Viva: The Doer

Viva is Ms Independence. Her independent nature has lead her to be more capable than her brothers in a number of areas. She could put her socks all by herself long before the boys--even though she seldom wears socks so she had a lot less need to learn that skill. She could zip her coat before her brothers could zip theirs. She was much easier to potty train. Whereas we often have to coax the boys into trying new things or doing the basics for themselves, with Viva we are usually trying to hold her back. "No, Viva! Stop!"

Here are a few examples from last Wednesday of Viva's independent ways. In the morning Viva was changing out of her fancy dress to put on jeans and a shirt to go biking and rather than ask someone to unbutton the back of the dress, she shimmied out of it. I don't know how. The neckline wasn't very wide. I heard her upstairs screaming, but by the time I arrived she had quit screaming because she'd finished the job herself. I had to interrogate her to find out what the screaming was about. She had panicked when she got stuck half in and half out of the dress.

When we went outside to play the boys begged me to get the basket ball hoop out of the shed. The base needed to be filled with water because we drain it during the winter. We don't yet have a hose hooked up so I didn't fill the base. The wind blew the hoop over. Jake and Bentley immediately started hollering for me to come and fix the problem. Viva? She went over and pushed it upright herself.

A little later Bentley hit the badminton bird onto the roof. Solution? Yell for grandma. Viva climbed on the porch rail to see how close she could get to the roof. I had to tell her to get down.

Viva is a doer, not an asker. This is a good thing sometimes and other times not so good.