Independent Girl

My sweet, compliant little Evie has started to develop a will of her own and she can be very particular about what she wants. She wants to do as much as she can by herself. I can no longer put her in her car seat (well, actually, she's small enough that I can, but if I don't want to physically restrain her while I buckle her in, it's easier if I just let her climb in on her own). Today we went to the zoo and she wanted to push the umbrella stroller on her own. She kept telling me, "You can't help, Mom."

When it comes to her clothing, she has decided that there are certain outfits she won't wear and the same goes for her pjs. I can't talk her into anything. If she doesn't want to wear it then she won't and if I try to put it on her anyway, she has figured out how to get it off all by herself. The other day I changed her diaper and planned to dress her in a bit, so I left her pajama pants off. That was not ok with her. I heard lots of screams in frustration but eventually she got her pj pants back on. She also hates it when her shirt gets pulled up and her tummy is bare. Every time I pick her up, she starts whining and pulling on her shirt. In the winter, when we were all wearing long sleeves, she would get extremely upset if her sleeves were pushed up. Often after washing hands she would start screaming, "I want my sleeves up" (she meant down). The first time I put her in short sleeve pjs, it threw her for a loop. She kept tugging on her sleeves and crying that she wanted them up. And when her shoes come off, so must her socks. Back in January when it was chilly in our house, my mom put socks on Evie and she kept them on for about twenty minutes and then she wanted them off.

She also has strong feelings about the dishes she eats off of. When it comes to plates, she will now only eat off the blue plastic plate or she insists on the blue plates that Dan and I use. With the little plastic bowls, it has to be the light purple one or a regular-sized bowl. I'm not sure she cares as much about cups, but she often insists on using our Snoopy cutlery. I have two sets of a Snoopy spoon and a fork and those are the ones she wants almost every time.

Whenever it's her turn to pray, she almost always insists on thanking Heavenly Father for "Halloween, candy, pumpkins, candy." I am so sorry I mentioned that way back in October because she has totally latched on. Her other favorite phrase these days is "we come back." When Dan heads to work she often says, "You coming back, Daddy?" And if we are leaving some place fun and going home, she'll say, "We come back." Sometimes it comes out as more of a question that she asks as we head to our car.

As much as I wish she'd just wear the clothes I pick out or eat of the plate that's actually clean, I know that as she gets older, her independence will serve her well. So I'm trying to be more tolerant and cooperative, but I admit that there are some days when I did force her in to her car seat.

Four Years Old

Anna turned four at the beginning of this month. She is still my independent kid who wants to do everything her way. For example, yesterday she pulled out my quilt that I've been working on for five or ten years. I told her I wanted her to put it away because I didn't want it to get dirty. When she dilly-dallied, I went to pick it up and that brought on a scream of outrage and the declaration that she would give it to me if I would let go first. Then she added that she wanted to hop around it first. Whenever I tell her to give me something that she shouldn't have, she always responds that I have to let go first and then she'll give it to me. We have very similar personalities--we both want to be in control--so we butt heads often, but it is getting better as I'm figuring out how to talk to her so that she'll listen to me.

Her streak of independence and her natural curiosity probably are part of the reason why she loves to play with worms. In fact she loves playing in the dirt in our backyard and just being outside in general. With all this warm weather we've had this spring, she's been playing in my raised garden beds. She loves pulling out worms and the other day while I was digging out weeds, I pointed one out to her. She picked it up and started talking to it like it was a little baby, in a high pitched voice: "Hey there. Do you want to go back into your home?"

Last Thursday we went to PetSmart for a preschool field trip. I was impressed at Anna's willingness to touch the lizards and she even let them put a rat on her shoulder. He liked to nestle back behind her neck under her ponytail.

She has started to ask to say prayers on her own. Often they are full of lots of "thank thee"s. Tonight she said, "Thank thee that daddy can go visit people and serve. Thank thee that I can clean my room. Thank thee for Heather and Maren. Please help them. Please help Ryan on his mission." There was much more to her prayer, and I wish I could have turned on a tape recorder and caught it all because it's only an hour later and I can't remember most of it.

Recently she figured out how to pump on the swings, which is awesome for me because now I only have one child begging me to push her on the swings. Anna still likes a good push, but she can get herself going if I can't get outside at that moment. She's been taking gymnastics all year and she's finally starting to get the idea behind a cartwheel. Now she wants to do them all over the place. She really likes gymnastics, but since she was still talking about her dance class from last year, I decided to sign her up for dance again.

Anna is a great kid who wants to do what's right. Recently, I started planting in my garden and adding fertilizer. I told her I didn't want her playing in there anymore and she's been great about it. Her favorite primary song is still Follow the Prophet and her favorite food is probably cinnamon toast. She also loves to say, "You're really freaking me out, Mom." She's a great kid and we love her.