March 13, 2011

i can do it myself

I give us maybe three or four months before we are perpetually late.  Why?  Because I'm pretty sure that I've got one of those kids who isn't going to let me help her do anything!  I'm not saying that is a bad thing, I'm just saying.

Ryann loves to be a little helper.  She can turn on the washer and dryer like a pro.  She doesn't always (ok ever) get the dial to the right setting, but she knows that you push the first button, turn the dial, and push the second button.  My mom and I have pretty much the same washer and dryer so she is getting lots of practice.  Now when we are at my parents house and Ryann hears either the washer or the dryer play the little happy all done tune, she gets super excited.  It cracks me up.

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Lately Chris has been taking Ryann outside to help fill the bird feeder in the mornings.  One morning last week it was just too cold for her to go out, and she just whimpered while we watched through the window.  Pretty pathetic and adorable all at the same time.

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And helping daddy load up the mini fridge.  She always has to see what you're doing and get in on the action.

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Well lately we have still been battling Ry actually eating solid foods.  She loves to eat cheerios, little crunchies and goldfish, but beyond that it is hit or miss.  Tonight after she took two bites of her dinner, and then decided to throw a huge fit about it.  We gave her a few minutes, offered her some peaches.  Same reaction, a couple bites and then she was just mad.  Finally I decided to just give her the spoon and see what happened.

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Wouldn't you know she had a great time trying to feed herself.  It was a little tough to handle considering I hate food being anywhere besides on a plate or in a mouth, but I know I just have to get past that.  Ry did get a bit frustrated from time to time because she couldn't quite master actually getting the food out of the bowl and in to her mouth, but with just a little help from daddy she managed.

Oh, and Ryann freaks out when we try to put a bib on her.  I have a feeling dinners in our house might be topless for a while.  :o)

Completely unrelated, this is what I got when I tried to take a few 'decent' pictures of Ry today.

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She was not happy with me (how dare I try and take pictures instead of letting her play with my camera), and her teeth were driving her crazy.  Ry only has five teeth that have actually broken the gums.  Her third and fourth teeth on the top have been coming down FOREVER, the just won't break through.  I feel like she is going to be teething until she is four.

Also completely unrelated... I'm looking for some tips and advice on weaning from the bottle/switching over to whole milk.  My baby is going to be 1 in fifteen days, and she is still getting four bottles of formula a day, totaling about 22-24 ounces.  She gets one when she wakes in the morning, after each nap, and before bed.  Also, she will take a drink out of her sippy cup, but that doesn't mean she actually swallows anything.  She usually just lets it dribble out of her mouth.

Help?  :o)

10 comments:

Ellen said...

We are in the middle of the sippy cup transition too. We are transitioning from breastfeeding instead of from a bottle, but it is the same battle. My advice is to just keep offering it to her. Linnea still won't drink a whole lot but we have made some progress. Try a regular "big girl" cup. She won't use a sippy but loves to drink out of a regular cup. It is more of a mess, but at least we have gotten her to drink a little bit.

Hang in there!

Unknown said...

Timmy turned 13 months on the 10th and we still bottle every now and then because Im lazy and it's fast :| I went to Walmart and bought 1 of every cup in the 6-12month range. He likes the softer nubby/munchkin ones but it took him a long time to get it. He would drool it all out too. One day it just clicked with him. Usually still when he wakes up he just screams and thrashes because even though he can use a cup its the LAST thing he wants to drink from!

And the actual switching to milk...I just did half milk/half formula until we were out of formula and was all milk from there!

Good luck!

Th@ Br@ said...

When I transitioned my daughter, it was also about the time she wanted to spoon herself. I started giving her bottles before bed and nap, and a "big-girl" sippy during the day.
Love the faces she gave. Mine have grown up with lenses in their faces; I have so many "leave me alone with that already" pictures :)
She's precious. Good luck with the transitioning.

Emily said...

We just had our little girl's 1-year appointment with her pediatrician on Friday...his suggestion, offer her milk out of the sippy cup or water out of the bottle. We haven't started this yet as she's still recovering from her four(!!!) shots she had to get. So we'll see!

Tysie said...

She has the most beautiful eyes!

Tara said...

I just did this with my baby and we mixed the formula/milk at different ratios over the course of a few weeks until she was getting all milk and still from the bottle. Once she was there, I offered the soft munchkin sippy (worked best for my oldest) and she didn't like it at all. I offered it a few days in a row for her afternoon bottle when she had just woken up and wasn't too hungry and one day it just clicked - about 13 months. I would say continue to try but don't force it. Cutting down on the amount of milk she drinks may help her eat more too. My oldest did sippys during the day beginning about 14 months but wouldn't get past the night bottle until she was 2 so just keep trying.

Anonymous said...

We pretty much went cold turkey on the bottles. I introduced a straw sippy with milk for snacks and dinner around 11.5 months (we were doing regular sippys with water from about 10 months) and while he didn't love it, he tolerated it and drank a wee bit. Then daycare switched him over to the big kid menu right after his first birthday and that ment straw cups with milk, not bottles and formula. To everyones surprise he did really well.

We still do one bottle at night before bed until we run out of formula and then that's it. His night time bottle will either have to go away or switch to water. I dont think he needs the calories, it's a comfort thing. He still loves the bottle and if he sees one will grab it and not let go (it's a fight to get him to let it go!) but as long as we keep them out of sight we have no problems.

I can say we went thru 4 different sippys to find one he liked. Now he'll use them all but at first we could only use the silicon spout ones with no flow regulator (we have a Dr. Whiels and a Munchkin one that he loved) and he's still confused when we switch between straw sippy and spout sippy because one needs to be tilted back and the other doesn't.

Carry Grace said...

I know every kid is different, but here is what I did with Henry and he never noticed.

For his bottles I just started mixing in milk with the formula. I started out with 1 oz milk/5 oz formula and just gradually increased the milk while decreasing the formula.

As for the sippy cup he wasn't a fan AT ALL. I picked one feeding a day and only gave him the sippy cup. The other feedings I have him the bottle. He finally realized that if he wanted his milk he was going to have to take the cup. Once he got 1 feeding down, I gave him the cup at a second feeding and so on until no more bottle.

I'm sure you will figure out what's best for Ryann.

Melissa said...

When we switched over from bottle to sippy cup and from formula to milk, we mixed half milk and half formula in the bottle until we finished with all the formula. As for switching from bottle to sippy, that wasn't that easy either. Aidan wouldn't drink formula from the sippy cup, but he would drink anything else, like juice or water. So we waited til we switched over to milk, and he started drinking from the sippy more often. we really liked the parent's choice sippy cups, and the gerber sippy cups as well. He didn't do so well with the nuby ones, the tip was so soft that when he sucked on it, the top compressed and the fluid leaked out all over him and the floor.

You really just have to find a brand that she likes, and figure out if she would take the sippy cup without the formula as well. Good luck!

tracy said...

dinners at our house are the same way! molly refuses to be fed, hates baby foods, and will NOT wear a bib. so for the time being she is shirtless and i am trying not to go crazy cleaning up the HUGE messes we have after every meal! good luck! luckily my older daughter outgrew the same habit pretty quickly, so hopefully ryann and molly will also!!!