1 Mother 2 Another

It seems both my girls are hitting
milestones these days: Cora with the potty training, and Maddie
– Maddie’s finally tying her own shoes. She’s
been working on it for a while, with increased success, but we can
finally call it. Maddie can do the whole thing – start to
finish – on her own on a regular basis.

I have to admit that I haven’t been
much help on this one. Being left-handed has left (ha ha) me
without a lot of helpful tips when teaching her to tie her shoes.
Brian and my mom did the bulk of the work, and whenever she would
practice and ask me for help I’d have to reverse the whole
thing in my head, which greatly confused both of us. But thanks to
lots of patience from my mom, she’s finally gotten it down.


And to say Maddie’s proud of her achievement would be quite
an understatement. In fact, she loves showing it off so much that
she will choose her footwear for school solely for its shoe-tying
potential. She wears sneakers with nice long laces, and yesterday
didn’t double-knot them as usual – on purpose. After
school, she admitted with a shy grin that she’d try to untie
them by stepping on the lace, and then nonchalantly bend down to
tie them back up, hoping for an admiring audience.


To say that this is cute to me is quite an understatement.


Honestly, that kid’s pride in her achievement – and
it’s hard-won, believe me – makes me all melted and
gooey inside. It makes me want to accidentally-on-purpose step on
her shoelaces for her, just so she can tie them again.


I love seeing my kids master a new skill.