Milestone Week

The past eight days have been so full of milestones you would think it had been a year.

This week marks the end of our original two year assignment.  We've officially been in Indonesia for two years now.  It's amazing how quickly it has truly flown by.  It's almost starting to feel like home.  I mean, I even did yard work last week...though my staff laughed at my unique method for removing coconuts from our palm trees.  (I used the pole for the pool vacuum....our gardener, once he heard what I did, decided to climb the tree and remove them the more traditional way).  Today I even added weather stripping to some of the doors in an attempt to keep the mosquitoes outside without calling the handyman provided to us.  We also have decided that Sundays will be "a day without staff".  No drivers, nannies or maids came today.

As big as those events are, they pale in comparison to our kids' milestones.

I'll start with our son.  Last week, my son decided to scare us all by falling in the pool and spending a few petrifying seconds floating face down before I could grab him and lift him out.  This week, he has made up for it by jumping from the pool wall and kicking his little legs to swim to us.  Not quite buoyant yet but he sure is trying. 

The bigger event happened today.  He no longer sleeps in a crib.  We have converted his crib to the toddler bed so he can crawl in and out when he is ready.  Climbing in, once we gave him a step stool, was easy.  Climbing out proved a little more challenging, until I showed him how.  Then, in a flashback to my youth, he insisted on practicing the technique dozens of times, wanting praise from us each time he did it, until he had it mastered.  He is less than eighteen months old.

The honor for the biggest milestone of all, however, goes to our four year-old daughter.  Yesterday, for the first time, after having a bike for just since Christmas, she tried to ride her bike without the training wheels.  She was very apprehensive initially, so after five unsuccessful tries - all without falling, but all without really trying - I stopped it and we went swimming.  While we were swimming, I reminded her of all the things she does today that she couldn't before - swimming, ice skating, cutting with scissors, walking.  I told her the only thing preventing her from riding the bike was she didn't believe it possible.  As long as she believed she could do it, she would.

After swimming, she wanted to try again.  First try, she pulls it off.  Today (Sunday), she progressed from riding unassisted, to stopping unassisted, to starting unassisted and even made turns.  I think by the end of the week she'll be riding in loops and will have the biggest opportunity for freedom a person has until they get their first car.  Bikes open a whole new world for kids.

I have video I'll be posting later in the week.  For now, the pictures will have to suffice.

My wife and I recounted the major development milestones our daughter achieved during her 5th year (age 4).  They are pretty remarkable:

1)  Bike with training wheels.
2)  Bike without training wheels
3)  Stopped sucking her thumb
4)  Sleeps without her security blanket
5)  Started doing math (simple addition, she's not Rain Man)
6)  Wrote her first words
7)  Read her first words (she can almost read "Green Eggs and Ham")
8)  Uses a toilet without assistance