Bye Bye Baba

I've been saying that I need to get rid of Wyatt's bottle for about 6 months now but I've never gotten to it. He will be 2 years old in July. Anytime he was cranky or tired, or whatever I could just give him his bottle and everything was better. It was last Wednesday I think when I decided to buy him two new nipples because his old ones were soooo stretched out and tearing. When I presented this new bottle to him he went to put it in his mouth and took it out quickly, looked at it, then threw it across the room. Then he cried, "NO. Milk, Milk!" He pointed to the kitchen where he thought I might be hiding the old nipple. Unfortunately I had thrown all old bottles away. Maybe it was to my advantage though I thought. I couldn't go back now, unless I wanted to dig through the trash. And besides it was a good little push to get me to take the bottle away. I tried putting milk in the sippies. I tried chocolate milk, everything. It's Monday now and he has not had one drop of milk since Wednesday.

I realized that I was the one holding him back and this is why. I'm so afraid of my kids not getting enough calories. Seems silly but my kids come out tiny, and are always like in the 5th percentile for weight when I take them to their check ups. I just want them to eat! Bianca was such a picky eater that I let her keep her bottle until she was almost 3. Terrible I know. After we took her bottle away she still ate little and still doesn't eat much which bothers me but somehow she seems to survive and be relatively healthy. Wyatt on the other hand..... Since I've taken the bottle away I feel like I haven't left the kitchen. He calls to me from the couch, Mommeeee! He wants some juice. Then he'll come to the fridge when he sees me open it and get out the hot dogs. He wants vitamins, corn, nuggets, sandwich. Anything and everything. I can't tell you how happy I am! He seems to be a lot happier too. He's eating more balanced meals and drinking more water and juice.

When he gets tired or is upset he still calls out for milk until I show him the new bottle, then he remembers and asks for juice. I'm not thrilled that he isn't drinking any milk, so we'll be working on that. Taking him out without milk was another story. I couldn't calm him down from a tantrum in the store or at church with the bottle so it was a little more work. Also I couldn't just give it to him when I wanted him to get sleepy for nap or bedtime so I was nervous about that too. The first couple days after I took it away were really not pretty but overall I'm glad it's gone. Now onto the next task of moving him into his big boy bed. One thing at a time right!