Miss Independent

Today I witnessed the height of Emma's insane independence:

She is potty training herself.

Today she was in the mudroom/bathroom playing with shoes, when I heard the tell-tale rip of velcro. I peek through the doorway to see a naked little bum bending over as she climbs onto the toilet. "Oh yay, this again", I think to myself (it's her latest favorite game, undressing & playing on the potty).

Well, I have about 3 seconds to roll my eyes before I suddenly hear: Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle. :O !!!!!! I run in & she is going pee-pee all by herself - and a pretty hefty one at that, it was no light sprinkling! I was, in a word, FLOORED. Despite her love of playing on the potty, I have not AT ALL been actively training her - I just figure, I'll let her play if she wants & it'll help her get familiar with the whole concept.

But apparently, she's just gonna go ahead & grow-up without any help from Mommy. Sad in most contexts, but in this one? You go right ahead & do that Emma! haha Okay, so she didn't repeat her little stunt the rest of the day (the tinkling, not the potty-playing - she did that 2 more times), so I know it's probably just a fluke thing.

But for today, I'm just gonna let myself swim in the amazement of that moment. We really do have one incredibly unique & special little girl!

Sidenote: just to jot down a few of her other recent developments -

• She can say & read (& recognize the signs for) all the ABC's - she's honestly OB-sessed with the alphabet
• She can count to 12 perfectly (and then gets stuck in a cycle of "14, 16, 18, 14, 16, 18, 14..." and so on)
  
• She is starting to memorize a few of her favorite bedtime books & likes to read them "by self" after Mommy reads them.
• She's also learning a bunch of songs & will begin reciting them at random; most recently the Winnie the Pooh theme, Child of God, and Wheels on the Bus.
  
• She has started talking in a few full sentences, "Yes, I do." being the most common one. (i.e., "Emma, do you want a banana?" "Yes, I do.") My favorite today was when she climbed onto the kitchen chair, sat herself on top of a Care Bear & declared, "I'm sitting on a Care Bear!" LOL That you are, Emma, that you are...