Mommy Milestone
Our children's age and development is marked in milestones. We guage their progress and accomplishments at what stage in their life they are in when they walk, talk, sit up, eat baby food, roll over, and or course we count the number of poopy diapers when there is nothing else to do.
I believe that similarly there are Mommy Milestones, those things that only you can do as a mother, the things that you can only understand once you have given birth to a new life, a new bundle of joy. There's the first time your baby has a fever, the first time you don't have a clean diaper ready to catch the poop, the first time you get peed on, the first time your baby sleeps all night, the first time you realize that your baby isn't going to be a baby forever. Nothing can prepare you for those moments, those moments that seize you and take over your entire life as you spiral into a whirlwind of milestones, either yours or your child.
Today (written on Monday) I had to have hit at least two of these milestones. Madelyn woke up last (Sunday) night at 9:30 with a fever of 103 so this morning we woke up and headed to the pediatrician. She's been fighting a cold for a while now and pulling on her ears a little more than usual. We waited for an hour to find out that she has an ear infection. Not a huge suprise, her fever was gone and she was still tugging on her ears, but we've got antibiotic now so we're good.
The first milestone happened in the waiting room. For the first time, Madelyn has been able to kind of walk around the slate tile room and I had the distinct pleasure of chasing her around. In an effort to get her to stay in my lap I pulled out a snack cup of cheerios. She was satisfied to sit and eat cheerios, dropping only a few of them. Then in a move a pure generosity she started to shove cheerios in my mouth. This would have been a lot sweeter had the cheerios not been held by slobbery hands and a few of them had already been in her mouth but removed for the sake of sharing. So, I had my first experience as a mother of eating slimey cheerios straight from my daughters slimey hands.
The second milestone can only happen once you have put your daughter in a forward facing seat...and amazingly enough involved cheerios again. I was driving to Target for the yummy yummy medicine and Madelyn had her snack cup in the backseat chowing down and I was thinking about how I didn't really want to allow her to eat in the car on a regular basis because I didn't want the mess and just as I justified the cheerios by saying "they're only cheerios and I can clean those up easily" one flew into the front seat, bounced off the window and smacked me in the head landing under the gas pedal. Yeah, we won't be eating in the car anymore. OK, not until we drive to Asheville and then we're definitely done...until we drive to Charleston, and then there is NO more...until we drive across the country. I'm putting my foot down.
I have officially had enough cheerios for one day.
Oh, and if anyone is interested in Madelyn's milestones, she's officially walking more than crawling and she's in a forward facing car seat...like either of those are bigger than my cheerio milestones.
I believe that similarly there are Mommy Milestones, those things that only you can do as a mother, the things that you can only understand once you have given birth to a new life, a new bundle of joy. There's the first time your baby has a fever, the first time you don't have a clean diaper ready to catch the poop, the first time you get peed on, the first time your baby sleeps all night, the first time you realize that your baby isn't going to be a baby forever. Nothing can prepare you for those moments, those moments that seize you and take over your entire life as you spiral into a whirlwind of milestones, either yours or your child.
Today (written on Monday) I had to have hit at least two of these milestones. Madelyn woke up last (Sunday) night at 9:30 with a fever of 103 so this morning we woke up and headed to the pediatrician. She's been fighting a cold for a while now and pulling on her ears a little more than usual. We waited for an hour to find out that she has an ear infection. Not a huge suprise, her fever was gone and she was still tugging on her ears, but we've got antibiotic now so we're good.
The first milestone happened in the waiting room. For the first time, Madelyn has been able to kind of walk around the slate tile room and I had the distinct pleasure of chasing her around. In an effort to get her to stay in my lap I pulled out a snack cup of cheerios. She was satisfied to sit and eat cheerios, dropping only a few of them. Then in a move a pure generosity she started to shove cheerios in my mouth. This would have been a lot sweeter had the cheerios not been held by slobbery hands and a few of them had already been in her mouth but removed for the sake of sharing. So, I had my first experience as a mother of eating slimey cheerios straight from my daughters slimey hands.
The second milestone can only happen once you have put your daughter in a forward facing seat...and amazingly enough involved cheerios again. I was driving to Target for the yummy yummy medicine and Madelyn had her snack cup in the backseat chowing down and I was thinking about how I didn't really want to allow her to eat in the car on a regular basis because I didn't want the mess and just as I justified the cheerios by saying "they're only cheerios and I can clean those up easily" one flew into the front seat, bounced off the window and smacked me in the head landing under the gas pedal. Yeah, we won't be eating in the car anymore. OK, not until we drive to Asheville and then we're definitely done...until we drive to Charleston, and then there is NO more...until we drive across the country. I'm putting my foot down.
I have officially had enough cheerios for one day.
Oh, and if anyone is interested in Madelyn's milestones, she's officially walking more than crawling and she's in a forward facing car seat...like either of those are bigger than my cheerio milestones.
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