Independence 101

Duncan is going through a VERY welcome stage of wanting to do things for himself - not all things, mind you - but it's nice that he has an interest. He is more willing to dress himself, has been more attentive to his bathroom needs, and twice this week went to the bathroom by himself in the nighttime. Twice last weekend he marched into the kitchen and announced that he was going to make his lunch. Dubious, I envisioned him planning a meal of Christmas cookies, cheese, and whipped cream. Cautiously, I asked him what he was planning to have. "A cheese sandwich", for starters. "With what?" I demanded; he KNOWS he has to have a vegetable and fruit. "Some tomatoes and a clementine."

And he did. He ate more too, without the annoying, nagging prompting that we normally have to provide at mealtime.

Today, we all came home early from school. The weather was lousy. Jamie and I were done teaching for the day and thought it would be prudent to get home and stay there in case things stayed icy. We don't like to disrupt nap time at daycare so we picked Duncan up at 1:30. I had missed lunch. The lunch meeting I had scheduled for today had been canceled; I had taken some oatmeal, just in case, but hadn't gotten around to cooking it. While we were taking of our shoes and coats, I announced "I'm STARVING. I need to have some lunch."

Duncan said "Mama, I will make you a cheese sandwich."

And he did.

Independence Day

To surprise me last night, Duncan sent me out of the bathroom while he put on his pull up, his pajamas, and his socks and brushed his teeth "all by myself!" (I thought he was just buttoning his pajama top so I was truly surprised. There was a lot of grunting (which sounded like a preschool version of swearing) and self-affirmation ("I can DO this,") followed by sweet triumph. "I put these things on all by myself, AND I brushed my teeth." Sometimes it's so hard to take the time to let him do these things, but it's really important. Not only does he learn valuable self-care skills, but he also learns the feeling of success. I will remember these things when he needed to be in the car 10 minutes ago and insists on zipping his jacket...I swear I will...while I'm counting to 10 inside my head and practicing deep breathing.