Mr. Independent

I find that I keep fairly good track of the developmental milestones for the first year of life and then after that I slowly start to taper off. Well I would like to acknowledge one of Hayden's many milestones he is hitting right now in addition to cutting his 2 year molars just a few weeks before his third birthday. He can now dress and undress himself all by himself. He has been becoming more independent now with the ability to potty by himself (and believe me he asks for his 'piracy' every time), brush his teeth, shower alone and even put his dishes in the dishwasher and fix his own ice water. Now most of these still require assistance, for instance I still have to re shampoo and soap him in the shower, re brush his teeth to make sure all the sugar bugs are gone and hopefully present him with the choice of which outfits to put on or else he comes out looking like this..........

Too small shirt that's on backwards, although good choice with a CATS jersey, orange shorts that are too small and on backwards. He also thinks that he can wash his own clothes now. I spent the better half of five minutes searching for his UK Tshirt that actually fits him that he won at a church picnic this summer that I know I carried out to the laundry room to wash because Mr. Independent thought he could wipe his heine after pooping on the potty. Well some poop got on the favorite shirt and so I went to wash it. I dug through two baskets of clean laundry plus the dryer trying to find this shirt that he desperately wanted to sleep in. Jeff then went in search of it and it did in fact get washed.... in pretend land! Hayden picked it up out of my sorted piles and put it in his washing machine that his cousin Addison recently gave him. So another thing that he thinks he can do on his own.... his laundry. Now why in say 10-15 years from now will the little boy who wants to be so independent right now change into one that doesn't know how to do laundry or put his plate in the dishwasher?



They say children learn by example but in this case it's not so.... I don't wash my clothes in the nude. Hayden just likes to take all his clothes off and wash and dry then put them right back on.