Yay! Luca’s Walking! (And The Truth About Milestones)- In Pictures

One thing parents neglect to mention in their super cute “My Kid Just Achieved a Milestone” Facebook photos is the fact that milestones = crappy sleep. Every child development expert out there will tell you this. Yet, somehow this knowledge manages to escape the general population. I’m really not a fan of this surprise. I thought milestones were all fun and games. Moments of pride. Instead they have become quite bittersweet… like baking-chocolate-bittersweet.

Don’t get me wrong… I LOVE the fact that Luca is walking now. It’s so fun to watch him beam with pride as he clumsily steps from one destination to the next. He’s also a little more independent now which is nice when I need to pee. But also hear me on this… I HATE that Luca is walking now. He’s constantly falling down and crying or getting into things that I haven’t child-proofed. The worst of it though, as with this whole parenthood gig in general, is the lack of sleep. Luca was going down for bed like a champ at 7:30 nearly every night until this new development rolled along. Now… Ugh… Every night has involved a car ride to get Luca to go to sleep. It’s like he’s so amped-up that he can’t just rest. Some nights it’s not even until 9:30 or 10 that he’ll fall asleep. Not very conducive to the Hubster and I getting some much-needed alone time. Oh, and I forgot to mention the lovely 30-60 minute full-blown wake-up period at 3am. That’s super fun.

Fortunately, as with everything in life: This too shall pass. “If there’s one thing we can count on being consistent in parenthood, it’s inconsistency.” That’s what one of the wise Mamas from the Mama Tribe said once. She’s so right. Inconsistency is a curse and, in this case, it’s a blessing. I am thankful to know that this will soon pass. It happened when he started rolling over and again when he was crawling. Now, walking is no different. It’s just a phase. It’s just really, really hard to stay positive sometimes… Especially when I’m tired. At 9 months, we have our good nights/weeks and bad nights/weeks but all in all I have to remember that we have made MAJOR progress when we compare this season to the first one. The first one being immediately after the birth. Full-blown wake-ups were the norm back in those days. I’ve gotten so accustomed to nightly dream-feeds and easy “go-downs” that I forgot how good we’ve had it. I guess every now and then Parenthood has to crack its whip. “No entitlement for you, Missy! Grow-up!” It’s quite humbling.

Well, enough of my grumbling. On to the happy fun stuff. LUCA IS WALKING! YAY! (Just don’t say that I never told you the truth about milestones.)