Zoe celebrated her 5th birthday a day early with a lovely party at Sarah's house, with a bunch of her friends from Kindergarten, Prep and beyond. This birthday also means she's been living in two homes for as much of her life as she's lived in one. On that front, mercifully, she seems to be doing as well as one could possibly hope for. This is her normal, as much as it breaks my heart.
She's doing fabulously well on all fronts, really. She's grown into a lovely little girl that I always enjoy spending time with. She's finally figured out how to ride a bike, so I've bought her a bigger bike for her birthday. I believe her swimming is going really well (I haven't seen her in action for a while because she does her swim classes via after-school care, but I'm fortunate to have one of my Thermomix consultant team members be her swim teacher, so I get some feedback from time to time).
We had parent-teacher interviews at the end of last term, and from all reports there, Zoe seemed to be doing well in Prep. Her sight-words are going pretty well. She's got the hang of phonics. She can write her name. She seems to have made friends with lots of the kids in her class. We've had a few of them over for dinner. I feel very connected with the school community.
I'm really grateful that I got about 5 weeks at the start of Prep before I returned to work. I got to be really involved with school for a little bit. I helped out with her school swim classes. I helped out with a literacy group. I did Tuckshop a couple of times. It was lovely. I wish I could be a stay at home parent so I could do that sort of thing all the time, but that's just not possible (at the moment, anyway). The school clearly relies quite heavily on parent helpers.
Five (and the lead up to it) seems to be a pretty fantastic age. I'm loving being her Dad now just as much as any other time.