Undressed

My sister had a beautiful baby boy about 10 weeks before my boys were born.  I often times look to my sister and her son for guidance on the "next steps" for the boys. 

This past weekend, my sister and I were sharing stories about how they are at a pretty good age right now.  They feed themselves, they walk to the car, crawl in their car seats - lots of things we used to have to do for them.  I told her I was floored last week when I asked the boys to take their coats and shoes off, and both boys did it all by themselves.  Her comment was "just wait until they can dress themselves".  She also has a 4 1/2 year old...so she's definitely speaking from experience.

What I leaned from the shoe incident and from talking to my sister is that I need to let the boys to try more things on their own.  Most of the time we are in a hurry, don't want to make a mess, or its just habit to do things for the boys.  But, they are almost three, and we need to start teaching them to be independent, to let them do things on their own, and accept that it's not always going to be perfect.

Knowing this and putting it into practice are two very different things.  It's a work in progress.

One night earlier this week I was cleaning up from dinner.  I asked the boys to sit down and take their socks off, and their pants too so we could get ready for bathtime.  Figured this would keep them out of trouble while I cleaned up. 

Jackson went right to it.  He pulled his socks off (using the "trick" that I taught him a few weeks ago), then stood up, unsnapped his pants, and pulled them down.  I laughed a bit as he struggled with getting his legs out of them, but he did it!  He was so proud of himself!  I praised him for doing such a good job, and reached to help take his shirt off and I got a resounding "No, Mommy.  I do it."

He struggled a bit at first with his shirt, and asked for help.  I gently encouraged him...."hey buddy, pull your arm out first.  you can do it!"  Sure enough, he got his one arm out of the shirt, and a smile spread across his face.  He ran around the kitchen for about 3 minutes doing a "happy dance", then got back to business.  He next pulled the shirt over his head, and then pulled it down off his arm.  It was off!  We made a very big deal about how he's such a big boy!

Of course then, Lincoln wanted to join in the fun.  He was still sitting on his chair at the table, but got his socks off.  He struggled quite a bit with his pants, mostly because he insisted on being on the chair (vs. getting down on the floor).  Jackson finally helped by pulling on the ends of his pant legs while Lincoln sat on the chair.  The shirt was more challenging for Lincoln, and time was running out on us, so I helped him with his shirt. 

Now Mommy and Daddy just need to have the patience to allow them to try more things.  Wish us luck!