Milestones

Life seems to be measured in milestones.  Right from the day we were born, we started tracking milestones.  These milestones are sometimes big, and sometimes small.  These milestones also change, depending on different circumstances.

When we had our first child, SeniorK, we had A LOT of milestones.  The 1st time he rolled over.  The first time he held his head up.  The first time he pooped in the bathtub.  We soaked it all in!  Wait, bad metaphor considering the previous sentence...  But you know what I mean.

Milestone #332:  SeniorK trying to mail himself and BigD to Cancun

When we had our second child, we had some of the same milestones, and some different ones.  For BigD, there were milestones like how old was he when he built his 1st robot.  When did he start trying to find alternate fuel sources.

Milestone #127:  BigD waking up after sleeping through the night

For the Wife, I'm sure she tracks my milestones as well... stuff like, when will he stop leaving his dirty laundry on the floor, or when will be finally learn how to make a good pasta sauce, etc.  But I think the only one she really cares about is the laundry.

Milestone #4789:  A (younger) Yeti travelling to Ottawa for a couple Job Interviews

For Ping, who has been with us now for 3 years, it is amazing to look back and see all the milestones we have come though...  We have gone from an angry little 4 year old swearing at me every time I tried to talk to her, to this precious little girl who wants nothing more than to cuddle.

Milestone #5billion:  Ping leaving her orphanage and life in China behind

I remember one of her biggest milestones (for me anyway) was when she 1st started letting me hold her.  Another milestone might be when she learned how to play with Barbies.
Or the moment where I could see her starting to transition (emotionally) into our family.

On the flip side, Ping has helping others in the family reach their own milestones. Like when MissG embraced being a big sister and was able to finally start finding her Big Sister Groove.  Which was a rough time, because Ping did NOT want a big sister, and MissG was so excited to be one...

So here we are... 3 years in with Ping, and looking back, it has been milestone after milestone, miracle after miracle seeing her grow into this beautiful, confident daughter.

Now, Bing on the other hand... we're still working though some interesting milestones.

Milestones?  We don't need no stink'n Milestones!!!

On the plus side, most of the scars on my arms from his 1st 9 months of milestones are healing nicely.

And the couple Saturdays ago we reached a NEW milestone.  It was the "My Kid Is No Longer The Worst Kid in McDonalds PlayLand!" Milestone.  Which is a biggie.  Bing was able to play for 2 hours in a McDonalds playland while we waited for the other children in Chinese School.  Previously, anytime a child came running out of the Play Land crying or bleeding, I would just watch which table they went to, walked over calmly apologize for my child's behaviour and whatever it was he did, then go claim Bing from the Play Land.  Normally, by this point, he has climbed to the highest point in the Play Land and has started throwing make shift prison shanks out of discarded McFlurry cup straws at me.  The "Lets stop making make shift prison shanks" milestone will come in time... I hope.

What really impressed me though was when we went to the Children's Dentist and had a long wait in the waiting room.  There were many children in the waiting room playing with the Toys.  And I was so proud of Bing who was taking turns, asking nicely to play with toys, and sharing the ones he did have.  There were two brothers who were physically punching each other, and almost none of the other children ever shared.  Even when one little girl had ALL the toy trains in her arms, and they were spilling all over the place, she still would not give even 1 to Bing.  I intervened saying how it is nice to share and such a good idea.  She said "no", and pointed to a plastic egg on the floor and said "he can play with that", as another train car spills from her arms.

Bing waited, nicely.  Waited for his turn.  When she got bored and left, Bing then started playing with the toys.  When the girl saw him playing, she came running back and tried to take all the trains away from him.  He shared half the trains nicely with her, and kept a few for himself.  I was so proud!

... and at the same time, I'm looking at all these horribly behaved children and thinking "What is YOUR excuse for being so naughty?"

But I shouldn't do that... that's bad.

I'll just focus on the milestones my joyful Bing has passed through, and ready myself for the ones coming up.

... like the "I'm going to stop flopping on the floor and screaming bloody murder every time my Dad says 'No candy' while in the Wal-Mart checkout line"