Who Tied Your Shoes For You?

I came out to the hallway the other day to see what Courtney was up to.  She said she wanted to play outside and she had her tennis shoes on (she hasn't worn them all summer because she's been wearing her sandals).  I was surprised because one of them was already  tied.

***History-Courtney has not been successful yet in having the dexterity, strength and coordination it takes to tie shoes.  I had always bought her velcro shoes until this last pair (they don't make a lot of velcro shoes in the bigger kid sizes). I had always tied these shoes for her.***

I asked her, "Who tied your shoe for you?"

She said, very casually, "Oh, I did."

I said, trying not to sound too shocked "Where did you learn to do that?"

She said, "On TV."

So there you have it.  She can tie her shoes all by herself.  I watched her tie the other one and...sure enough, she can!

I told her how excited and proud I was of her, how responsible she was, how smart she is.  We had a little celebration as she was very excited and proud of herself.

Alphabetter Soup

The other day I gave Courtney a kid's cookbook and told her that she could pick out a recipe to make.  She decided on Alphabetter Soup.  She made a list of the ingredients we would need and the first thing we did was shop for what we needed.  She was sad that we could not find ABC noodles, but was able to be talked into "O" soup (which became the joke she told for the next week, so it worked out fine!).  It was a good recipe because she had to count out a lot of things at the store and while we were preparing it.

 Washing 8 green beans

 Cutting 8 green beans into 1 inch pieces

Stirring all the ingredients together

 Alphabetter Soup

 Yum!

She did such a great job.  She counted items (green beans, onions, carrots, cups of water, bullion cubes, etc).  She followed the directions and added everything that was needed.  I was so proud of her for doing such a great job.  And the soup was delicious!

Service

Today, Courtney's job was to empty 2 of our 4 garbages around the house.  Megan, her sister, was to empty the other 2.  Courtney also had to dust their bedroom and Megan had to dust the family room.  When they were done, they were earning a 4th of July craft to do.  Megan was not happy about having to do jobs first.  Courtney got a head start on her jobs, quickly finished them and started on her craft.  Megan finished dusting and went to empty her garbages...only to find that her garbages were already empty and had new bags in them!  She was shocked and surpised!  I asked Courtney if she had emptied them all and she simply said, yes.
Without being asked to, Courtney had finished her sister's jobs for her.  I am proud of Courtney today.