I have the fever

The Spring Fever that is.

It is amazing what a little sunshine can do for a person.  I am also a little euphoric about the relief from the move-as-fast-as-possible dog situation.  Now we are back on a more sane schedule of getting the house ready in our spare time, just in case Mr. A gets an interview in another city.  It has been 2.5 or 3 weeks and we haven’t heard anything, so I am starting to relax a little. 

M has her kindergarten observation tomorrow.  I am not sure exactly what they are observing, but I am a little excited for her.  She is a tiny bit nervous, but I think she will be fine. 

I am relieved that age 5 seems to be a big improvement over age 4.5.  As predicted by Ames and Ilg (oh, how I enjoyed that book), M is generally happy to make me happy.  She isn’t too defiant, has few tantrums, is happy to go with the flow and generally behaves quite nicely. 

The downside of 5 is the flipside of all that easygoingness.  M just happily gallops through her days, but her impulse control seems to have gone out the window.  She doesn’t mean to cause trouble, but she doesn’t seem to think of any consequences for her actions. 

In joyful, excited moments, she does all kinds of infuriating things without thinking and then seems surprised that we are annoyed.  For example, the other day she was gleefully running around the house dragging a piece of twine she fished out of a trash bag.  This wouldn’t be such a big deal if the twine wasn’t twisted around the end of a WET PAINT ROLLER.  M had made her way through three rooms before I saw what she was doing…a trail of paint marking the hardwood floors behind her.  

I honestly think she wasn’t trying to be bad when she threw a rock at my car windshield, poked her sister in the head with a big stick, jumped in the middle of a huge mudpuddle and threw her entire lunch away because I told her no dessert until she was done eating and cleared her plate.  Each time, she seemed genuinely surprised that she was being reprimanded.  I swear, it is like living with Ramona Quimby.

M is also growing quite rapidly.  She seems to find it difficult to control her body.  She is constantly plowing into me, tripping over her own feet, throwing herself directly into the screen of the screen door, poking her head out the open window, and standing on my feet.  She is gangly and awkward, but wants to cuddle like she did when she was two only now her elbows and knees are constantly poking and prodding at me.

M is so big and so little at the same time.  Time seems to be going too fast all the sudden.