Independent

Don't you love 2 year olds and how independent they want to be. Collin is now wanting to do everything by himself. And he always wants to be a helper. Today he insisted on helping carry in the grocery's and happily chanted "helper" the whole time. It's cute but frustrating at the same time. He's big enough to ask for help but then refuses the help when you offer it. Here was a typical conversation we had today.

I opened up the fridge and he saw the cheese sticks and asked for one. "Do you want a cheese stick?" I asked. And went to reach for one. "No" he responded, furiously shaking his head. So I shut the fridge. "Cheese stick" he asked again and we repeated the above conversation. We did this about 4 times. Finally I lifted him up so he could get the cheese stick out himself. He seemed satisfied with that and proceeded to try and open the cheese stick. Obviously he couldn't do it so he said "help you". So I went to try and take it from him to open it and he held it behind his back and screamed no. We repeated this scenario about 4 times as well. So I stop trying to help. By this point he's on the floor crying "open it" over and over again but won't let me help him. I finally just loaded him into the car to go to the store and while I was buckling him in I sneakily opened the cheese stick just enough to start it so he could finish it off and feel like he had done it himself. Well, that didn't fly. He screamed the whole way to Walmart. How dare I even attempt to open the cheese stick. Finally I just finished peeling the cheese stick open, which prompted more screams. I set it on the seat next to him in the cart and told him he could eat it when he wanted. He's still crying "no, open it" over and over again. I do my best to ignore the crying and start my shopping. At some point I guess he decided he was hungry enough because he eventually calmed down and ate it and returned to his normal happy self. Why the drama? I don't remember Clara being this obnoxious about doing things herself. Maybe she was and I've just blocked it.