Waiting for the 1st!

As a Mom, from the second your child takes their first breath you are constantly looking for their firsts.  First dirty diaper means their kidneys are functioning properly.  First successful latch on means now you are an official traveling food cart for your child and they are on the road to being the healthy chubby Gerber baby you dreamed of.  And these are just the 'firsts' in the first few hours of life.  From day one onward you are on the lookout. 

Of course, as any good Mother, you read every possible journal, periodical, baby book, and Google search to learn when all these first things should be happening.  You get nervous when their first hasn't happened at the same time little Timmy's first happened.  Try as we can not to compare our children to others, we can't help ourselves.  It's human nature.  Why is that kid running and mine is rolling like a top from room to room?  We want the firsts to happen quickly!

Once they finally walk, string some words together that make a somewhat intelligible sentence, and are able to interact with others without biting, you figure you are over most of the major hurdles.  Well....Take a breathe. Enjoy the moment and realize the walking and the talking was nothing.  The big stuff, the major FIRSTS are still to come.  My oldest daughter turned eight this year.  We are no longer Gabby, we want to called Gabriella.  She will walk with me but only until we reach the school and then it's super fast walk in hopes of losing me in the halls.  She has a style, an opinion, a little crush (though she will shoot you the 'no way' eyes if you ask her).  I love this little person and all these changes.  But I can't help but realize that with all this change there are bound to be some 'firsts' in our horizon.  It's inevitable.  Firsts that I'm sure will be hard, that will challenge all of us, and will break a few hearts.  

So with the first of the year coming, I stop and reflect on all those marvelous firsts and wish for a moment that I had stopped and maybe not wanted them to come so fast.  Because some of the ones that are going to be coming, I'm going to wish they would hold off another few years.