Anneke Jones

This is my new mantra. And beware to those who attempt to interfere when I am doing things all by myself!

Here are the things I can do:

- Take socks on and off – although sometimes they get stuck when I have them a bit twisted and this is SUPER frustrating

- Take slippers on and off – even the kind with the velcro – also mittens and of course hats

- Take running shoes on and off. I undo both velcro straps and push push push my foot in. When I take them off I put them in my shoe bin on the shelf

- Take clothes on and off – this includes shirts that go over your head, both long and short sleeved, pajamas, sweatshirts with zippers (though I can’t get the zipper started), pants, leg warmers, and underwear. I still can’t do buttons or snaps and the pjs that zip from the leg to the neck are hard around the crotch part. When I am putting on my shirt I give myself a pep talk as I reach my arms up and into the sleeves. “Keep going” I say, “Pull, pull, pull” and “You’re almost there” When I pull the shirt over my head I say “There I am!” when my head pops through. As you can imagine these are all things that Mommy and Daddy would say to encourage me and now I use them myself.

- I can do the ‘up and over’ trick to get my own coat on – getting it off is a little trickier

I can also step down steps one at a time (with separate feet that is) – my max is 4 steps before I start getting a little out of control. At home I can very safely climb the stairs on my own – down is also fine, but Mom and Dad are still worried. We have very steep stairs.

My climbing is also getting much better. I regularly push my little stool over to the large kitchen chairs/stools and climb up on my stool, then climb up on the high kitchen stool, crawl across that to the second kitchen stool where my booster seat is and get myself in my seat ready to eat. This makes more sense if you have seen our kitchen eating area I guess, but in essence my seat is the one tucked in the nook so I need to bypass the first chair to get to mine.

I also regularly climb up on the kitty house to say hi to Sparta. I still get stranded up there though and need help getting down

Well, I am sure that there are oodles of other things I can do – but that is good for now.