I Do It Myself

I can recall saying to mothers of other toddlers, "I thought age 3 was WAY worse than age 2 for my kids." But I couldn't remember exactly why.

My babies will be three in January. And now I remember.

"I do it myself."

All day. Every day. Times two.

Slowly leading me to to insanity.

Picking out clothes? I do it myself.
Taking off and putting on clothes? I do it myself.
Taking off and putting on socks and shoes? Yep. I do it myself.
Opening the door to the garage.
Hitting the garage door opener button.
Opening the car door.
Putting on car seat straps.
Buckling car seat straps.
Getting out of the car.
Closing the car door.
Opening doors at stores and restaurants.
Wiping nose.
Packing backpack.

I do it myself. (Note: Often, there is only one thing to do - like close the car door. So, then we have to open and close the car door twice - because, well, there's two of them and they both want to do it themselves.)

I am now late to everything. Every time.

I know that this is a phase. And I know that allowing them to do these things encourages them to be independent people. And that is good. But it is also extremely frustrating. Infuriating even, at times.

If only they would decide that the bathroom was the place to "do it myself". The last frontier, I guess...