I'll do it myself!!! or Growing up with Carrello

“I'll do it myself!!!” Little Masha gets angry when grandma tries to stuff a spoonful of porridge into her mouth. “I'll do it myself!!! Yegorka busily waves away his mother, who is trying to fasten the buttons on his jacket... And even 14-year-old Ilya, stepping onto a donated skateboard for the first time, asks: ”Dad, I'll try it myself, don't help me“...

Yes, no one can do without this phrase.. It is a part of personality formation. Part of our children's inevitable growing up. Do you think that the desire to get rid of excessive adult care appears only when the child begins to speak? We will surprise you: it starts much earlier! 

Don't you believe it? But let's “listen"...

“I want to eat by myself!” Maxim, 9 months old

Fucked up with your porridge… So what if there are no teeth?! So what if my stomach hasn't grown enough for your sausage or sweets yet???  They gave it at least a try: I wonder what you're eating there...

I tried to yell here, and I reached for a bowl of cutlets with my hands, and I made begging and hinting faces.… And mom and dad, you know, they're babbling and making fun of me again... Oh, I wish I could learn to speak!

Thank God, at least they stopped feeding! That's their “For Grandma!” or “For the Badger" (as if they're going to attack, God forgive me) - I'm terribly tired. For two weeks now, all my relatives have been looking at me with affection while I'm using a spoon myself. 

(Well, yes, I often get dirty, I scatter purees - but what do you want, fine motor skills of the hands are just being formed!)

And why is that? Yes, because the conditions were created suitable for me! They used to feed me, either sitting on the sofa and propping me up with pillows, or on my mother's lap. 

But somehow Dad brought a big bright box. He fiddled with its contents for about five minutes, and solemnly says: that's it, sonny, now you have your own high chair!

How beautiful! A stylish combination of black and white plus a soft pastel shade-that's what Mom used to say when she signed up. The main thing for me was that it was soft and comfortable, no worse than for adults. And the name is cool: Stella

The high chair has a large table top - my mother would first put a bowl of food on it, strap me in so I wouldn't slip off, and feed me.

And somehow I got distracted by watching TV. I'm grabbing a spoon! By the time Mom noticed, half of the food was on me and on the high chair... (I'm telling you, motor skills aren't perfect!) But I still ate a solid third.

Mom, let's fight: that's it, we'll eat like before! What a filthy guy! And Dad: “Look, he's learning to eat on his own! So what if it gets dirty? The high chair can be easily wiped - the material does not absorb dirt, the table top is removable, and it takes two seconds to wash it under the faucet. And check out what a stable structure it is - it won't turn over in life, no matter how small it turns!”

And now we all eat together: mom and dad at the table, and next to me on a stool at the table. As an adult family member. Beauty!

They entrusted me with a little brother!!! - Alina, 7 years old

Oh, girls, you have no idea how much I want to be a mom! To lull children to sleep, to feed them with milk, to walk with a stroller on the street! My toys are all dolls and “sets for moms.”..

Mom understands me: she says she was like that when she was a kid. But when Vanya was born to her, she wouldn't let me near him at all. Like, you're too young to take care of the kids.

How offended I was then! I decided never to talk to my mom at all. And when I grow up and give birth to my child, I won't let her near him either! I'll say: you're too old to take care of the children! 
Well, of course, then I got a little offended… But the “sediment remained.”

And once we were walking in the park - me and mom with a stroller, in which Vanya was sleeping peacefully. We met a friend of my mother's who works in a children's goods store (we once bought a cool set of dolls from him).

– And how do you like the stroller, are you satisfied with my recommendation? "He's asking."

Mom's like that: 

– Oh, you have no idea how grateful I am to you! It's light, it rides freely, it maneuvers well, and the wheels are soft! Look how sweetly he sleeps, even though there are paving stones under his feet! Special thanks for the fact that it is light and folds up quickly: I carry it myself up the stairs to the 3rd floor without any problems.

– Yes, Carrello Bravo the 22-year-old version is successful, I agree. By the way, the fabric is very easy to remove and wash without any problems, yesterday the client came in and shared his experience.  We have already dismantled them, and we are waiting for a new delivery. By the way, with such a stroller with a child, your Alina can also walk: she is stable, reliable and light.

WHAT? I looked at my uncle, then at my mom, and I couldn't believe it... Mom quickly understood my emotions. I thought about it, and he said, "Go for a walk with your brother." Just so I can see.

Hurray!  My uncle adjusted the handles for me to make it more convenient, and I drove my brother along the alley for half an hour. 

We've been walking like this ever since. And today, during a walk, my mother trusted me to take the rattle from Vanka and put a bottle of milk in his hands. And I did it!!! 

Mom, I'm coming! Dad, I'm running!!! Dania, 1 year old

…I've loved crawling on all fours for as long as I can remember. Because you decide where to go. The neighbors came to visit once, and their Dasha was born two days before me.: so they just drag her, poor thing, by her hands, and if they let her on the floor, they hold her by the arms and are terribly happy that she stomps her feet.

What an achievement! I crawled into the kitchen when I wanted to, and into the bedroom when I wanted to. I can even grab the edge of the sofa and be a little upright.

*   *   *

…Hey, people, what are you doing?! Why do I need them?? What are their... sliders... runners?… Jumpers... ah, walkers! I can do it without them! Well maaaam! 
Hmm… Is that what I'm standing for right now?.. How's that?... ah, this thing is holding me back… Wow, it's interesting - and you can see a lot more of everything in the room! And how to move...

Oh, it's coming out! Mom, look, I'm coming!!! And if you try to run?..

