Milestones

Last night Harrison brushed his teeth by himself. All sides, no follow-up brushing needed. This morning after Gigi ate her cereal without throwing any on the floor, she placed her bowl on the table from her tray and did the "all done" sign with her hands.

For any parent who's been brushing their child's teeth every night for three years, or feeding (and cleaning up) 5 meals a day for a year, these are major moments. Causes for celebration even. But since there are so many of these moments, you hardly notice them as they pass before your tired, glazed eyes. So let's review.

I think baby milestones come in two categories: Aw, How Sweet and Rad.

First the Aw, How Sweets:

First smile: This one introduces you to milestones as well as makes you wonder how you survived so long without this little creature.

First laugh: There is no sound or vision more heavenly than this.

First tooth: I'm not sure why this is so darn cute, but it is.

Crawls: Seeing my babies zip through the house on their hands and knees is really the first time I thought they were growing so fast. Although it also made me lament the time (usually just days earlier) that I didn't have to worry about them crawling head-first down the stairs.

Says "Mama" or "Dada": Nothing says "I'm all yours" quite like being called by name.

Says other first words: Anything that comes out of your baby's mouth (that isn't crying) is adorable, but it's doubly so if you can understand it.

Walks: This could arguably be in the Rads category because the baby is no longer tempted to eat every bug and piece of old chicken off the floor, but it's too smile-inducing not to be here.


And the Rads:

Holds head up: This marks the end of having to hold the baby as if at any moment you risk breaking his neck.

Sleeps through the night: You can now crawl out of the zombie fog you've been living in for 6 months.

Sits up: Ahh, your back finally gets a tiny break because you bend down 4 inches less to pick up the baby.

Safely comes down from high places alone: You only need a few scary falls to put you on edge any time the kid is on something higher than a sofa cushion. This one finally relieves you from that constant tension. Until they climb up onto the piano and start doing wobbly backward squats on the black keys, of course.

Stops breastfeeding: This one deserves a blog all unto itself, but to remain upbeat, suffice it to say that within 12 hours of stopping nursing I had more energy than a tapered Olympian.

Plays alone for more than 5 minutes: The start of you sitting down for more than 5 minutes. (I've had to get up 33 times while writing this one blog to entertain Gigi.)

Stops throwing 90% of meal onto floor: This may be the most important one, especially if you're home all day with the lil' stinker who perpetrates this.

All the teeth are in: Marks the end of cooking everything into mush or cutting everything into miniscule bites.

Dresses self: Granted, this is no guarantee that you won't have to dress your child (forcefully) for years to come, but if you had to, you could bribe your child with candy and he'd get dressed while you vegged out for 2 minutes.

Potty trained: Needs no explanation.

Brushes teeth by self: This part of the bedtime battle almost becomes a pleasure when your only involvement is technical direction.

I'm sure there were more and will be more to come. Regardless of their category, all baby milestones are fun to watch unfold (with the exception of potty training, which can be quite messy). And all are so worth the effort of the exhausting moments in between. Not sure when they can start doing the yardwork, but it's gotta be coming up soon.