DAY 696... Adios Botella

I have been dreading the day that I would have to take the bottle away from Aniston. Spencer and I had made a decision that after her 1st birthday, there would be absolutely no more bottles. Well, Aniston got almost 2 weeks after her birthday of the bottle, basically because Mom hates seeing her baby unhappy, then yesterday I cut her off cold turkey. Such a mean mommy.

I have always been super bothered by children, who are over a year old, sucking on their binky's or still drinking out of bottles, especially in public. Kind of makes me feel like the child is doing the parenting instead of the parent. I know that everyone does things their own way, and everyone has a right to do things their own way, especially when it comes to raising their own children, but with that said, I get to raise my daughter however my husband and I see fit.

Luckily we didn't have to worry about the binky. Aniston only used hers for about 2 months before she decided it was more fun to chew on it and play with it than actually use it. The bottle however, was a different story. We started experimenting with new cup cups (that's what we call them), and how she would react to them at around 4 months old. She did great during the day, but when it came to nap times or bed times, she was not a happy camper. She needed that bottle. She needed that comfort. We had already taken away her milk at bedtime, so she was already feeling pretty sassy about going to bed with water (I really want her to have nice teeth, and milk at bedtime interferes with my dreams for her teeth) so when we gave her water in a cup cup, it was a disaster! But yesterday, I just decided that if the bottle was going to disappear, than it needed to go away completely! I reached into the cupboard and threw every single bottle away! Aniston's favorite bottles only cost $2.50 for 3 of them, so I really didn't feel too bad about that.

And you know what? She did awesome!!! I am so proud of my little lady! Even though it was a hard day (she had to have her blood drawn... so sad) she drank from her cup cups like it was nothing. She didn't even ask for her bottle. When I say ask I mean sign. PS - yesterday I taught her please and thank you and now she is signing them like champ. Such a smart and polite little girl.

I feel like I am forcing my baby to grow up a little, and I have been desperately trying to fight that. But at the same time, I am so impressed and so excited to see Aniston Kate take on new challenges, and even more she her excel at these challenges!

Moral of the story... Sometimes you just gotta quit cold turkey in order to be able to move on and become a better, stronger, and smarter person. If a 1 year old can make these changes... so can you!