Miss Independent

From the day she was born, Molly has had a stubborn streak ("Other babies sleep in their carseats? NOT ME!", "Other babies are soothed by pacifiers? I'd rather scream if that's ok with you", etc...). Well, lately her stubborn nature has taken the shape of fierce independence when it comes to doing things that I used to do for her. For example, Molly has always enjoyed opening and closing doors repeatedly, but needed help because she couldn't reach the doorknob. Well, just recently she has found she can reach the doorknob IF she stands on her tippiest tippy toes and stretches her arm as far as she can above her head (3rd percentile for height, remember?). Since discovering this she absolutely WILL NOT accept help in opening and closing doors. It may take her 12 tries, but she eventually gets the knob turned and will let herself in and out of her bedroom over and over again, everytime running into the livingroom with a "TA-DA!" look on her face, so proud of herself.

Miss Molly Joy likes to assert her independence in many other ways too, such as:

• Brushing her hair. It's much more fun to do it yourself than to calmly sit on Mommy's lap.

However, she also likes to play "mommy" herself and brush Ian's hair, although there's not much to style on his bald little head.

• Dressing herself. This is a particularly fun task if I've just done laundry and there's a big basket of clean clothes to pick from. She'll paw through the basket until she finds the desired item, and pull it out while exclaiming, "DAT!!!" in an excited, sing-song voice. Some days it may be her bathing suit top with a string of "pearls", sans pants.

Other days it may be too-small infant sunglasses with her pajamas.Sometimes it may be a tutu over her play clothes.
Notice anything funny about this picture? Perhaps her shoes? That brings me to...

• ...Putting on her own shoes. This one in particular has become a sticking point recently. She INSISTS on putting on her own shoes. The only problem is that it is a bit beyond her current level of motor skills and she usually can't do it without help. Unfortunately, she won't accept help easily. If she sees one of us coming to help her, she jumps up, runs away and uses her new-found door-closing-skills to close herself in another room, where she'll keep trying. She has experienced a few successes, which is how she ended up with this lovely combination.

As much as her antics can become frustrating at times, they also make me beam with pride at the strong little person she's becoming. Her perseverance amazes me! Most play activities hold her interest for about 2 minutes, but when she has her mind set on accomplishing something, she'll try and try and try until she gets it. We're in the beginning stages of potty-training right now and one of the skills we've been working on is pulling her own shorts on and off...a pretty tough task for a toddler that's not even 2-years-old. Last night, she decided for herself to practice and after a couple of tries she really started to get it. She was so proud of herself and must've pulled her shorts on and off for a good 20 minutes! Obviously, when she's 25 years old, she's not going to be practicing pulling her drawers up and down, but if she applies the same perseverance and resolve to whatever dream she's pursuing, I have no doubt that she'll accomplish whatever she puts her mind to.