E has been working on spoon control. She had her 19 month appointment last week, and it occurred to me that - although she is operating at Genius level in almost every capacity - she should probably be better with her utensils. It turns out, much to my surprise, that I'm the kind of parent that is always trying to "help"...to the point that I forget to let her learn for herself sometimes. I help her up the stairs, I help her build block towers, I help her eat with a spoon and fork. Sure, I'm a nice mama and all, but am I really doing her any favours? Luckily, she has started letting me know that she wants to take care of some of this stuff on her own. One of her favourite new words is "Self". When she wants to do something she usually announces her intentions. I used to take that as a request for help. Now I ask her if she wants to do it herself or if she wants help. To which she responds with either "Self!" or "Help you!". (Next we'll work on our pronouns.)
This morning she enjoyed feeding herself some yogurt and blueberries, naked but for a diaper and a bib. Breakfast #2 was some yummy oatmeal with homemade applesauce and mashed bananas and she showed marked improvement in mess management. I give it a solid B for execution and, as usual, an A+ for style.
When I read your post, it totally sounds like I'm reading about myself... always saying to Zoey "I'll help you". Then she figured out to tell us she wanted to do things on her own... "ZOEY DO IT!!!" very... I mean VERY passionately! (I'll try to get it on video for you) And when she wants help, she says "Help you"... such sweet, smart little girls we have :)
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