In-betweener

Lillian is in that in between stage of growing up. Or, I should say one of the in between stages. At 4 and a half she is not a baby and not a big kid. She sleeps in a twin bed and has not slept with her bottom in the air for a long time, which says big kid. She uses my shampoo and conditioner, but I still wash her hair. She uses baby or kid body wash, but washes herself. She makes her bed, cleans her room, puts away her own laundry and even helps with other chores around the house occasionally. She memorized all of her AWANA verses this year and at the end of the year had memorized almost 20 verses. Sometimes, though, I still see a baby in her. She cries when she gets grumpy and frustrated. But then, she will say, "I'm sorry, I'm just grumpy." Sometimes she just wants to curl up in my lap, but she is getting so long and lanky that it just isn't comfortable for either of us for long. She is so great with her brother sometimes, and others it seems like she just can't help but pester him. She loves to dress up in her princess outfits, but then will put together an outfit that is really great and add lots of different accessories and tell me she is being a cool girl. In fact, she says all the time, "lets pretend we are cool girls". "Pretend?" I say. "We are cool girls." She is only 4 and 8 months and only getting ready to start pre-K, but she is such a big kid, too.