Bye-Bye Baby Burrito (and other major milestones)

As any Mom knows, your baby's first year of life seems to be full of certain "milestones" that they are expected to meet. To some these may be a way to check that your baby is developing properly. For others, these milestones become a competition in which you pit your child against all other children in a bid to have the smartest, cutest, drooliest baby ever. (You know who you are if you've ever bragged about potty training your newborn and teaching your 1 year old to read.) By now I feel as though I've celebrated the regular milestones to the point of boredom. (Admit it... it's only exciting maybe the first few hundred times your baby rolls over.) And Caroline is reaching all of the milestones she needs to, rolling, cooing, blah, blah, blah. But this time through babyhood, I've decided to highlight the less celebrated (but in my mind, just as important) milestones.

1. Perfecting the long string of drool.

2. The first time she wore flip flops.

3. The "how far can you cram your fists into your mouth?" milestone.

4. The licking-everything-in-sight stage.

5. The first time to sit in a Bumbo.

6. The death grip. (a.k.a. You are never getting back this handful of hair. Ever.)

7. Squealing loud enough to shatter glass. (Be glad I don't have an example of this!)

8. Learning to drink a bottle as regular babies do... not as if it is killing her.

9. And the most important milestone to me is "Bye bye baby burrito." For the first three months of life, Caroline couldn't sleep unless she was tightly swaddled in her little wrapper, looking like a little baby burrito. She had a love/hate relationship with being swaddled. She would happily tuck her arms to her sides when it was time to wrap up, only to immediately begin fighting her way out. Usually she would give up the fight and go to sleep, but she always managed to squirm at least one arm out during the night, which was enough to wake her up. This was not a pretty waking up either... it was a shrieking, angry wake up that could only be fixed by reswaddling. You can see how this might get old night after night, nap after nap. Finally sweet Caroline has learned to suck her thumb which has eliminated the need to be swaddled. So... bye bye baby burrito, hello braces!