Parenting Milestones

I know it happened awhile ago, but as is everything surrounding life with kids, it was one of those two-steps-forward-one-step-back type of things. It's not as if we've been on the edge of our seats in the evenings, waiting and wondering when we'd hear the summons and what we'd do when we did. But for some reason, this week it's really hit me that we have TWO children in our house, and they are both going to sleep, for the night, at a fairly predictable hour. And we aren't likely to hear from them until another, far distant, and also predictable hour! This very fact, this certainty and confidence in our children's nighttime sleep pattern is such a revelation! By 8PM - earlier if we're on top of our game - Brooks and I are guaranteed at least two, uninterrupted hours of time to ourselves! (Assuming, of course, that we don't fall asleep on the sofa first.) I think this must be one of the great milestones in families with multiple children; that moment or day when you realize you have succeeded in getting ALL OF YOUR KIDS TO SLEEP AT THE SAME TIME. Wow. It's awesome. I feel as if someone should present us with an award of some kind.

I'm realizing that all of the legendary milestones of parenthood focus solely on the child: first smile, first tooth, first step. And those are great, of course. But what about the real parenting milestones?