Progress

As a parent, you are constantly receiving advice on how you should raise your kids. When M was a baby, I was always hearing that she should give up her binky, (she gave it up at 15mo), or she needed to be potty trained by 9mo (yes, people honestly believe that). For the record, she was potty trained at 22mo. Now, I hear that J should give up his "tag" (blanket). My thought is that he probably won't be taking it on dates when he is older...he will give it up when he is ready. I also get, "so, how long are you planning on nursing K?". Well, my thought all of those things is, "like each family, we will be done when it is right for our family". Well, I thought that I was ready to be done nursing K, (now that we are ready to move on to a bottle, I hear, "I CANNOT believe that you would stop before he is a year. Really? Does it bother you that much? I have been told that I am mean. Hmm...really?). He will be 10mo in 2days. I was anticipating the worst when it came to weaning K. I thought that I was going to gradually cut back his feedings and that I would still get to comfort nurse him before bed & naps. Once he learned how to take a bottle, he decided that it was much more convenient than nursing. A week after starting him on the bottle, he is refusing to nurse. I thought that was what I wanted, but it went much faster than I had anticipated. Bottle feeding is a bit annoying to me. It's much more convenient, (for me), to not have to worry about preparing a bottle, but I am not going to go back because it just doesn't make sense to reverse the progress. He had another big achievent this weekend. He is finally sleeping in his crib! He loved his carseat & bunting, (Mark & Heather, we have loved that little bunting so much! Thank you!) so much that he has insisted on sleeping in it, (since birth). He has outgrown it, so I have been working on getting him into his crib & sharing a room with his brother. I attempted to get a photo of him sleeping in his crib, but he was facing a direction that was not conducive to achieving a flattering angle. Oh, well..it's just a mommy shot. :) I put a fuzzy blanket in his crib with him, hoping that it would remind him of his bunting...he likes to be touching a piece of it at all times. I know that I am in trouble...once again, I have a boy with a WHITE lovey blanket. I'm not sure if it's the formula, solids, or sharing a room with brother, but he is now sleeping in later. We are so blessed to have sleepers. Our kids sleep until 9 or 10am almost every day. We need to start working on getting M up earlier so that she can be used to it when school starts. Speaking of M...she has already lost 2 teeth. They are fully grown in already. She has had 5 teeth loose for about a year. She refuses to wiggle, or let us wiggle them. She was playing outside today & bonked her knee on her mouth. Blood was spurting everywhere & one of her top teeth is now hanging by a thread. I offered to yank it, but she went a little wild at that thought. She insisted on applesauce for dinner & is talking so that her tongue doesn't touch her tooth. We're hoping that it doesn't fall out in her sleep. It's hard to tell in the photo...but the tooth is just hanging there. This was taken after I had gotten the blood cleaned up.