Bye Bye Bottles

I never intended to have a toddler with a bottle....but best laid plans and all...you know how those go! Gabe ended up on bottles well past a year and we just went with the flow. His ped has been thankfully encouraging about it since Gabe is a very picky eater, and our main concern has been getting enough calories in him. We did wean him down to only a bedtime bottle by 15 months.

Much to my shock and surprise (and joy!) Gabe decided a week ago that he is done with bottles. We have been offering him one at bedtime and for the last few weeks he's only had about 2 or 3 ounces out of it before giving it back. A week ago he refused it all together, for 3 nights in a row. We just went with it and now he is completely off bottles and doesn't miss them at all. He gets a sippy of milk instead, with a 'splash' of chocolate flavoring, since he won't drink it unsweetened. I spent all this time dreading the day when I finally took them away, and anticipating total meltdowns...and all that stress was wasted on nothing. :D

Elena on the other hand seems more than ready to give up her bottle if I were to take it away. I have been offering her staw cups of water with meals, and she took to them almost right away. I offered her straw sippy of formula yesterday and she drank it all in about 10 minutes. We had a little spillage and she probably needs a full length bib...but overall she did really well! I have decided to offer her sippies during the day and only bottles in the morning and at bedtime. I hope to have her off bottles by 9/10 months so long as she doesn't mind. I'll be happy to put away the bottles for good!

Pumpkin Carving and Costumes

We had a lot of fun this Halloween as a family. On Saturday we had our first pumpkin carving ever. I will admit that I don't enjoy pumpkin carving. The guts kind of gross me out. Last year we decided to just skip it, since Gabe wouldn't remember anyway. But this year we both really wanted Gabe to 'help' carve his first ever pumpkin so I but the bullet and we did it (though Nathan did all the gutting and carving!). Gabe wasn't sure what he thought of pumpking guts. He was hesitant to touch them and then once he did, he decided they were slimy and gross (guess he's just like his Mama!). He did taste a tiny piece that was on the floor but promptly made a nasty face and spit it right back out. He had a lot of fun using the pumpkin scraper to try and empty the bowl of pumpkin guts, though. Elena had much more fun with the bowl of pumpkin guts. She threw her hands in there and went to town, but was sadly disappointed by the taste.







Saturday night we visited City Girl's house for a fun Halloween party - pizza and brownies and Simpson's Halloween - oh my! I wish we could have stayed later, we really enjoyed ourselves. The costumes were great. Thanks City Girl!





On Sunday we got both the kids dressed up - Gabe as a dinasour and Elena as a cat - and went trick-or-treating. Elena obviously had no clue what we were doing and Gabe didn't understand much either besides the fact that there were suckers in his pail and he wanted them. He was bored quickly but I had fun getting them both dressed up. We visited a few houses and then went to my inlaws for dinner. All in all, we had a fun Halloween.