This was the first tooth that fell out on its own, the natural, growing bigger way. There was still a bit of drama involved but much less mom guilt. And it reminded me of something I had read years back - the big six year old developmental shift.
For those of you that have been with me a while, you know I love to read about parenting and educational philosophies - Waldorf, Montessori, we are all old friends. And while my heart and mind have firmly settled in the Charlotte Mason camp, I still like to glean wisdom from wherever I find it.
One of the commonalities is that they all seem to think some major changes happen around six. I know that but for some reason, I was segmenting that idea into "educational/homeschool" section of my brain and not thinking about its implications for my regular parenting. But the wiggly tooth brought it back to my mind. Waldorf seems to be the one that emphasizes the physical changes the most and we are there with that. The tooth lost is just a part of it. Her whole face has lost that baby look quite recently. I've been sorting through pictures for our 2015 scrapbook and the ones from even a few months ago make her look like such a baby compared to now. So physically, she's moving from little girl to not so little girl.
I'm also seeing a shift in her recently with discipline and emotions and how she processes and thinks about things including where I, the mom, fit into all that. If it wasn't so exhausting, it would be fascinating. Actually, it is fascinating. There are some really awesome aspects of this change if I can take the time to focus on those. But that's hard right now. I won't go into details for her privacy sake but we've had some good highs and lots of lows lately and I'm often left pulling my hair out and then praying my heart out (I probably should flip that order and maybe I wouldn't have to resort to the hair pulling but I'm a work in progress too).
Talking to other moms of girls her age and reading things like this and this make me feel a lot better. She's not quite six but tends to hit these developmental stages at the early side (I'd say her "terrible twos" were from 2-2.5ish while Jonah's began this fall right before he turned three and ended, well, they haven't, we are firmly in temper tantrum territory. But why he thinks standing and screaming with his arms flailing around in the air will get him what he wants when that method has worked exactly 0% of the time is a story for another day). They remind me that no, she hasn't gone insane. She's just changing. The scary part is that I, and my parenting, have to change with her. We're reaching a new stage. I need to get back to praying because we've got a fun year up ahead but I think its gonna take a lot of patience and a good dose of the Holy Spirit to get through it!
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