Milestones

The first time we noticed Abigail sucking her thumb Mary squealed with delight, took a picture and wrote it down on the calendar. Same goes for the first time Abigail slept through the night, the first time she smiled and the first time she went to the doctor. Shes growing so fast that it feels as if not documenting every burp, smile, nap and poop would be criminal. Somehow writing everything down will keep her a baby, completely ours, innocent and beautiful.

This is of course silly. In five years if you ask me when Abigail first sucked her thumb I will give you the Gilde blank stare and move on without comment.

REMEMBER!

I have no doubt this is common for inexperience parents. My Mom kept a calendar of my first year. She didn't keep a calendar for my brother. She says its because she was too busy, not enough time between working and having two needy jerk babies. I suspect she started a calender, reviewed it after four months and found that most entries were either "is my baby's head supposed to be so big and bald" or "Dear lord why didn't I quit while I was ahead". Not wanting to pay for therapy, she scrapped it.

no hair? no records

My Mom gave us the calendar she kept from my first year and we've had a great time going through it. Its fun for me as it allows me to imagine my folks as new parents, buying their first home and trying to figure things out. Its fun for Mary because she feels like my character is apparent from an early age.

"Joe loves to look at himself in the mirror lately-he doesn't smile at anyone the way he smiles at himself". Yep, that sounds like you. No one entertains you like yourself.

"Still prefers to take the lazy way out but can hold his own bottle in a pinch" Mmmmmmmmmhhhhhhmmmmm. Don't you have laundry to do?

The milestones I find astounding don't make the calendar. Abigail projectile vomited for the first time last week. Its amazing but apparently not worthy of calendar documentation.

Shes been congested so I ordered what I thought was an high quality bulb syringe to help clear her out. Turns out that while the thing I bought works great, you have to provide the suction. They assure you theres a filter and theres no way you can suck anything through the tube but I still cant convince myself to manually suck snot out of Abbys nose. Luckily Mary is a good parent and did what needed to be done.  I tried to document the moment (Jan 5th, 2012: Mary manually sucked mucus out of Abigails nose for first time) but Mary felt its not a real milestone.

I will remember this device long after I forget when Abby first went to the doctor. Put it on the calendar!

Spa day package includes nose suction