Miss Independent

Kaitlyn is starting to be a lot more independent these days.  She INSISTS on doing things on her own with no help at all, until she is ready to ask for it.  If you help her without her permission, she will throw drop to the floor and throw a fit. 

I'm am having a hard time letting her do things on her own.  It's not that I don't want her to be independent, by all means please go potty by yourself, but I just forget that she is a big girl now and she is capable of doing these things on her own.  I'm just used to doing things for her.  It also doesn't help when I need to get things done fast and she's busy being all independent and taking her sweat time.  It is helpful to send her to the bathroom to wash her hands while I'm tied up with the demands of Tyler.  (I also need to remember that she is two and she LOVES to play in the water.)

Daddy says that she is super independent in the mornings.  She opens her door, crosses the entire house, opens the bathroom door and enters the room and shouts "good morning daddy!"  (Her door is a pocket sliding door and our room is the farthest room away from hers so needless to say, I'm pretty impressed with her.)  He tells her to go potty in our bathroom and he gets up to get ready.  She brushes her teeth while he shaves.  He then tells her to go pick out an outfit to wear; I already have outfits for the week ready for her in the top drawer of her changing table and she just picks a particular outfit she feels like wearing.  She undresses herself and he helps her get dressed as much as SHE lets him.  He gives her the squirt bottle so she can wet her hair and then he puts it in a ponytail.  (He does a pretty good job if I may say so.)  She then goes and picks what she wants for breakfast and she sits at her little table in the living room and watches a little Mickey Mouse Club House before it's time to leave.  She helps drop off Tyler in his room first, then will walk to her class, give daddy a hug and a kiss, tell him to have a good day at work, then settle in the days activity.  (She usually gets dropped off at morning snack and will look at what the other kids are eating to see if she wants some or not.)

She really is growing into her own little person and it really makes me proud.  It also makes my life a hell of a lot easier because I don't have to constantly ask her if she needs anything.  She tells me when she needs to potty, or wash her hands, or is hungry or thirsty.  She tells me what she wants to play and where she wants to play.  I do occasionally have to remind her to do things, like take a big drink of water when she is playing in the hot sun, but for the most part she is my little independent girl.