All evidence points to

the kids growing up. 

These days Eliza insists on doing everything herself. She is much more stubborn in this regard than her brother ever was. Today she went to the toilet by herself, no prompting from us. She sat on the big toilet without the toddler mini-seat on top of it...though she still needs the stool to climb up there. She can even dress herself (something Miles has only recently found to be occasionally worth his effort). 

There are down sides to all this independence, i.e. the horror show when she missed the potty, stepped on the poo, and decided she'd try and clean it up herself. I'll just stop there.

Miles now opens the car door, climbs into his booster, closes the door behind him, and reminds me to reach back to help with his seat belt. He can undo the seatbelt himself, open the door, climb out, and shut the door. 

When Eliza ran off while we were picnicking yesterday, we asked Miles to go get her. He disappeared down the hill and reappeared, walking up and holding Eliza's hand. His advice to her sounded familiar: Eliza, don't go where we can't see you. What if some bad man came and took you away? (!!) Then we might not see you again, and you would miss us very much. Don't just go running away like that! You have to stay where we can see you. Do you understand, Eliza? Eliza? Eliza nodding: yeth, yeth.