She's Only Five, but...

Anna's in love. The poor girl has it bad. Normally, this would really bother me, seeing as she is only five, but she can't help it. She didn't go out looking for it. It just happened. She can't get her mind off of him, can't stop blushing and giggling,and well, did I mention she is FIVE?!

The friendship developed just a few days ago, and is an innocent friendship. It's just that when Anna asked this boy to be her friend, she had no idea how much she was going to like him.

Let me preface all of this by saying that Anna is an extremely social, friendly girl. Just about everytime I pick her up at school she hops in and happily reports, "I made a new friend today Mommy. Her/His name is ____" I often think, "How many kids are in this class anyways? How is it possible that you are still making NEW friends?" Until a few weeks ago, all of her friends were girls. I casually mentioned to her one day that it was ok to make friends with boys too. She looked at me kind of unsure but hopeful about a prospect that had never occurred to her. I mean, I had just added a whole new pole of potential friendships. Boys...that meant she could probably make at least 10 more friends by the end of the year. And the very next day, she had made her first friend who was of the male gender...but it wasn't HIM yet.


When I picked her up at school today, she got in and started happily jabbering about how she played with Him (I'll leave out his name to protect the innocent) and what they played...and none of this really set off any alarms, because that is normal behavior for Anna.

Then we went to my mom's house, and instead of talking normally about her day, she kept whispering into my ear little tid bits in my ear about Him. It wasn't what she was saying that made me raise my eyebrows slightly, it was that she kept whispering, and blushing, and giggling, and it was ALL about Him.

So then we go home and sit down for dinner (Larry was working late, and missed dinner with us). And the entire conversation was about Him. My blushing, giggling, five year old keeps saying repeatedly,

"What do you think ____ is doing right now?"
"Do you think ______ is eating dinner?"
"What do you think ____ is having for dinner?"
"Do you think he is having something spicy like us?"
"How many days do I have to wait until I can go back to school again?"
"Oh no, I forgot to tell ______ something."
"_____ and I played with bugs today." BUGS! Did she says BUGS! This is my Barbie loving, princess playing, polly pocket toting girley girl of a daughter! She's playing with BUGS...this is serious!
"I want _____to come to my birthday party." (Seeing as her birthday isn't until September she obviously thinks He doens't have commitment issues. Besides the fact that I'm sure her bug loving beau will feel right at home at what will no doubt be a frilly pink princess party.)

Now go back to question one and repeat the entire sequence over and over again for half an hour. Throw in the mentioning that her friend Ava has a boyfriend, and the comment that she'd like to have a boyfriend, but she can't even drive yet, and she's not even in kindergarten. (Thankfully, even the last comments belonged to her, not me.)

When I reported all of this to her father tonight, he reminded me that our love sick puppy had been ADAMENT about wearing a particular outfit to school today, and that she had a total meltdown when I mentioned that it might not be warm enough for that particular outfit today. Of course, that was before I realized that my poor daughter had been bitten by the love bug...and I didn't put it together. Thankfully (I guess?), I did give in and let her wear her pretty outfit.

Oh my!