Will you ever forget the moment they placed your baby in your arms?
Did you capture your baby’s first steps on video?
Can you remember their adorable little first word?
Whilst these are all beautiful moments, I have a few more to add to the list. These are the ones that you don’t read about on Facebook, but have perhaps even more significance.
Here are some of my incredible milestone moments :
- The day my child was old enough to sit in a cafe and eat hot chips. One of my proudest moments. This breakthrough made conversation with a friend possible and as long as the chippies had cooled down a bit and you weren’t required to break and blow each and every one, they can keep your child in their seat for quite some time.
- When your child can stand up to be dressed OR, even better, when they can dress themselves!!! Trying to wriggle on tiny singlets and pants, etc, whilst they were babies lying back on the change table was tough. The moment I could stand them up and yank their gear up was glorious.
- Sitting up unassisted in the bath. I hated bath time; in fact, I was plain terrified and my husband was number one baby washer for our first little one. When they are newborn, their little bodies are just so slippery and the whole cotton ball swipe across eyes was just too much for my befuddled, exhausted mind to grasp. We are entering shower territory in our house now and it is a real thrill.
- Swiping the iPad. Yes, I suppose I’m not supposed to admit this, but I love the fact that my kids are now both old enough to find stuff they can watch themselves without my constant assistance. In fact, just being able to watch TV was a momentous achievement. Peppa Pig DVD’s were purchased in rapid succession and finally I was not the only entertainer in town. It is so bloody sensational that I can now take a moment to have a cuppa and breathe.
- It is no longer essential to pack food all the time. Yes; I do still do this as there is nothing uglier than being caught out with a hangry, tantruming child. However, the beauty is, I don’t HAVE to. If food or even drinks are urgently required, most playgrounds have drink fountains and I can buy the kids a bread roll if need be. No squishy bags, no tiny plastic spoons, no sippy cups; if they have to eat ‘grown up’ food, they can.
- When they can get in the car themselves. I still find this a challenge as our car park is very tight, hence I do find myself still having to assist with this, BUT I am no longer gently placing car carriers and tiny babies into their backward facing capsules. The kids can both jump up and pull their straps over. Any day now, the buckles will be clipped and before too long, they’ll be asking me for the keys!
- Farewell to dirty, stinking nappies. I could not wait for this day to come. Though it has been an incredible challenge getting to this point, and I still have two sets of dirty bums to wipe, I will take that as an absolute win.
- Night sleeping. We are still not able to sleep through the night here, yet, but we are tantalisingly close. In fact, as the kids sleep through more and more, I find I am getting up to check on them anyway. Hopefully this ridiculous habit will wear off? (Does it ever???) Oh those nights of back patting and carpet sleeping and white noise and every type of night light know to man and absolutely ANYTHING we could try to get them sleeping better, truly sucked the life out of both of us. They are incredibly tough years.
- Reclaiming our ‘grown up’ lives. As my husband and I hit the footpath running on a night out last weekend, I marvelled at how much easier it is now to get out of the house. Those early baby years meant I had to have everything timed to perfection; bathing the baby/kids, my own shower and change, then a breastfeed and then a wild escape out the door, with a limited time slot (I hated expressing). Then it was a wild race back to my baby. And…well…wine was capped quite literally. Now, we can text the babysitter to say we might be running a little late and the world doesn’t come crashing down.
- When they can tell you where they feel sick. It is such a constant worry when the babies are little. Why are they crying? They’re not eating? Is that a rash? For God’s sake, why are they STILL crying? What is wrong with them? With me? Now, my kids can tell me if they have a headache, a sore throat, or an ear ache; the basics of course, but it takes so much of the terrifying guess work out. Even better; my baby can now vomit in the toilet! (Obviously only if she’s ‘well enough’ to make it). This is possibly my greatest moment to date. Buckets and towels and sheets full of vomit is simply the absolute worst.
Surely not a comprehensive list, and undoubtedly tonight at 2am my eyes will ping wide open and I will think of another moment that I have missed. But that’s OK; I would probably be due to get up and check on my sleeping babies and lie awake thinking about nothing and everything for another hour or so.
What have been your crowning milestone moments?
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