Bug and Monkey Mama: Displaying Independence

I've been trying to keep up with reading all of the blogs I have bookmarked and follow but there are just so many that it gets really hard! (Along with trying to do housework, cook dinners, care for my kiddos, etc) I can't seem to find enough time to do it all. Too bad we need sleep because I could surely use those 6....7....or 8 hours I get, depending on the night, to accomplish all I need to do!

So while browsing around I found a link up to demonstrate how our children are displaying their independence on JDaniel4's Mom site. Let me tell you - Little Bug's repeated catch phrase these days is "I can do it by myself!!!!"She is turning 3 next week after all so I guess that is to be expected! I have plenty of accomplishments I could post about but one that she is really proud of most recently is being able to sit on the "big potty seat" all by herself.

She's been potty trained since she was 27 months but she has always sat on a smaller Dora seat at our house (that I would lift her onto) or if we went out she wanted me to hold her over the potty.

Well finally when we were at playgroup there was a small potty/stool combo in the bathroom and she was going for that and I said "You're a big girl - try sitting on the big potty seat". I showed her how to hold on so she doesn't fall in and she did great. So now not only does she sit on it she pulls herself up on it. I even found one morning that she came down at 7 am, went to the potty ALL BY HERSELF, and then went back up to bed. Ahhh she is growing up too fast. Now if only she could pull up her pants without giving herself a wedgie we will be good to go! Ha! That will be the next lesson I guess!!!

But anyways, I'm not going to post a picture of Little Bug on the potty but I'll post a picture of another accomplishment: Little Bug riding rides by herself at Knoebel's Grove (a local amusement park). Last year she wouldn't even ride the kiddie rides (even with me offering to ride with her) and this year.....she was riding them on her own AND with her hands up in the air as she was "whipped" around the turns on the kiddie whip.

The Kiddie Whip ride - the first ride she went on. I actually was not allowed to ride it due to height restrictions but Little Bug said she was ok to ride on her own. She held on tight at first with an unsure look on her face and then............