Glimpses of Josie Growing Up

Josie's trying hard to grow up faster than I wish.

"I'm too big for princesses, Mom. We should find a little girl that likes princesses & give her all of my stuff." (Then she proceeded to stuff all of her princess clothing, underwear & Princess Paraphernalia into a grocery sack while I stared in bewilderment. I quickly realized that she was cleaning her closet on her own & suddenly didn't feel so sad about this transition.)

"Now that I'm six, I love High School Musical. I'm going to need to go shopping to buy some fashion clothes, okay?" (Now I felt really bewildered...FASHION clothes??? Luckily, she still prefers Target as her favorite place to shop. On my part time teaching salary, that's a HUGE relief.)

Then there was the day I listened as she left this voice message for Grandpa, "Hello Grandpa. This is Josie Wrinkle. When you have time, do you think you could come to my house in California and move my mirror up in my room? It's cutting off my head because I'm in first grade now & I'm really tall." (Grandpa was thrilled to receive such a special invitation & I felt sad, once again, that he lives 2700 miles away.)

The physical changes are somewhat obvious: She lost a top front tooth on the first day of first grade & a week later she lost the other front tooth. She's a perfect Halloween Jack-0-lantern & loves to show off that gappy smile.

She's THRILLED and counting the "sleeps" until Erin's wedding in October because she's going to be the Flower Girl! Just as I predicted in Courage is a Process , Josie is braver now that she's six. It definitely helped to see a photo of the dress she would wear, "Oh, Mom! I'll be beautiful! I really, really, really want to be a flower girl!"

She was speechless and grinning from ear to ear the day the dress arrived & I let her try it on. I had to beg her to stop spinning so I could snap a few photos to send to Erin. (Considering the dress is supposed to be Tea Length, our next step is to find a reasonably priced Seamstress but I can already imagine that toothless grin as she walks down the aisle.)

Just this week she came home and proudly shared her Friday Test scores with me. She gently rubbed her fingers over the old-fashioned foil stars that Mrs. Rail had put next to her 100% scores on her Sight Word Test, Spelling Test & Dictation Sentence. She picked up the packet and put her face next to the stars and whispered, "Ohhhhh...I can't wait for Friday. We get to take tests again, Mommy. First grade is the best!"

Sadly, we've also witnessed that horrible Self Image Challenge that many girls seem to go through. I just didn't realize that it would start so young. "Mom, my legs look too fat. I need to do more exercises to make me look skinny." Or "I don't smile at the bugaboos (her reference to the boys she likes to chase at recess) because they will think I look silly without my teeth."

I know we have our work cut out for us this year as she emerges as a reader & writer but it's her self image that will worry me the most. I can't protect her from all of the hurts she'll experience but I hope to arm her with enough confidence to face the perceived & real judgements she will face as she continues to develop relationships with her peers.

I am so grateful to our friends & my colleagues at school for always keeping a special eye out for Josie & for convincing her that she's appreciated & loved by so many. She feels so at home & confident when she's at school---what a lucky girl to have such a strong start in school!