana. Instead of her pulling off a cool, nonchalant, somewhat witty vibe, she sounded ackward and her giggling afterwards didn't help any.

The other day at the doctor's office, she went to get her customary sticker after her appointment. She perused the stickers and then decided to give hers to me. I asked her why she didn't want her sticker and she said "I'm just trying to be more grown up." I thought it was funny that she still liked the sticker well enough to spend some time picking one out, but then decided that it was too babyish to keep it.

She also is a lot more aware of privacy issues and her body. Instead of just giggling about her body, she is more emotionally upset at the idea of her privacy being violated. I bought her a book from American Girl called "The Care and Keeping of You" and thought we would read through it together. We got through a couple of pages and it was clear that the *last* thing she wanted to be doing was reading this book with her mom. We decided to read that book at a later time.

She even decided on her own to help me with the housework yesterday in preparation for a sleepover. She swept the bathroom floor, washed the bathroom mirror, and emptied my dishwasher...all without being asked. I'm not sure how I feel about her associating growing into a woman with doing housework, but I suppose that is a fact of life.

Caption: Spunky Girl, Sleepover friend, & Sweetness playing Martian Matter

Sweetness' desire to distance herself from childish things is great (& fascinating) but it causes extra problems for her sister. Spunky Girl, who is 5, already clamors for more attention and time from her older sister. For Sweetness to aspire to being an older girl means that she wants to have even less to do with her younger sister and playing the games that Spunky Girl wants to play. I have to constantly remind Sweetness to talk respectfully to her sister, even if she is telling her that she doesn't want to play with her.

I'm hoping that this comes in waves. I don't mind her trying to be older from time to time, but I want her to also go back to enjoying childish things too. I'm sure her sister wants that too!