I'm an Excellent Climber

 “People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.”
― Emma Goldman

Maeve informed me at the playground yesterday that she's an excellent climber.  Right before she asked for my help getting across the rope web. 

We seem to be putting a toe into the waters of I-do-it-myself.  She likes to pick out her own clothes, for the first time in her life, and prefers to put them on all by herself, even though that often results in pants on backwards and an inside-out t-shirt.  It's a statement, I guess, a statement of independence if nothing else. 

And she can mostly use the bathroom by herself, except when she can't.  She also loves getting food out of the fridge for herself, so I feel a fridge rearrange coming on.  I want to make sure she can reach foods that are not easily spilled, facilitate her independence a little.

It's quite the tension inside her, she still really wants me there, to do things she cannot and to help her with what she can.  Maeve isn't super strident about doing everything herself, and I'm grateful for that, as I'm sure if she was, I'd have more gray hairs and less free time.  But she does need to get the hang of doing things on her own, and it's my job to make sure she can.  Which when I think about it is kind of daunting. 

Because basically the whole job of parenthood is raising a kid that will become a fully independent adult, so if she ends up being one of those adults that can't read a nondigital clock or can't tie shoelaces, that's going to be on me.  Boy.  We have a long way to go.

She did scale the frog all by herself...