All By Myself

"NO!" Jaden yells. This is the next word which Jaden, aged 1 year old and 8 months old, says very fluently aside from mama and papa. After she blurts it out, we jokingly tell her, yes yes yes Jaden, in our effort to teach her how to say yes.

This is an all too familiar phase, just like what we experienced with Maisie ( now 4 years old and 3 months). Jadens want to do everything all by herself. She wants to eat, dress, brush her teeth and take a bath all by herself. She even wants to ride the bike of her ate even though her feet do not reach the pedal yet! And Patience and many more patience is the key. We let her whatever she wants to do but we make sure we are on the look out for possible disaster. If she wants to climb the sofa we let her but we are at her back in case she falls. In the Zoofari, their favorite hangout, we let her climb the stairs, and other areas that require climbing, or let her do the seesaw. It is tasking on the part of the nanny or myself because we crawl if she crawls or we wait while she struggles with the stairs, but it is all worth it.

Not surprisingly, Jaden can now follow simple instruction also. We tell her its pack away time, then she picks up her toys and put it in the toy tray. Or when its bedtime, and we tell her to get her pillow and her comfort pillow cat, she carries them with her and arrange it in her bed. I think this is the reward for giving her the independence of doing what she thinks she's capable of doing.

As stated in one of the articles of what to expect, supporting your tot in this "All by Myself" milestone will be helping her succeed in life and will boost her self-esteem. I also notice that it will teach her to be more responsible in her own little way.