It's a really cool thing, these walkers. They are called Carrello Libero.

A special joy is the game panel. Hypnotic straight: you stand there, you play, you press the buttons, pleasant music chirps - fun!

*   *   *

…Today is my big day: The Day of the First Step. That's what Dad said. He took me out of the walker, put me behind it, unfastened the lower lintel so that it wouldn't interfere with my legs, showed me how to hold the handle from behind, went to the window and said, “Come to me.” 

Pushing the walker in front of him, relying only on his own legs, it was more difficult to walk and ... a little scary. But I'm off! By myself! 

How cool it is to sleep by yourself!!! - Igor, 2 years old

Please explain to me why adults do not sleep during the day? My version: because they don't get tired! They sit at their computers all the time. But I'm a different matter. While you're sorting all the toys, while you're scattering them around the room, while you're chasing after the cat, you'll get tired, I can't tell you. 

And then, after eating something delicious, you can take a nap for an hour or two. Wake up - and in a new way!

However, until recently, my daytime sleepy siesta was overshadowed by one significant detail: I went to bed with my mom. As best I could, I explained to her: go, I want to fall asleep alone, don't bother! And she: look how restless he is, he can't sleep! I'll lie down next to you, lull you to sleep...

The incident changed everything: I... fell asleep alone. Mom's pie burned in the oven, she got upset and stayed in the kitchen. I was playing in my arena back then. I've had it for a long time, since I was born. Mom said my godmother gave me this playpen. Carrello Molto is called. It has a “door” on the side with a lock - I climb in there myself to play. 

That day I had a battle between a stuffed dragon and a cowboy. I built a fortress and thought out how to defend it, but at some point I got upset: one cowboy couldn't resist a dragon, and I had to raise an army. Elephant, smesharik hedgehog, purple hippopotamus… I was thinking...

Mom's voice brought me out of my thoughts: hey, Sonya, wake up! You've been sleeping for three hours! Look at this: he's sitting right on top of the plush toys in the playpen! And he doesn't need a mom.

That evening, Mom and Dad decided to attach a place to sleep to my playpen.: this is such a second level, it turns out a crib. “If you like it, we'll buy a bed,” Dad said then.

Well, you get it: I got the bed three days later - I slept separately, Dad said, “like a groundhog.” But I also sleep in my playpen - if I'm visiting or on vacation. Sometimes even in nature: it folds up in a fun way, and, as Dad says, “it doesn't even shine in the trunk of the car.” 

Leave me alone!!! Valyusha, 3 years old

“When he grows up, he'll be an introvert,” my grandfather once said about me, when I once again ignored his annoying questions like “How old are you?” or “What's Dad's name?”

To the question of the elder brother, “what is it?”my grandfather said something about “inner peace” and “public discomfort.” Well, that's if I didn't get it wrong, because at that moment I was looking at the dress of an Elsa doll given by my grandfather. But I clearly understood the simple explanation of my grandfather, when my brother did not understand. “She will love being alone,” he explained.

I wondered: why would it “be”? I still love being alone! I have my own room. My things, toys, and bed are there. I like to invent games and play them myself.

No, I have girlfriends too, I'm walking in the yard, I've been going to kindergarten for two months now. Don't think I'm some kind of outcast.… But... I feel especially good alone in my room. 

And I also have a whole... house! Well, the adults call him “Treviso playpen". But I like “home" better.

It looks like a house, I feel calm and comfortable in it (I even sleep there sometimes). 

My mom and dad realized a long time ago how much he means to me, and they take him everywhere. After all, it folds comfortably, and even has a special travel bag. To visit friends - the house is with me. We are flying to the sea - the house is with us. You can't go on a picnic without a house.

Why “house"? Because it has a real roof! The canopy is like this. The sun does not bake, ticks and leaves do not fall from trees. And no one can see me))) My Treviso is my fortress! 

“I'll draw a dragon...” - Vanya, 2.5 years old

I painted my first dragon on the window of Dad's car when it was raining and the glass was fogged up from the inside. “Is that a cat? Mom asked. I was offended. 

And I decided that one day I would draw such a dragon that my mother would faint from admiration.

I've been training hard. I painted my mom's lipstick on the walls - the lipstick was taken away, and I also got a kick in the ass. It was even more insulting. I stole Dad's ink pen (well, since you can't use lipstick), painted the wallpaper, and the result was the same. I was almost desperate.

But the next day, Dad brought an album and a set of pencils from work. He brought it and thought about it... he says, “so you don't have your own table yet! Unless...”

And he sat me down in my high chair Apricus. Both my mom and I loved him. I am in favor of a soft seat and the opportunity to sleep after eating (its back is lowered - it turns into a crib), my mother is for lightness, the ability to adjust the height and a large removable tabletop.

Since that day, I've loved this countertop! That's why my first sketchbook and a box of pencils fit on it....  They sat me down there, strapped me down, and didn't bother me.

“The ”high chair for drawing" began to be called in our country. Because I ate in it five times less often than I painted.

By the way, the phrase “but it's a dragon!” I only heard from my mom on the third album...

Instead of an epilogue

Sometimes it seems to us that we, as adults, understand our children. And sometimes we're willing to give anything to decipher messages encoded in loud crying, stubborn fidgeting, leg twitching, or hand waving. 

And this does not mean at all that we are bad parents if the children's language is not easy for us. This means that we, modern parents, have the opportunity to use the services of assistants (read translators), the main thing is to make the right and informed choice. So that the child is understood and the parent is happy. It's that simple, isn't it?