The Mini Milestones

We all know the major childhood milestones and while all are worthy of applause there should be a parade thrown for the following mini milestones:

Mirror, mirror

To every mom, her baby is beautiful. In reality, all babies go through a stage where they resemble an adorable combination of a gremlin and 90 year old man. Then all of a sudden, in a certain light you begin to see your eyes and your husbands' facial expressions and breathe a sigh of relief that they sent you home with the correct baby.

Pouch-o-goodness

Charlotte decided that getting fed by a spoon was so six months ago, so she boycotted pouches for about a month. Unfortunately we don’t mill organic barley in our backyard and so getting those healthy ingredient into her body took some creativity. Finally one day my husband just handed her the pouch and she squeezed it into her mouth like she’d been doing it since utero.

Kisses

My daughter has the perfect combination of independence and affection. She learned how to give kisses before she could even walk. So now she always leans in and puckers up (to either one of us or the dogs, usually the dogs) before running away in the opposite direction. 

Walk the Walk

Everyone gets excited about when their toddler first starts walking. It is very exciting, but it is mostly terrifying and this is about the time you start researching helmets on the internet. It takes about 3 weeks for them not to look like a drunken squirrel.  Suddenly they master walking and gain independence and you no longer have to play what feels like a never-ending game of President and secret service. And guess who always gets to be the President?

No Means No

In the beginning it was hard to look at Charlotte’s blue eyes and tell her no in a voice that you wouldn’t hear on Sesame Street. So we had a family pow-wow and now we all use a universal, “no” that means business and Charlotte understands! Quickly she moved on to boundary pushing, but that’s not a mini milestone that should ever be celebrated.

So when your child reaches these mini marks of life-changing success, do what we do: bust out an unchoreographed dance routine and make sure to lean in for a kiss.