Day 423: Bye bye bottles!

I have big news. Really big, huge, great news. You might want to sit down...

We are officially off the bottle! Drop the balloons, pop the champagne! Maddie actually hasn't had a bottle for about 2.5 weeks now, but I didn't want to proclaim victory too quickly. But I think I can now safely say that the bottles are a thing of the past. This is another one of those things that you just don't think about until you are actually having to deal with it. How hard could it be? Just give her milk in a cup, right? Ha! Wrong! Turns out these little people get pretty attached to those bottles. And seeing as my girl is known for her iron will, I was gearing up for quite a fight over this one.

Truth be told, I didn't really care. I was happy enough to let her keep the bottle till she was 2. But then you start hearing these little voices saying things like, "It'll ruin her teeth" and "It'll only be harder later on" and "You're a bad, bad mommy." Some of these voices are just in your own head, and some are actually those of other moms who think it's totally acceptable and tons of fun to tell you what to do. So when I saw that she was growing less interested in her daily bottles, I succumbed to the voices and took them away cold turkey just to see what would happen. Turns out Maddie is a little trooper. She wasn't thrilled, but she went with it and here we are almost three weeks later and I'm pretty sure she's forgotten all about them. There was a scary moment at the Children's Festival last weekend when the kid next to her was handed a bottle to keep him happy. She stopped playing and stared at him for a while and I was ready for all hell to break loose. But she decided to let it slide. So cross that one off the list of things to do before she goes away to university - or the circus, or whatever she chooses to do with her life.

Now back to these voices. I'm telling you, they are everywhere. And as my stubborn little girl has thus far refused to stand, walk or say a single word I hear them quite frequently. It always amazes me that people feel so comfortable offering up their opinions on these things. They range from the subtle: "Still not walking? Hmm..." to the blunt: "Take her to the doctor, there's something wrong with her." And sometimes, on really lucky days, the opinions come complete with advice too. I really do try to remember that the holders of this great wisdom mean well, but any mom can tell you that it gets more than a little tiring.

I'm sure that many of us are sitting here nodding our heads in sympathetic agreement right now. But could it be, is it possible, that we are as guilty of this offense as the rest of them? Several good friends of mine are pregnant and having babies right now, and I admit I find myself having to bite my tongue to prevent myself from offering up my own How-To guide to parenting. And sometimes I don't bite it quite fast enough. Sometimes I'm a few minutes into my diatribe on why 2 months is not too young for infant cereal before I suddenly realize I have become the dreaded Know-It-All-Mom. Be honest, you do it too, don't you? We all do. Although some, perhaps, more rudely than others. Chalk it up to the legacy of motherhood, along with random irrational mood swings and the much-loved muffin top belly. Ah, motherhood... don't you just love it?


I've decided to add a few advertisments to the blog. Call me a sell-out if you must. I prefer an entrepreneur or, better yet, a "go-getter." Does it help any if I vow to you that the ads you will see here will always be relevent and will only be for baby products I have actually used and that have actually worked? In other words, you will never see a Bumbo or a "I love Mom" cloth bib or a Diaper Genie or... ah, you get the point. So these are the cups that have at long last replaced the bottles...