December 03, 2010

Milestones

There are so many times as parents when we praise our children for their different milestones and accomplishments, then take a breath and realize how much harder our lives are going to become.  For example: "Yay!  Look he's crawling... ah dang, he's mobile now." -or-  "Woohoo!  She just took her first step... crap, now she'll be even harder to catch." 
We just ran across another one of those milestones at our house.  Boo has learned how to open doors, and not just the ones with the lever handles, but the regular, old fashioned round doorknobs.  You might wonder why this is such a big "Oh No!" moment for us so I will explain. 
Travis and I, like most parents today have full time jobs.  I am the General Manager of a retail automotive parts store and Travis is a diesel mechanic.  I work fifty plus hours a week and he works at least forty.  Travis works the swing shift from 4pm to midnight and generally has the same days off.  I write my own schedule but it is never the same from week to week.  With our weird schedules we don't see a whole lot of each other but we are primarily the ones raising our kids and only have to have grandma babysit a couple times a week. 
Herein lies the problem with doorknobs.  Travis gets home between two and three most days and is still sleeping when I leave most mornings.  Boo has always been a great sleeper and even when he did wake up early he would grab a book from his bookshelf, crawl back into bed, and read or play quietly until he heard someone up and about.  Now there is no rest for the wicked.  He gets up, starts giggling as he is opening his door, runs across the front room, and makes his way into our bedroom.  We didn't know how good we had it until that fateful morning about a week ago when we looked at each other with sleepy disbelieving eyes realizing he had just learned how to escape. 
Writing about this makes me wonder what the next milestone is going to be.  What new wonderful yet horrible things are we in for as parents?  I guess only time will tell.

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