I Will Not Celebrate Meaningless Milestones
Abbie hit two important milestones today. First words? Not yet. Walks more than crawls? Not quite. Potty trained? We wish. Her milestones are actually just two more tiny steps in her 18+-year quest to become a self-sufficient, fully functioning adult, an adult who definitely will not choose to live with her parents.
The first milestone really has nothing to do with any conscious action she may have performed. Today is the day we decided to move her up a size in clothes, from size 9-12 months into size 12-18 months. We moved her up a size two weeks earlier than the clothes said we should have to do. The time felt right since her pants fit more like capris, and her bottle-belly had started hanging out the bottom of her shirts when she stretched. Today’s milestone meant it was time to switch the clothes in her dresser, giving me the opportunity to evaluate our (my) clothes rummaging. We did pretty well, especially with short-sleeve shirts and dresses. We’re a little low on shorts, as well as colder weather things like toddler pants, toddler shirts, and toddler turbans,* but this just gives me an excuse to keep taking advantage of people trying to clear out their basements. We’re dangerously low on pajamas, but I think that’s because some time ago clothes manufacturers for some reason, possibly out of spite, stopped creating sleepers for children older than 12 months. At least it seems like they stopped creating them because I have a hard time finding new sleepers in stores. Therefore I tend to snap up any used sleepers I find regardless of size. I sure hope she likes that Backstreet Boys sleeper I found for her to wear in nine years.
Her other milestone, the one that actually involves conscious effort on her part, is giving up the bottle in favor of sippy cups. I had toyed with this idea for a few weeks seeing as all babies are supposed to be off the bottle by 12 months, but never took the plunge until today. While preparing her lunch today, I thought “hey, I’m already inflicting one trauma on her today by switching her entire wardrobe, what difference could another trauma make?” So I prepared her lunchtime formula in a sippy cup, and haven’t fallen back to the bottle since. Abbie transitioned well, at least so far, possibly because she cares more about the food than about the method of delivery, kind of like caged lions that are willing to eat their dinner despite the fact that it just showed up pre-killed. It all tastes the same, so who cares? The main problem right now is Abbie still hasn’t mastered the fine art of drinking while sitting upright, or really in any position besides lying flat on her back. The result is I spend a lot of time picking up her cup after she mistakenly threw it thinking it was empty. To be fair to her, I imagine I would have a tough time drinking from a cup with one hole almost in the center of the lid. Our next step is to work hard on reaching the milestone of picking up after herself.
* She has to keep her head warm somehow
The first milestone really has nothing to do with any conscious action she may have performed. Today is the day we decided to move her up a size in clothes, from size 9-12 months into size 12-18 months. We moved her up a size two weeks earlier than the clothes said we should have to do. The time felt right since her pants fit more like capris, and her bottle-belly had started hanging out the bottom of her shirts when she stretched. Today’s milestone meant it was time to switch the clothes in her dresser, giving me the opportunity to evaluate our (my) clothes rummaging. We did pretty well, especially with short-sleeve shirts and dresses. We’re a little low on shorts, as well as colder weather things like toddler pants, toddler shirts, and toddler turbans,* but this just gives me an excuse to keep taking advantage of people trying to clear out their basements. We’re dangerously low on pajamas, but I think that’s because some time ago clothes manufacturers for some reason, possibly out of spite, stopped creating sleepers for children older than 12 months. At least it seems like they stopped creating them because I have a hard time finding new sleepers in stores. Therefore I tend to snap up any used sleepers I find regardless of size. I sure hope she likes that Backstreet Boys sleeper I found for her to wear in nine years.
Her other milestone, the one that actually involves conscious effort on her part, is giving up the bottle in favor of sippy cups. I had toyed with this idea for a few weeks seeing as all babies are supposed to be off the bottle by 12 months, but never took the plunge until today. While preparing her lunch today, I thought “hey, I’m already inflicting one trauma on her today by switching her entire wardrobe, what difference could another trauma make?” So I prepared her lunchtime formula in a sippy cup, and haven’t fallen back to the bottle since. Abbie transitioned well, at least so far, possibly because she cares more about the food than about the method of delivery, kind of like caged lions that are willing to eat their dinner despite the fact that it just showed up pre-killed. It all tastes the same, so who cares? The main problem right now is Abbie still hasn’t mastered the fine art of drinking while sitting upright, or really in any position besides lying flat on her back. The result is I spend a lot of time picking up her cup after she mistakenly threw it thinking it was empty. To be fair to her, I imagine I would have a tough time drinking from a cup with one hole almost in the center of the lid. Our next step is to work hard on reaching the milestone of picking up after herself.
* She has to keep her head warm somehow
posted by Matt at
10:29 PM
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