5 Going on 25

It seems like in the eight days since my Oldest's birthday, in which she turned "big 5" as she likes to say, she has undergone a complete personality change. Please tell me this is just a phase!

She is now jumping into the shower by herself and deciding that because she is 5, she can use Mommy's shampoo and conditioner. I'll catch her after she has already squirted half a bottle of shampoo down the drain and half a bottle of conditioner on her hair. I'm NOT kidding. She also thinks she is old enough to "mother" Middle and tells her to get in the tub and proceed to bathe her using a whole bottle of baby wash and flooding the bathroom floor. Youngest, meanwhile, slips on a puddle of water and bangs her head and runs to me crying, soaked to the skin and I run in to the bathroom, only to see Oldest as proud as she can be, giving Middle a bath. I have also caught her using my deodorant on her armpits, her legs and her tummy.

The other day, I walked in the kitchen and caught Oldest doing the dishes. We don't have a dishwasher (unless you count me) and have to do the dishes by hand. Oldest wants to do them so bad (let's see how she feels when I make her do it everyday when she is OLDER) and dragged a chair over to the sink, squirted a cup of dish soap on the sponge and started washing. All the dishes she washed have a layer of soap still on them and there is now water all over the counter, dripping onto the floor. I have recently discovered our kitchen floor is not even, because the water starts trickling to the other side of the room instead of puddling by the sink. She is covered up to her elbows in soap suds and the front of her shirt is soaked with water and soap.

This morning, Oldest woke me up a little earlier than I normally wake, and said she was hungry (maybe if she would eat all her dinner the night before, she wouldn't be so darn hungry in the morning!) and I told her I'd get up in a little bit. Hubby reported to me that he caught her in the kitchen with the frying pan on the stove and getting ready to crack some eggs.

I sat Oldest down today and explained to her that she STILL has to ask permission to do things and she can't just do things because she is "big 5". Shortly after that, while I was busy changing Youngest's poopy diaper, I walked in the kitchen and caught Oldest making a bowl of oatmeal. She dragged the chair to the pantry door to flip up the latch we have to lock the pantry door, got 2 packets of instant oatmeal, dragged the chair to the cupboard for the measuring cup and heated water in the microwave. Opened packets and half landed in the bowl and half landed on the counter. Beep! goes the microwave, she gets the hot water and proceeds to pour, stir, add sugar and consume entire contents of bowl in less than 5 minutes.

Oh God! While I DO encourage independence, this all seems a little early for a 5 year old. My life is now going to be spent keeping a closer eye on Oldest to make sure she doesn't get into something she shouldn't. Is this normal??? For those of you with kids older than mine, did yours do that when they turned 5?? Please, please, please tell me this is just a phase and she will revert to back to her old self again.