I Finally Did It!

I finally took Sam's bottle away from him on Friday. (can I get a whoop whoop!) I know, I know, you are supposed to do it when they are 1 instead of almost 2, but hey, I think I have already established the fact that I am not the best baby book instruction follower. Besides, I have always had the philosophy of not pushing things too hard.

Like with potty training for example. I was not the mom who sequestered herself at home for weeks on end with a naked child, putting him on the potty every hour on the hour to undoubtedly strive for bragging rights that he was out of diapers by the age of 2. Nope. I figured that when Bo was ready and interested, we would attack it then, but not any sooner. And at 3.5, he was, and we did. I knew he would not be a 10 year old in diapers, just like I know that Sam will not be a third grader riding his bike to school with a bottle of milk sticking out of his Spiderman backpack. It just won't happen.

And so, a year late, Sam is now bottle free and hating every minute of it.

We have gone from super easy nap times and bed times to screaming fits and throwing things out of the crib. Ever since Sam was about 1, we plopped him in his crib with a bottle (again, not the best rule follower) and he would fall asleep. It was great. Now don't get me wrong, this was not done out of laziness but out of survival. Bo was still such a high maintenance child at that point, that we just did what we could with Sam in order to deal with Bo. Sure, looking back on things, I would probably handle it differently, but at the time it's what made sense.

Which brings us back to today. A wonderfully happy and hilarious sweet-destroyer who will drink anything out of a cup, sippy, thermos, box or can; just not milk. In the 3 days he's been bottle free, the milk consumption in our house has plummeted drastically. On any given day he would probably drink at least 16-20 ounces of milk and is now down to about 0.2. He just won't do it. I don't get it, but whatever. It is what it is and in the wise words of my mom, "this too shall pass."

And in semi-unrelated news . . .coincidentally enough, ever since I put the 'do not enter' sign on Sam's door, he has slept through the night. Again, I don't get it, probably never will get it, but I'm lovin it and will take it! Who knows, maybe I'm on to something. Maybe all I need to do is put a 'milk in cups only' sign on the refrigerator door and all my problems will go away. Now wouldn't that be nice?!