You Know It's Time for Preschool When...

...your three year old suddenly decides she's Miss Independent. 

When we got home from our trip to Texas, it's as though Evie threw a switch to turn her independence on.  She's always loved doing things on her own, but she's never been above asking for my help either.  I can usually trust her to play quietly while I take a shower or leave her inside watching a movie while I mow the lawn.  She's never gotten into mischief that would make me feel like I have to keep her chained to my side.

Until this week.

It started off with her getting her own juice boxes from the fridge.  She's usually allowed to get her own snacks from the fridge (i.e; yogurt, string cheese), but she always has to ask for a drink.  Juice boxes are usually saved for when we are in the car so she knows they are off limits most of the time.  Apparently she wasn't happy with that rule anymore.  She now sneaks them out, and has figured out how to assemble everything correctly.

The next act of independence happened when Evie decided she wanted to play with the glow stick bracelets her Grandma had sent her.  I hadn't had time to put everything away from our visitors and our vacation so she found them.  Instead of asking me to open the package, she decided to embark on that one alone as well.

She used her step stool to climb onto the kitchen counters, where she then proceeded to shimmy in front of the microwave to reach her safety scissors that are stored on top of the refrigerator.  She got down safely, and was able to cut open the package by herself.  Imagine my surprise when I opened her door and saw the scissors and discarded wrappings on the floor.

The grand finale happened yesterday while I took a quick shower.  When I came out of the bathroom, Evie proudly proclaimed that she had painted me a picture of a fairy, and that it was now hanging on the refrigerator.  After the other acts of independence this week, I very warily walked into the kitchen. 

There was a wet green-painted fairy hanging on my refrigerator. 

I give Evie some credit on this one.  Not only did she squirt only a small amount of finger paint on the ice cream lid that is used for that purpose, but she also used the correct paint brushes. And remembered to strip down to her panties so as not to get her clothes full of paint.  I did have to wash the magnets holding the painting up because the paint hadn't dried yet, but that's a minor detail.

If she had only remembered to ask to paint, it would have been a moment of Mommy pride. 

As it stands, I still had to control my laughter.  I don't know where all this independence suddenly came from.  Granted, she's three and a half, so I knew it was going to pop up sooner or later.  And she does know her Daddy is coming home in a few days so maybe she's getting all her mischievousness out before his arrival.

All I know is, I can't wait for preschool to start in a few weeks!  Those couple hours a week are going to seem like Heaven.