Independence (Anna)

Emma is an independent little creature, who likes to do things by herself, her way. I believe it's a criterion for the diagnosis of "toddler".

We've spent the weekend away in the hot springs, swimming several times a day. Emma loves it. But she wants more independence than we are willing to give her. She says "Go away, Mumma/Mummy. I do it myself" every few minutes. At one point, she told me to go back to our room and go to bed because she wanted to swim by herself. She doesn't mean it in a mean way, but just in a "I don't need your help because I'm perfectly old enough to go swimming by myself" kind of way. It must be very frustrating for her to find that not only do we not go away, but we hover less than a metre from her whenever we're in the water.

But sometimes, independence is a bit much for her. She was on the potty the other day and, after a day of successful potty-ing, there was no more poo forthcoming. She looked at me forlornly and said, "Mumma do it? Mumma push the poo out?" I had to tell her that there are some things we just have to do for ourselves. It's a hard lesson at any age, and I guess it starts early.

Other phenomenom that are hard to explain to toddlers...distance and time. For example, why are Granny Heath and Grandad available for cuddles one week, and then only visible on Skype the next? Another example came up just the othr week. We were hiking in a forest near Vancouver. As soon as we saw the trees Emma said, "Trees! We see koalas climbing gum trees?" How to explain to a toddler that, no, we are very unlikely to see koalas in a park in Vancouver because they live in an entirely different habitat on the other side of the world? And to explain that just because she could get in the car in Brisbane and get out and see koalas just a few weeks ago doesn't mean she can do that here and now. I mean, even we have difficulty understanding that concept sometimes.