"Baby do it!"

What happened to my little baby girl who still needed her mom for stuff?!

(First, I still call Elizabeth my baby and so she still calls herself Baby. She doesn't know yet that she is a big girl, and not a baby anymore in the literal sense of the word. However, she will be my baby forever and I will not start calling her my big girl for as long as I can get away with it!)


Elizabeth has turned into Little Miss Independent lately. She thinks she doesn't need her mom for anything anymore! If I turn a light on, I hear, "Baby do it!" and she will go turn the light off and turn it back on. If I shut a door, I hear, "Baby do it!" and she will go open the door and shut it again. If I turn her sound machine on, open her monkey tent, stack her books, get a blanket or Henry the Monkey out of her crib, (etc, etc, etc) I hear, "Baby do it!" and she will undo and redo whatever it was that Mommy had actually managed to do quite well the first time, thankyouverymuch. You get the idea.


I can't even feed her anymore. She eats all by herself. (She does really awesome feeding herself with her forks and spoons, by the way.) At least she still needs me to actually prepare her food!

However, my super independent, wonderful, amazing daughter is still my baby at bedtime. After we read a few books, she turns around and lays her head on my shoulder and I hold her just like I did when she was a tiny newborn (only now her feet go to my knees instead of the bottom of my ribcage) and we sing a song about cuddle time and say our prayers and I wish that she would stay my baby forever. In those few minutes, she isn't fighting with me over who puts her socks on or who pushes the chair in. She is just my sweet little precious baby who still wants to cuddle with her mommy.