"Self"

It's Sophie's mantra, one word that says so much: self. As in "I can do it all by myself", (even if she really can't), "I don't want any help from you", (even if it takes me the next twenty minutes to put on this one plastic shoe), and "I don't even want it to LOOK like I am getting help", (even if it means I end up with most of this bowl of oatmeal in my hair). You know, when your kids are tiny you think about how much easier things will be when they can do some things for themselves and aren't so wholly dependant on you for every little thing. You think about when they can dress themselves, brush their own teeth, and (hallelujah!) go potty on the potty. We're getting there with Soph, and now find myself on the flipside of that, with an almost two year old who wants to do it all, can't actually do much of it very well, and I find myself very reluctant to give her control sometimes. Sometimes I'm just plain impatient and it's easier to do things myself than wait for her to do it. But mostly I think it's just that I don't want to admit that my baby isn't such a baby anymore. So, I guess you could say that we are experiencing some growing pains, Sophie and I. She's growing, and sometimes it causes me some pain, especially in the heart.

Eating oatmeal "self" style!