All Grown Up

There are many things in life that make you feel like a ‘real’ grown up – the first time you get excited over buying a new kitchen appliance, the thrill of seeing the sun shining on washing day, signing important documents all by yourself without an ‘adult’ guarantor – but this year I have had one hit me that seems somehow bigger than all the others.

Even bigger than owning a house. (Which is ridiculous. I still can’t quite believe they let us buy a house like proper adults…)

Tori started Year 6 at Primary School.

I don’t know why this felt so enormous, but it did. And it sort of took me by surprise, which is ridiculous given how she turned 10 in July and finished Year 5…

But there you go, I somehow wasn’t entirely mentally prepared for my first born to enter her final year of Primary Education.

For a start she only started Nursery about three months ago… right?

Sigh.

Already since September, she has been away for a week to the same outdoor adventure centre that I went to with my school (I have loved sharing and comparing memories with her!), and we have been to see a potential Secondary School for her. (We are off to my old school soon, I’m looking forward to having a nosey at how it has changed if nothing else!!)

She seems to grow every time she leaves a room, both in height and maturity.

She’s clever and funny, rarely seen without her nose in a book or iPad in hand. She loves animals and nature, and discovering the world around her, she asks questions about everything and anything (but doesn’t always remember to listen to the answers), and she almost never stops talking or singing.

Cuddles with a friend’s gorgeous Daschund, Darcy

She’s at that awkward in-betweeny age where sometimes she wants to be more grown up, and other times she still wants to be little. It’s hard work being 10 – school is working up to the Big Move, friendships fall foul to surging hormones, and Little Brothers are alternately the best and worst thing In The World. Ever.