Independent Streak

Linus wants to do nearly everything for himself. If I get out a spoon for his breakfast he complains and doesn't stop until I put the spoon back. Then he reaches into the drawer and takes out the very one I'd chosen for him. I'm getting much better about remembering that he wants to use his skills. Of course I still get the whiney, "Mama. Take my boots off for me. I'm too tired to do it."

Out of the blue I discovered that he could cut pictures out with scissors. Linus' teacher suggested in her weekly newsletter that we give our kids some strips of paper to cut into small pieces. That sounded like good practice in cutting, so I pulled out some scraps of printed scrapbook paper and gave it to him for cutting. He cut out a few jagged strips, glued them together, and told me it was a tree. The very next morning I found him cutting out the pieces to an activity we got from the library. I was shocked and said, "Since when do you know how to cut so well?! Did you learn that at school?" He said, "No. I cut the paper yesterday and now I know how to do it." Amazing! It is interesting how kids can go from not being able to do something, to doing it quite well over night. He was pretty proud of himself.

Doesn't he look cute in his sweater? I love guys in sweaters. Linus chose his outfit, including the boots, and I chuckled to myself that he was dressed like Matthew. We got the boots secondhand from neighbors. They are a bit beat up, but still have a lot of wear in them. Linus wears them everyday now. I took the outdoor pictures on our walk to preschool last week. I enjoy our time together on our walk. He holds my hand much of the time. We talk about things we see, like the leaves falling off of the trees or acorns we find. It provides us some focused togetherness before we part at school.