Some of it is impressive.
He has recently become very obsessed about brushing his teeth, washing his hands, and soaping up his body in the shower--"all by myself!!"
He demands to help around the house--dishes, setting the table, starting the laundry, and cooking are all fair game. If you try to blow him off, he will demand, "I need a real job!!"
He is still fighting full-blown potty training, but when he gets the inclination to pee in the potty, it is announced with great fanfare that he will, "do it all by myself!!"
Some of it is a bit sad. He has moments of being too much of Big Boy.
The other night, in a follow-up to a full blown tantrum, he got himself ready for bed--by himself. I walked into his room and he had turned on his bedtime CD, turned on his night light, turned off his room light, and crawled into bed with the covers up. I walked in to the extremely overtired cry of, "I don't need you, I can go to sleep by myself!!" I tried to appeal to his cuddly sense with no avail, so I kissed him and walked out, but not before telling him that I loved him.
I come back about fifteen minutes later to check on him and he is sniffling. I ask him if he is okay. He is. I then comment that it may be harder to put himself to sleep than he thought. His reply? "I made you leave and then you come back when I called you. You get into my bed and sleep with me, and that will make you feel good, right?" Yes, yes it will.
And some of his new found independence is just plain aggravating. I will assume that I am the smothering one since I'm the brunt of the following on a near hourly basis; Daddy gets some of it too:
"I don't need you".
"You don't belong in the house, you belong in the trash".
"I need a new Mommy and a new house. You can't come with me. Sorry".
He will throw all those at me, walk away for about twenty minutes, and then come back to me, sweet and needy again. Crazy. I'm proud that he is wanting to test the waters of independence, and I'm genuinely happy that he is full of so much spunk (read: hard-headed, strong-willed, ready to go head-to-head with us when he wants to), but wow.... Even Emma looks like she is just shaking her head during these episodes.
