baby no more

Elias has truly entered the "I can do it myself" stage.  From putting on socks to feeding chickens, he wants to control the action.  And, although this usually means it will take much longer and I'll be cleaning up a mess afterwards, I do welcome his budding independence, even if it's tinged sometimes with a little nostalgia.  Where'd my little baby go?

Saturdays are my sleeping-in days, and, consequently, Elias' watch-videos-all-morning days.  Last weekend I was trying to sleep when he announced, "Mommy, I made breakfast for YOU!  And, Mommy, I clean up the mess."  How sweet...but, uh-oh.  This deserved investigation.  I drug myself up and into the kitchen to discover he had indeed made some oatmeal (and despite the earlier offer, was now eating it himself).  This is pretty impressive, considering he had to get a chair, move it over to the first cabinet, climb on the counter (something not allowed, BTW) to get a bowl; then climb down and move the chair across the kitchen to Cabinet 2, again climb up on the counter to get the instant oatmeal and empty it into the bowl; climb down and move the chair to the oposite side again to add water to the oatmeal from the sink; then scoot the chair over yet again to the opposite side to put the oatmeal in the microwave and push the "30 sec" button.  Whew!  A lot of effort for a little guy.  And, yes, there was some spilled oatmeal on the counter and a wet puddle on the floor which he'd partly mopped up with a paper towel, but nothing too bad.  And apparently it turned out "ummm...deLIcious!"

I'm also pleased he's progressing so well with reading.  He surprised me, too, by spelling words to me for emphasis, like saying "yes, Mommy, I want some chocolate.  Y-E-S: yes!" or "S-T-O-P, stop, Mommy; that spells stop!"  He likes his dozens of old (memorized) books so much that it's hard to get him to consider new ones, but last night I got him to try one I just bought.  Never having seen it before, he read the title to me:  Go, Dog, Go!  He loved it, so of course wanted to read it again, and again, and again.  With difficulty I drew the line at 3x, despite him playing his cute card and saying "Just one more time.  Three plus one is FOUR, Mommy!  Read FOUR times!"  No; we're done reading it now.  "Five times, Mommy!  Forty times, Mommy--read it FORTY times!"  Forty times?  That's too many.  We already read it three times.   "ONE HUNDRED TIMES, Mommy!!"  I think I was lucky to get out of there at 3.