Big Boy

Dear Jonah,

You're a big boy these days! Seriously, you have overcome two big battles lately and I'm so proud of you. The first comes with your shoes. You've never been a big fan of wearing shoes or socks, but the only kind of shoes you are comfortable wearing are the Robeez kind. We tried to buy you tennis shoes, but you would cry and tear them off of your feet so fast that I wasn't sure how we would ever transition you. However, you did it. We bought you special "big boy" shoes that have balls on them and light up when you walk. You enjoyed playing with them, but would not allow us to put them on your feet. One day when you were eating breakfast your daddy put them on you without you noticing and that was all it took. You never seemed to noticed and you walked flawlessly from the moment we put  you down. You now love showing off your ball shoes and I am so proud with how you just "grew up" to wearing tennis shoes.

The other battle was the bottle. Ever since you were 12 months old I have been trying to get you to give up the bottle. You wouldn't. You learned to drink water or juice out of a sippy cup, but milk HAD to come out of a bottle. If you tasted milk in a sippy cup you would grunt and throw the cup across the room. Bottles were also a necessity for bedtime. It was almost overwhelming to think of how I was going to break the addiction. Yet, you rose to the challenge.

Your daddy and I went on a date on your half birthday (November 3rd)... our goal was to have you off the bottle at 18 months and that's the day you quit. It wasn't intentional, but the babysitter forgot to give you a bottle and she told me you cried for 10 minutes before falling asleep. I was sure you sat in your crib and screamed "Ba-ba" but the point was... you did it! We went with it. From that moment on we only gave you sippy cups and you drank out of them. You didn't throw them or protest anymore. The only times it was noticeable was when you went to bed. You would cry pretty hard for a while.

For three days this went on and then you stumbled across one of Havana's dolls where you feed the doll a bottle. You were mesmerized. You fed that baby it's bottle for at least 20 minutes if not longer. Your daddy and I were joking that it was like therapy for you - well, I guess it was because after that play time you never cried for your bottle again.

You are now officially my big boy and I love you with all of my heart!