Very Small Small Girl is 6.
She woke up the morning of her birthday, came running into the computer room and announced, "I'm SIX!"
She wanted to go to the zoo by public transport for her birthday so that's what we did.
Critical error #1: do I need extra pants for Cub? Nah he'll be fine and we're running hellishly late.
Caught the train into Perth, couldn't work out how to get to the CAT stops on either side of the train station due to the works currently being undertaken, so hiked to Barrack St Jetty, was just in time to jump on the ferry, and then hiked to the zoo where we met up with my mother in law, sister in law and nephew. Just to make life interesting the zoo's main entrance is also undergoing renovations so we ended up walking a long way round to the alternative entrance they've made for the time being.
The water course at the zoo was running for the first time in recent memory. My water babies of course got straight into it.
Critical error #2: should I take Cub's pants off? Nah the water is only puddle deep and ankle deep in very few places, he'll be right.
The pants came off shortly after. Ru had smartly taken off the leggings she'd been wearing when we left the house (it was a bit cool that morning) to play in the water, and generously loaned them to Cub when they were done playing in the water as he was complaining that his legs were cold and he wanted pants on.
We went around looking at what Ru wanted to look at, which included elephants. As luck would have it, Tricia was going for her walk while the kids were at the playground.
I ducked in front and got a couple of photos before Cub and I cleared out of the way, and am much too slow at changing lenses unfortunately otherwise would have gotten some nice shots of her walking past.
For dinner Ru requested corn, but we didn't have any and couldn't find any so Josh made chicken drumsticks with potato and pumpkin. Ru decided she didn't like the potato. Tao did, and traded her one of his drumsticks for all her potato (after I told her she had to eat at least one piece). We then gave her her present ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl) which I hadn't had time to do in the rush to get to the zoo at a reasonable hour, and Tao brought her a bunch of flowers that he'd picked from the garden (nice floral arrangement involing geraniums and rosemary).
Up to the age of 3 Ru was critically shy and would often park on my lap and watch the world go round before joining in the festivities. These days she's right into things and will quite happily go and play with other kids who are kicking around by themselves at the playground. We're having a joint party for her and Tao later on in the month, and in her list she included two girls she's only just met and played with all of once each who are new homeschoolers. She also surprised me by actually being able to read, proven by her reading me a chapter book which I thought she was reading from memory until she slowed down and carefully sounded out unfamiliar words.
She likes Dr Seuss and Roald Dahl books ("Matilda" and "George's Marvellous Medicine" are constant bedtime stories), Pokemon, My Little Pony, music by Mika and Bond, rainbows, butterflies, fairies, sparkly things, clothes with the aforementioned on them, drawing and painting, cooking, skating, and has recently developed an interest in horse riding. She mothers her little brother and cousin and pretty much anyone smaller than her. She thinks maths is boring and one of the many things she wants to be when she grows up is a scientist, but she does't know what kind she wants to be yet. She has a huge gappy grin because she has huge teeth and lost one recently, and the one next to it is wobbly. It's really very quite cute.
She is awesome.