5 year olds are great

I love my daughter. We're watching Legend right now and she keeps asking questions every couple of minutes. Now this isn't the first time we've watched this movie, it's like this with every movie we watch in fact. "Who's that mommy? What's wrong with her? Why'd they do that? Is the Unicorn okay? Is the Unicorn dead, mommy? Who's he? Why's he mad? Ewww, is that the big red guy?", and so on. Every time Lily comes on the screen she asks who is she and why is she sad. I answer her questions as the movie goes along because I've become used to this. The age of questions is a fascinating time :P

The other day I was in the shower and she stayed in the bathroom with me and wanted to sing, tell me about her dreams (she loves to talk about her dreams, she's a great little storyteller), then she went into this 10 minute thing where she would tell me she loved me, then ask if I loved her too. It hurts her feelings when I'm not able to listen and answer all her questions. I don't want to tell her to go away, but dayum, sometimes it gets tiring.

I gotta tell you, she's really doing well with writing her letters. The school gave me a packet of paperwork to go over with her during the summer to prepare her for kindergarten. She's looking forward to going to school so much that she *wants* to do homework every single day! She soaks it all up like a big sponge. She's really good at figuring out mazes, puzzles and patterns. She loves anything that rhymes too. Oh, she's gotten into singing too because of Phantom of the Opera. I had no idea she'd like the movie so much, but she's just in love with all the music so we had to buy the soundtrack too for when we're in one of the vehicles.

Mom and I took her to see Fantastic 4 and Batman Begins last weekend. She loved both even though Batman Begins was quite a bit darker than I'd expected. I was concerned she'd be freaked out by some of the imagery, but she told me, defiantely, that she wasn't scared at all. I'm surprised by her more often than not. She's so outgoing, cheerful, brave, and absolutely brilliant.

Everywhere we go I get stopped by people admiring her, sometimes it's because she's talking about something and they think she sounds very smart, othertimes it's because of her long hair and sweet smile. She loves talking to new people, except a rare few that she pulls away from (makes me think there's something wrong with them for her to reject them, something wrong like they're bad, know what I mean?). The attention sometimes makes my anxiety issues worse, just because I'm nervous about people trying to take her. I *know* I'm an over protective mom, but there's no other way I can be.

On the 9th our little bitty town celebrated it's centennial with a fireworks display, parade and other festivities. An hour or so before the fireworks we were sitting outside on our porch when a little girl from down the street named Destiny rode up on her bike. We originally met Destiny the spring after we moved in, she was 4 and running around the neighborhood without any adult supervision. I asked her where her mom was and she told me that her mom had told her to go outside and not come back until she called her. Huh? What kind of parent does that in a neighborhood like this?? She's 6 now and just as neglected. The police patrol through here constantly so they know all about her, but child protective services isn't at all interested. I guess they'd be interested if someone snatched her up or if she got run over by one of the many cars blazing through here. She asked me why Livi didn't come over to the park and I told her it was because it was dirty (which it is, glass and other assorted things I don't want my child to come into contact with) plus I don't let her go anywhere without me. She told us that she couldn't watch the fireworks from her porch because her mom had invited over some friends and she wasn't supposed to get in the way. Ugh. The fireworks started a bit after 9 and weren't over till close to 10 (awesome display), it's bullshit to make your 6 year old stay out that late without supervision! Thankfully everyone in the neighborhood watches out for these kids, I don't know the others, just Destiny, otherwise who knows what might happen.

I took lots of pictures of the fireworks, but most of them sucked because my camera isn't the best at capturing anything at night. There were a few that came out pretty good though. I still haven't even uploaded all my pictures from the Washington trip. Oooh, looks like we might be getting some storms soon so I best unplug all the computer stuff. Hopefully I can write more later :) *waves*