Self

Sarah is in a lovely stage. She wants to do everything by herself. When I try to help her, she screams "Self!" and proceeds to meticulously try to figure things out on her own. She has to get in and out of the car by herself (this includes opening and closing the car door), she has to put her shoes on by herself,  and she insists on pouring the milk by herself.

I find this whole thing deadly slow. Tedious. It's not like I have anywhere to go or something terribly important to do. It just drives me absolutely crazy to watch her struggle for about 5 minutes putting her shoe on the wrong foot! But she is a strong-willed little girl. And at least she's trying. The twins have bypassed this stage completely. I am their loyal, royal servant. Trust me, that's sooooo much worse than waiting an extra half an hour while Sarah puts her own sun block on!

After the bath last night, Sarah demanded to put on her own PJs. That was super fine with me. She did it perfectly. Then I turned to my two four (almost five) year olds and told them to put their own PJs on. They were shocked! How could they possibly do this on their own? I pointed out that the baby can do it, and so can they. When they continued to refuse to dress themselves, I said "That's fine. Go to bed naked. I don't care". Turns out, the twins can dress themselves, too. I wonder what else they can do...