Independence

When you are old, you wished you were young. When you are little, you wished you were bigger. The latter is the stage that Elaina is in right now.

These days she will scream her head off if she is "deprived" of doing something that she wants to do. Like climbing into the car seat herself and buckling up, removing her own clothes, switching off the TV, making her own milk, choosing her own clothes and the list just goes on.

On one hand, we should be happy that she is gaining independence and wants to take on some responsibilities but on the other hand that learning process is slowing everyone down on a busy morning when we are dashing out of the house for school and work. Patience will wear really thin from time to time. Her consistent tantrums became a convenient excuse to justify that lack of patience. Honestly, I feel so bad towards her when that happens and wished that I can be more tolerant.

One thing I can never work out is why she can be so enthusiastic about doing all the "grown-up" tasks but somehow she just refused to be toilet trained. That's what I call a true liberation (suitable for her age)!