Thank goodness for the last summer birthday!

Seriously, thank goodness there was one boy in TKs class that has a summer birthday. I have not been to a classmate birthday party since March 2007 when I was put on bedrest for the little one. Since then Todd has been the attendee for all things 5 year old birthday related and I've been the one to stay home with the little one - either while he napped or because who wants a baby at their birthday. So yesterday TK was invited to our neighbor and soon to be kindergarten classmate's 6th birthday. It was at our neighborhood pool - walking distance for us and the perfect July-in-Texas summer party. The party started at 10:00 am so my mom came over to keep the little one because he's at that age where they just walk right in to the pool - without stopping. That and it was his morning nap time and Todd was gone.

So, I'm sure you are asking why do I say "thank goodness I sacrificed two hours of my life with screaming 5 year olds?"

Well, lately I have been stressed about TK going to kindergarten in just about a month. Not because "my baby is growing up" and not because I will know the difference being a working mom, but for other reasons. He's an AMAZING kid, but one that requires quite a bit of stimulation and activity. He likes to be going and doing and sharing his wonderful imagination with you 24/7. He's become so independent and lately filled with the vim and vigor attitude...more like a 5th grader than a 5 year old. I was filling out his profile for his teachers and when I finished and re-read I was like "Huh, I'm sure this teacher is going to get this profile and be like 'crap'..." So rather than taking the time to understand him and I have just been assuming that he's the only one like this...au contraire...

Sitting at the pool yesterday was EYE-OPENING! There was a good assortment of kids - kids with older siblings, kids with younger siblings (like TK), only children - you name it. And all of them were 5 or 6 and all of them were pure terrors! They didn't listen to their mothers, they dunked their friends, they ran when they weren't supposed to, they pitched royal tantrums and in general...acted 5.

I was purely giddy just seeing that it's widespread. 5 is magical in a really bad way - like "running through the fires of hell" magic. Now I know that it's not ideal that I'm like "Oh, phew, they are all bad" - and that's not it. It was more like "OOOOOOOOHHHHH, so it's just 5?????"

And then, just like I've come to expect, God plopped down an old friend that I had lost contact with, right next to me. She and I met when our "Ts" were 2 and 3 months old. She has a 9 year old and thankfully spent the next 2 hours reassuring me that if we could make it through 5 and 6 then we could be eligible to be the first women on the front lines of combat. She told me that she got notes every day for the first 6 weeks with her oldest and that the teachers still liked him (and her) despite that. She talked and comforted and made me feel better and better (all while yelling at her "T" and putting him in multiple timeouts, getting pizza, cake and applying sunblock).

I left there feeling better than I have in months AND I came home with a new perspective on TK. Instead of thinking about how hard it is for me, I'm thinking also about how hard it must be to be 5...