Bye Bye Bottle

First of all, I can hardly believe that it is September and my favorite time of year is here - Fall! I love the pumpkins and the cooler weather. Plus my lawn turns green again. And, the kids go back to school. Then there are all the fresh off the tree peaches, yum. Oh, and you can't forget fresh apples. What is not to love? I bought a box of apples and canned 6 1/2 quarts of applesauce. Then I bought a box of peaches and then received another box from a neighbor's tree. So far I have canned (or put up as Grandma Helen would say) 11 quarts of peaches and I still have to do one box. I am actually about to start up again right now and I should get about twelve quarts.

S1 is finally off of the bottle! He still doesn't drink very well or regularly from a normal cup, but if desperate could manage somewhat. S1 is drinking mostly out of sippy cups that have straws built in because I couldn't get him to use any other kind. Then today S3 was using a cup with a spout and S1 took it from him and drank out of it! I guess he's realized that he's bigger than S3 and should be able to at least do the same things as the baby. We have been phasing out the bottle for S1 for some time now. Especially once I noticed he was using it solely for comfort, just holding it (although it still had to be full) and not drinking it unless he was really upset. He still won't tell me when he is thirsty so I have to offer all the time. He tends to drink the most when he gets home from school. We aren't even bringing one to chuch anymore. It is funny to see an almost seven year old chugging from a bottle.

Part of the reason I hadn't tried to wean S1 sooner was that when we had tried it before, he had gotten dehydrated because he wouldn't drink from any other cup or straw. Then I also couldn't figure out how to wean him while the baby was still using a bottle. But luckily S3 is good with a cup and they both have been weaned from the bottle gradually together. S3 is going to bed without one now but he has started cutting molars and will wake up in the middle of the night screaming and the only thing that works to get him back to sleep is a bottle. Prior to the molars he wasn't drinking in the night. So I look forward to those teeth getting in and sleeping through the night again.

Speaking of which, S1 and S3 are asleep but S2 is still cruising around so I need to send him off to dreamland. Dad is off on a "guys night out" so I am the lone enforcer tonight.