That’s be come a familiar phrase around our house, as William’s capabilities and desire for independence have both continued on their never ending forward march. The biggest thing is dressing himself lately — he really wants to put on his own pants and shirt by himself, which he’s fully capable of doing. The problem comes in that when he’s upset enough to be screaming about wanting to do it himself, he’s too angry at the world to do much of anything. Eventually he calms himself down enough to put on whatever item of clothing he was getting upset about, and the world returns to normal. Needless to say, this isn’t doing wonders for Erin’s mental health.

Last night we made pizza, and William helped every step of the way. He “helped” Erin roll out the dough, he helped me poke holes in it with a fork, then helped me spread the sauce on the crust. We hit a bit of a snag with the spices, because he just grabbed a handful and dropped them all in one spot, but that was easily remedied by spreading it around with a fork. He helped put the ham and pineapple on the pizza, finally topping it off with some cheese. He was busy sampling the ingredients the whole way too. Once I put the pizza in the oven, he parked his chair in front of the oven and watched it bake. It was a lot of fun to work with William, and he behaved really well during the whole procedure.

We also made a dessert(apple) pizza last night, which turned out really well, but the sauce leaked off the edges and burned onto my new pizza stone (Christmas gift from Erin) which kind of smoked up the place a little bit. After it was in the oven, we gave William the apple mixture bowl to taste the cinnamon and sugar, and at some point he decided it was a hat. I’ll just say that it wasn’t the first time I had to give him a prerinse before his bath, and it probably won’t be the last. Maybe if we’re lucky, Erin will post some pictures of him on his site at some point in the near future.

Simpson’s quote of the day: ???We must move forward??? not backwards, not to the side, not forwards, but always whirling, whirling, whirling towards freedom!??? - Kang