Independent, Woman! Part 1

The boys have really been asserting their independence lately. I think it's more evident in Abang than Adik, primarily because Adik has always asserted his independence anyway. He's much more willful, for sure. But that doesn't mean he will be excluded in this race for independence.

Abang wants to bathe himself. His definition of "mandi by my own self" is to do the fun part of splashing about without Mummy around to tell him not to but keep Mummy nearby in case he needs something that is out of reach. A shower head, for example. Bath toys, perhaps. On a good day he might even offer to bathe Adik which I view with much trepidation.

Adik ups the ante. He refuses now to let me help him up the loo when he needs to, um, read and even reaches behind for the first available magazine after settling himself down. (Seriously, I did not put that magazine in his hands!) No captions needed for this photo.

Abang insists on dressing himself. When he's not fussing and whining that is. He's been a bit unwell of late, so fussing and whining seems to be a side effect of that. But otherwise, dressing and undressing is something he seems quite proud to do by himself. The undressing part also comes with what he calls "a show". I really do not know where he got that from but when he takes his clothes off to go to the loo he does what is disturbingly like a strip tease. And the worst part is, he told Daddy, "Today I did a show for Mummy and Mummy was the instructor." I'm like, WHAT?!?! Daddy raised an eyebrow at me. I repeat, again, one more time, WHAT?!?!

Adik's latest motto is "Adik Do It" and "No, Mummy, no!" when I go against that motto. He'll climb up his highchair by himself (or "by his own self" as Abang would say), slide in the tray table and proceed to feed himself his breakfast. On a not-so-good day he'll ditch the highchair idea and sit at his little table and chair.

But I guess the ultimate sign is this: Abang has asked for a handphone when he is bigger so that he can call me when he's done at e.nopi class. I assume the bigger kids do that there.