I want to do it myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is probably the most common phrase out of Nini's mouth these days. Tonight she came out of her bedroom carrying some jammies (without being asked!). "This is the color I want" "Ok" I replied, "let's put those on" "NO! I want to do it myself!" she yelled. Then she began talking herself through the process as she laid the jammies on the floor and started putting her feet in. (I really wished I could record her self talk. It is adorable to hear someone so little being so VERBOSE. Since I couldn't, I thought I'd take some pics, she didn't like that.) She worked on the jammies for a few minutes and got stuck and when I told her she had her foot headed for an arm hole, she said "I want you to help me." Since she didn't manage to do it herself, her need for independence hadn't been met.



After we were successfully jammied, she wanted a drink of water. I told her she had to drink in the kitchen (we had a lot of water reach the bathroom floor today with W and Nini getting their own drinks- not such a good thing when the bathroom is carpeted), but when I offered to fill her cup she yelled "NO!! I want to do it myself!" It took her a second to realize she couldn't reach the sink. Then it was, "I want you to lift me up there!!" While I held her, she turned on the water, filled her cup and turned the water off. It was tricky, since the kitchen sink works the opposite of the bathroom - lift up to turn it off...



But even that wasn't enough independence. After I set her down she wanted another drink and said, as she grabbed a chair, "I want you to let me take this over there!"



I think she was finally happy when she did the whole process by herself...



P.S. The other important thing to note about the documentation of tonight's events is, that as soon as I broke out the camera, she screamed "NO PICTURES!" and ducked her head. I think she has realized that many of the pictures I take end up on Facebook or on my blog and she doesn't like that. All I can figure is that she is embarrassed. That's pretty self-aware for a barely two-year-old. These days I have to be quite quick with the camera to catch her in action. Here she is, the other day, throwing blows at her paparazzi mother who was trying to document her use of marker:



"NO PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"