My Do It!

Lola officially has arrived at the independence stage of two-year-old development.  I have not-so-fond memories of Raina at this age:  meltdowns and screaming "MYSELF!" until we left her alone to figure it out solo.  Lola's phrase is "My do it!" and she shouts it with more forceful insistence the more we try to help her.  She has plenty of gumption -- who else would grab the step stool from the kitchen and carry it to the opposite end of the house just so she could turn on a lightswitch? -- but it is incredibly time-consuming and it wears me out.  I just have to remind myself to ask her before I do anything and to budget in an extra 5 minutes for every event. 

The flip-side is that Lola is determined to do everything that everyone else can do and she perserveres. Today the family did a 2+ mile hike with plenty of steep hills and Lola took it like the champ she is.  She only needed real help for about 15 seconds of effort.  Fantastic!