Er, I guess a link might help…
Yeah, that’s pretty much my thoughts. One day makes that much difference? Besides I figure if I introduce it gradually when we start losing the formula he won’t be freaking out that ‘this doesn’t taste right’ and refuse to drink it at all. We just buy one of the 500mL of whole milk and keep it in the fridge for him, anything more goes to waste as I prefer 1%.
JohnT She looks so cute!
I keep meaning to reply to you - nice to hear from you! Congratulations on your son! That must be tough, being the sole food source for your baby! At our four-month checkup my pediatrician said it would be fine to introduce the sippy or just a plain old cup. She said you might be surprised, some kids pick right up on it. Since I’m bottle feeding it hasn’t been a burning issue for me, but I have tried the cup now & then and they’re not bad at it.
Our girl was breastfed only for the first 5 months, and couldn’t figure out bottles at all (well, she finally managed it at around 8 months, but that was well after the cup!)
Anyway, we never got the standard “sippy-cup” thing with a spout - we had one with a built-in straw which I highly recommend at least trying out … I don’t know if it’s any easier or harder really, but it’s very nice now that if we go out we don’t have to worry about taking big clunky baby cups with us, just pop a straw in the nappy bag.
We started with that, and also just a plain old cup, at around 5 months or so. It took her quite a while to get the hang of it … maybe about 2 months with the straw, and it took her another 6 months to be able to drink from the plain cup without half the water ending up on her shirt. I’d just say have a go with whatever type of cup you like and don’t worry if half of it ends up on her front. I’d practise with water rather than milk though!
I’m wondering…
When does the repetition end?
“Mommy, I wanna go to the park. I wanna go to the park, Mommy.”
“Sophie, we can’t. We’re in the middle of a four hour drive to see your grandmother.”
“I wanna go to the park! Pweeee? I wanna go to the park, mommy.”
“Sophie, hush.”
“Daddy? I wanna go to the park.”
“Sophie, we just told you that we can’t. Maybe tomorrow.”
softly “I wanna go to the park.”
seeing a photograph
“That’s my birthday party!”
“That’s right! That is your birthday party.”
“NO! Thats my birthday party!”
“Sophie that’s just what I said!”
“My birthday party.”
(She does know her pronouns, the difference between “my” and “yours”, and uses them properly, so that’s not the issue in the last example.)
Never, I’m afraid. Today it’s “mommy, I wanna go to the park, I wanna go to the park” In a couple of years it’ll be “I just wanna watch one more show before bed; I just wanna read one more book before bed; I just want one more drink of water before bed” which progresses to “I don’t like my second grade teacher; he’s mean. I don’t like my third grade teacher, she’s mean” which progresses to “Mom, can I have some new makeup? Mom, can I have some new jeans? Mom, can I have some new money?” ad infinitum. The exact phrases being repeted change, the repetition is forever, I’m afraid.
Good luck!
Right now, we’re dealing with “I want that for Christmas” in response to every tv commercial, newspaper circular, billboard, etc. Doesn’t matter if it’s age-appropriate, Mariah will put qualifiers in. Somewhere along the line, she’s become convinced that she’s going to have a baby (in the near future, I mean) so if it’s a baby or toddler toy, she’ll say “I want that for Christmas for my little baby” if it’s something much too “old” for her, it’s “I want that for Christmas when I’m bigger”. I’m about to scream! I’m also about to make a rule that, as soon as Christmas is over, I don’t want to hear anything about next Christmas until next Thanksgiving!
Yeah, we’re still hearing about Sophie’s upcoming birthday… you know, the one that we celebrated just a month ago. :rolleyes:
:love:
(Why doesn’t this board have a “love” (heart) smilie?)
You know, I learned something recently that I thought I’d share.
The babies have become sooo delightful now that they’re older - I’m actually (finally) starting to like being Mommy. Zoe actually SAID “Mom-my” the other day!!
But it’s still a problem with Bryce pulling Zoe’s hair. So now I’ve got two playpens - I love it b/c my fear is that our living room will never be truly babyproofed anyway & now and then I do need to pee. Being able to put them in playpens next to each other feels better than segregating him in the next room when he’s being rowdy.
And Bryce wasn’t getting “No!”. I’d pull him off her, set him aside, give him other toys; I tried putting him in his crib, tapped his little hand, shouted – nothing. He’d just laugh at the funny new faces Mommy was making and go right back at it. And he’s imitating me - he’ll say “Oooo” while he shakes his head. It’s too cute. But the concept is beyond him.
So now I just clap my hands loudly and say “Stop!” and separate them, and I don’t worry about the discipline at all. I cease the behavior, consistently, but have let go of teaching the concept.
Because what I realized is that when he laughed at my attempts at discipline, it made me angry. Really angry. There’s just nothing like someone laughing at you when you’re trying to teach them “No”.
I talked to my sister the psychologist about this & she agreed that 9 months is too early to grasp concepts (at least for my kid). Actually she says they can’t reason until they’re about 4 years old (does that sound right to you guys?) and that what happens is perfectly nice, intelligent, reasonable parents go off on their kids because the kids aren’t responding to logic & they wind up smacking them. And you know, I could see how that could happen.
My feeling is that the best way for me to succeed as a parent is to set up the situation to make it possible. So if I can learn to expect age-appropriate behaviors from my children, then those behaviors won’t upset me. That’s my best guess, anyway. I think that’s one reason why it helps to connect with other parents & find out what everyone else is going through.
So I just thought I’d share. It is amazing how angry and frustrated one can become. And even if they hate the playpens, they can still tough it out for 15 minutes so I can do the dishes or whatever. Having a lit-tle bit of control (now that they’re older) feels like the right choice.
Anyway, that’s where I’m at. And wishing I could bend and stretch time over Thanksgiving to allow for more visiting! Hope y’all have a great weekend!
JohnT - Your daughter is a doll!
It absolutely helps to know what’s age appropriate! When Mariah was a baby, and through toddlerhood, I took her to a local place called The Family Center, for playtime. I took her there so she could socialize with kids her own age, since her sisters were so much older than her. Well, a lot of the mothers there were very young, and inexperienced, and would get so angry and frustrated when their 16 month old baby wouldn’t share, or something like that. Well, that’s kind of like getting frustrated with your dog for not fixing dinner! Some expectations are just unreasonable, and it really helps to know what’s reasonable and what’s not.
Like everything else, there’s a range. My oldest daughter could reason fairly well when she was barely three (then lost the knack when she turned 12 
), but four is about right. You can’t expect a kid much younger than that to follow rules with any consistency. That doesn’t mean you don’t enforce the rules, just have reasonable expectations. One of the reasons young children often thrive in pre-K is that things are set up so that it’s easier to follow the rules than not to. It’s all repetition, and they know exactly what’s expected of them. Small children love routine (which is why it’s really hard to bend the rules to accommodate “just this once”; when a four year old does something the same way for two days in a row, in their little mind that makes it an established tradition).