Dd/DSs achievements: what felt like milestones passed?

[Lizita]

I mean apart from the usual developmental achievements (no 1 of those for me being when my dd walked by herself, that was amazing)
Dd is only almost 2, but so far 2 things that felt like a real step growing up wise are:
holding an ice cream & eating it by herself
being able to put her hair in pigtails

just re read that, i don't mean she does the pigtails by herself, i mean i can!!

when ds1 (7) could do his seat belt up by himself in the car. Don't know why - just remember it felt like a really big thing - and I was a bit sad because he didn't need me to strap him in anymore

• Feeding themselves definitely

- getting their own cups of water ( 5 year old) - doing own seatbelt (5 yr old) - going to toilet on own, unprompted - getting up in the morning, going downstairs quietly (!) and watching a video for an hour.. - getting own cornflakes for himself & little brother (5 yr old) - choosing clothes and getting dressed - suddenly being able to read everything, and not haveing to ask me 'what does that say?'

Kayleigh - know what you mean about the seatbelt one - whenever I lean over them to do the seatbelt I always sneak a quick kiss!!

DD is 2.6. She has passed all the obvious baby milestones and I think they are more subtle now. Penelope Leach describes the changes DD has undergone in the last six months or so very well - that she feels like a real person now, not a little, dependent baby. Her personality (always there to be seen) is now much more obvious; she has opinions about things, she wants to know why things happen and how. I can't summarise it all, but all this has come earlier than I thought it would (she is my first child and I didn't really know what to expect). I loved her very much when she was a baby, but now she is a real companion and I think I love her even more.

DS is still very young (20 mos) but eating an ice cream was very special.

Here's an example - there is a picture in one of her books (Alfie Weather, by Shirley Hughes) that is a pastiche of a fresco of Adam and Eve in a Church in Florence. It's a very striking image - they are grimacing with grief as they stumble out of Eden [By coincidence, I saw the original on my 40th birthday, exactly a year before she was born, after 6 attempts at IVF, so it's a very special picture for us]. I dug out a little booklet about the paintings I picked up there and showed them to her. She wanted to know exactly why Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden and has been mentioning it for days. Then we showed her, without comment, another painting of Adam and Eve in the same Church, a much more conventional renaissance picture. She said, 'Why is this [the first one] a better picture'? Meaning, I think, that it made more impact on her. I would never have expected to have a little conversation about why paintings affect our emotions with a two year old. It is a great joy.

That sounds amazing Oldiemum.
I've thought of another - when she first started pretending to feed her cuddly dog.

• when she started copying certain of my phrases, like "oh dear"
• When she first gave me a spontaneous hug herself.

I am still hoping for one big milestone that I have in my head - going a whole day without crying !!!

DD is 4 yrs and 10 months and I am still waiting !!

It will be a real milestone when I'm able to put my dd's hair in pigtails; she's 4, didn't have any hair worth the name until she was 3, and even now it's not long enough to put in a pigtail. It doesn't get any longer, it just curls more. She's desperate for pretty hair, and the day I can finally put her hair into pigtails or a plait, we will both be putting the flags out.

for you WWB. It is only today that my dd allowed me to attempt it! Her hair isn't quite long enough to look like proper, neat pigtails (curly too) but I've still enjoyed looking at her pottering about with pigtails!

DD can't manage an ice-cream by herself. Her pigtails are coming along nicely, however. She looks like Heidi.

actually i'm exaggerating a bit. I don't mean a whole ice cream, I mean one that I've eaten most of the ice cream from, so she just has the cone & ice cream inside the cone iykwim

Ds (2.3) has just started to take off his trousers and pants to use the potty independently! Personally I can't wait for the day he can get out of bed in the morning, go downstairs, make his breakfast and entertain himself until I'm ready to get up!

DS2 (who's 3 tomorrow) deciding he was only going to do wees standing up (like DS1 and Daddy) - can't believe it - AND he has a perfect aim (which is more than can be said for the other two... )

The thing I'm most struck by is how uneven and inconsistent she is. So she can move in minutes from talking about the Garden of Eden to shrieking like a banshee because she doesn't want to eat her breakfast.

This morning dd (3) sat in the car pointing things out and explaining them to ds (5mo). Obviously he had no idea what she was talking about and I don't think he can even see out of the window. But - I felt strangely usurped. I could drive along and listen to my cd and not have to keep saying "oh look a tractor" and "ooh, a red lorry, now, can you spot a blue one" because dd was doing it!

Thought of a couple more.

• Discovery of splashing in puddles
• Discovering her shadow.
• deciding which Pingu episode is her favourite!