Small Milestones

My normally sweet little Ethan always wakes up grumpy. Always. Getting him out of bed is a chore. He will curl up in a little ball on the couch and whine about the tiniest hint of light reaching his eyes. He demands his "balilla" milk and breakfast bar and then grudgingly sits and eats them while he watches Handy "Mandy" on tv. (if you don't speak 4-year-old, that would be Vanilla Milk and Handy Manny.)

So imagine my surprise yesterday as I was putting my make-up on and I heard the bathroom doors open way to early for him to be awake. Instead of the whiny, grumpy little boy I was expecting, in burst a fully dressed child with a huge grin on his face. He was beaming with pride and burst forth with his hands on his hips and his chest puffed out super-hero style.

Oh my gosh, Ethan! Did Daddy already
get you dressed?

Nope. I did it ALL BY
MYSELF!

I praised him and told him I was so proud. I think this is a milestone of some sort. He can dress himself and even pick out his own clothes. But only if I tell him to go do it. He actually woke up on his own. Picked his own clothes. And dressed himself. Happily and without prompting, nagging, yelling, or any form of a threat. I really was proud of him!

At this point, some of you are probably thinking something that never occurred to me at the time. I was proud and happy and never thought to wonder at his motives. Silly me.

Fast forward until this morning. Grumpy Ethan was back in full force. He comes bursting into the bathroom actually needing to use the bathroom. When he was done, I called him over to me and asked him if he had thought about getting dressed on his own again. He looked puzzled and said that Daddy would get him dressed in a little while. So I reminded him that he had done it all on his own yesterday. With a roll of his eyes and his bust 'duh' look.

Mom, I only did that yesterday because my
underwear and pajamas were wet.