Six

This week our youngest turned six.

It's interesting watching this small child develop, seeing the strengths and weaknesses come to fore, watching the personality correct and assert itself. Having so many older children in the house, I sometimes forget how young she is then something will happen to remind me.

A few weeks ago the reminder came when Athena returned home from school excited because her tooth was loose.  It took me a minute to remember that, for her, this was a major discovery and milestone.

Over dinner, she told her 17-year-old sister "I'm a big girl now, my tooth is loose."

"No....you're little because your tooth is loose."

"Little girls don't have loose teeth," Athena reasoned.

"Only little girls have loose teeth," Zoe countered.

This conversation went on for a while, the two of them bantering about what made a girl little versus big.  I listened, a smile in my heart stopping my desire to tell them that they are both very very little.

A few days later, when the tooth fell out, Athena chose to keep it.  Which we all know meant she chose to lose it.  For the first few days she carried it around in one of her many purses before moving it to a small treasure box that her brother gave her.  Where it went after that, I cannot say.

A week ago when tooth number two fell out at school, Athena was ready to see what the tooth fairy was all about.  She brought it home in a keepsake box the secretary had given her and after showing it, and the new hole in her smile, off she put it under her pillow.

At my house the tooth fairy is notoriously finicky.  Which means she sometimes fails to show up. Which means Athena woke up in the morning and the tooth was still there.  Which means I had to explain to her that the tooth must have been too far under her pillow for the tooth fairy to reach. Which means when I tucked her in on night number two, I had to remember to make a big deal about tooth placement.  Which also means I don't really deserve it when she tells me I'm the best but who am I to burst the bubble?

By morning number two Athena had made her first successful exchange with the tooth fairy.  The yellow treasure box had disappeared from under the pillow and in it's place, a shiny purple $10 bill.  She showed the money to everyone in the house. She carried it around for two days before deciding to put it in one of her purses.  Where it is now, I can't say.

Six.The last time we will ever have a six-year-old.  The last days of having a child small enough to carry around. The last years of bedtime stories and eyes that grow big with belief and wonder.  The last years when laughter bubbles up before reason.

Six years piling one on top of another, eating away at the magic. Teeth number three and four are already loose. Chapter books are rapidly replacing the the former favourite fairy tales which overflow from the bookshelves.

Six... bittersweet to see Athena on the doorstep of childhood's middle years, to know that soon Santa Claus and all the fairy friends will disappear with the dolls and safety scissors.

Even as a grumble about the mess she makes playing dress up, for the next 362 days I will enjoy having a six-year-old.