Moving out...

As you know, I have been trying to slowly give Mary some independence. While she is perfectly capable of caring for her body on her own, I have a hard time accepting that she is doing it properly. Mary has always showered, washed, and brushed up in our bathroom. There is a bathroom close to her room, but when she showers there, she tends to play, rather than clean. Not only that, but it's smaller and I can't get to her as easily, so she doesn't use it. I have just recently let her shower without any assistance, although, every once in a while I will wash her hair to make sure she is thorough. Even teeth brushing, I will go in and re-brush.

These last 2 weeks, I have been recuperating from gallbladder surgery. Piece of cake for me, but the first week I was unable to move as quickly as I usually do. With Mary being as developed as she is, my husband no longer has any roll in assisting her, so I just let go, and let her do it all.

At some point in the week, it hit me, this is not so bad. I realized how nice it was to not have to get up and get her moving. As a result of me not leading her, she made less of a fuss. Obviously, like all kids, she relished in the independence. So, I decided to move her officially and completely out of our bathroom. No more spit streaks in my sink! I went to the store and bought her some special little toiletries, and additional accessories for her bathroom. When Mary got home from school, I explained this all to her, I let her know how proud of her I was, and how much she is growing up. You should have seen her face light up.

Now, my evenings are a little less hectic, and Mary is a lot more cooperative about getting in the shower. I suppose these milestones happened with all of my children, but with Mary, it always feels like a physical force. I try to look at it as God's way of letting me see the importance in all of life's little things.

Girls just wanna have fun!

This week is "Spirit Week" at Mary's school. From crazy hat day, to pajama day, it's been a fun week. Today is by far, as Mary would say, the best day ever! It's Blast from the Past day, and Mary has extensive knowledge of all things 80's. We kept going back and forth between who she wanted to look like. While I explained to her that she could just be Mary from the 80's, she wasn't going to have that. So, we are Cyndi Lauper today. Blondie and Pat Benetar came in close behind. Cyndi Lauper of course had the most make-up and crazy look out of the three. Mary was excited because she got to wear lots of make-up and big earrings. We had a lot of fun getting ready this morning.

I would love to be more like Mary. It's kind of funny, because Mary is very much like me in the self-esteem, confidence areas. However, I try to keep my insecurities to myself, avoiding certain situations at all costs, where as Mary is right out there with it all. Going to school this morning dressed the way she was, had her reeling. I could tell she was extremely nervous. I walked into school with her and she was obviously uncomfortable. All of her hand gestures and mannerisms scream "please don't look at me and laugh!". Only the wonderful, amazing thing about Mary, is that she wants to do it so badly, that she pushes through it all with a determination I can't quite explain. I actually read a book called "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway", you know what? Didn't help a bit! I may be able to push myself through some situations, but not to the degree that Mary does. As I've said before, we could all use a little Mary in us!