If you had been at our house tonight...

...you would have heard the sounds of doors squeaking open and clicking shut all through the house.

Because little kids like to practice new things that they're on the brink of mastering.

About ten minutes before Elena went to bed, I finally realized what she was doing. And it made me smile.

I was sitting in the living room helping Lily and asked Elena to go grab a nighttime diaper, so that we could get her ready for bed. It took her about 10 times longer than usual and I got up to see what was going on. I heard the door knob jiggling and I opened her bedroom door and found her right on the other side hanging on to the door knob. She looked up at me and said frustratedly,

"No, Mom! I going to do it," and pushed the door shut.

After we got her pajamas on, I told her we were going to go back to my room to get her sippy cup. She pushed in front of me as we were walking down the hall and ran up to my door and started trying to open it.

"Oh! It's a hard one!" she said, trying to twist the door knob and looking back at me. I helped her open it, we grabbed the sippy cup, and went out. She stayed behind and shut the door.

Then we got back to her (closed) bedroom door, which she pushed in front of me to open. Once she got it open, she pushed me in the room, and shut the door behind us. I then realized that her blanket was also in my room. So, we went back and got it, with Elena opening and shutting all the doors on the way. On our way back down the hallway, I noticed that the bathroom door was also shut and remembered that she took a minute to follow me out earlier that evening - apparently she was working really hard to get the door shut. :)

I've been really grateful that Elena has been behind the curve when it's come to learning how to open doors around the house. But, I guess she had to learn sometime. :) And watching her concentrate so hard and practice so diligently was the sweetest thing. I love getting to watch that little girl grow!