The Biggest Milestone of All

I've watched my family reach many major milestones over the past several years. Tai is in preschool and already knows more facts about animals than I do. He's also becoming an expert on dragons and other mythical creatures. He can write his name, count up to 43, and even do basic addition and subtraction.

Quynh is walking (and running, and climbing up on things, and jumping off them, and generally putting herself in mortal danger daily). She's even speaking in full sentences ("Let me see that, please!") Her car seat is now front-facing, so she spends car rides counting the things she sees out her window. ("fire hydrant! street light! mail box! 2 mail box! 4, 5, 7, 8!")

But I think the most stunning of all the recent milestones is the simple fact that we can now keep our toilet paper on the spindle, where it belongs. Seriously, this is huge. We moved into this house in 2003. Six months later we adopted Buttons as a 12-week-old puppy. While we made efforts to train her not to pee in the house or chew on the furniture, she quickly trained us not to keep the roll of toilet paper within her reach.

Buttons did mature into a well behaved dog and I do think the toilet paper might have gone back on the spindle for a while. But it was short lived. Tai was born at the end of 2006 and as soon as he learned to crawl he headed right for the TP like he was on a mission. (I think Buttons may have tipped him off.)

By the time Tai outgrew his desire for Toilet Paper Mischief (and moved on to Bigger and Better Mischief, like splashing in the dog's water bowl) Quynh's birth was imminent, so I think we figured "why bother?" and continued to keep the paper up on the vanity, or on the toilet tank.

Well, here we are. One day about a month ago I thought, "hmmmmm...I wonder...." and I put the toilet paper back on the spindle to see if anyone would notice. So far, so good. I think that Quynh is beyond the point of thrilling herself by un-spooling and entire roll of TP. Modelling herself closely after her older brother, she has already moved on to Bigger Things, like climbing on furniture, jumping on beds, and banging on computer keyboards. Since we're done having kids I think I can safely declare that our toilet paper is back where it belongs for good.

Until we get a kitten.