Mommy Milestones

Mommies collectively and individually spend fantastic amounts of time noticing and documenting the milestones of their children. (So do daddies, but this entry is mommycentric.) It’s exciting to see a little protoperson turn into a real person before one’s eyes, and the progress is apparent and quantifiable a lot of the time.

The same can not be said for the milestones of motherhood. (Or so we think here, a mere 2 11/12ths years in.) The phases of mommyhood aren’t very well documented, and not all forward motion feels like progress. We can look to our memories of our own mommies from when we were kids, but that’s really just a shot in the dark.

Favorite milestones here have included the “aha!” moment of realizing that if one sleeps while the baby sleeps instead of crying about being exhausted, one gets more sleep. Or “Mommy’s Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About X, Y Z and Love the Fact That Childhood Abounds With Such Things and Most Kids and Parents Get Through it Okay.” We gained other valuable milestone attitudes from I Killed June Cleaver, a gift from Auntie Niki and a brilliant read for just about any mommy. These are mental processes, and important ones. But what about something quantifiable?

Tonight, I hit one milestone I’ve been wanting to reach for some time. I made clothing for my child! It’s only a halloween costume, but it turned out pretty well! And I made something for my girl to wear. Cool!

True, I didn’t really follow the pattern. It called for something called basting. Since everyone knows that this is something you do to a dead bird around Thanksgiving that part was skippable. The next time directions call for velcro, I will be asking myself if buttons might not be better. It’s nearly 11pm, and now that I’ve officially unpacked the sewing machine, I have no idea where to put it.

So-one actual mommy milestone out there for the world to see. (I’m very proud of myself.) We’re going to a halloween party on Sunday, so hopefully there will be numerous pictures of the results!

PS
The cat continues to be interested in our new hummingbird friends. She begins to call to mind the story of the toad sucking dog that was on All Thing Considered a few nights ago...