Spreading Those Wings

I like to think of our household as our "nest." I have a tendency though, to want to be the "bird" in charge.  I have been working very hard, this summer in particular, in giving both of my baby "birds" more independence. For about the past week, I have been standing at the top of our driveway and letting Dominic go down and pick up the mail out of the mailbox.  It might not seem like a huge deal, but it is.  There was a time when he was younger, that he would run into the street full blast and not think anything of it! Yikes, that is certainly something I don't miss. Today, Dominic was telling me that he wanted to stay in his pajamas all day.  I told him I didn't think that was an option.  His "favorite" red shirt was in our bedroom with the rest of the clean laundry, so I told him to go up and find it.  I figured he would come down with the red shirt on, but pajama bottoms on the bottom.  Nope, he had found a pair of black shorts that actually matched the shirt.  I told him several times throughout the day that I was proud of him.  About four or five months ago, when had the worst migraine he has ever had in his life, he regressed with the potty training.  It has been hit or miss with that throughout this summer, so he is back in training pants for the time being.  I have been trying to not make a huge deal out of it, because all it does is get him super stressed out and creates tension in the entire household. We know that he is capable of being full trained, because he was before the bad migraine.  We just have to keep working on it and be patient.  I have been quizzing Dominic every few days to make sure he still knows our phone number. Yesterday, we met Dominic's new bus driver for the coming school year. As I stood outside by our front door, I kept gently encouraging him to come out and meet the driver.  At first Dominic didn't want to meet him.  He then came outside and said hi to him - about 15 seconds later, he gave him a hug :)  He did both of those things on his own, unprompted by me.  Dominic has known for a while how to pour his own drinks and retrieve food out of the pantry if he's hungry.  I still have to help him pour cereal, etc., but today, I was showing him how to do it.  He has known for years how to turn on the computer and manipulate his way around.  The other day on the i-Pad, he found some pictures he had taken and then set it to music, like a slideshow. I don't even know how to do that!!   One of the last times Dominic came with me to the grocery store, I let him push the cart, get things off the shelf, put them into the cart and then, when we were checking out, put our items on the conveyor belt. When we were leaving, he wanted to push the cart out of the store.  Every time I kept trying to help push the cart, he would push my hand away and want to do it himself.  I let him push the cart to the car and he helped me load the bags in.  The next time we go out to eat, I think I'm going to let him order his own meal.  As he gets ready to start the fourth grade in less than two weeks, I am confident that he will continue to make progress in many areas.  It's hard for me to imagine that this time next year, he will be preparing to enter middle school.  My littlest "baby" bird is slowly spreading his "wings" and I can't wait to see how high he will soar!