Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Buh-Bye, Formula

Never a dull moment, these days. Changes, big and small.

Michael's whipping out the lower-lip suck again.



That, combined with some drooling, biting, gnawing, and excessive chewing, and- best of all- the far-too-frequent-as-of late appearance of Crankypants McFussykins...



... well, all of that tells me that we're starting up on a teething cycle again. Yay! (not)

I suppose it's about time, as he's had the same five teeth for what seems like forever, unless you also include those lower-right and upper-left lateral incisors that have been cowering just beneath the gum line for months now, never budging.

I'm quaking in fear a little bit, and we're nowhere near getting to those pesky molars yet, or those evil canines.

Or are we?

Abby started getting both when she was just a bit older than Michael is now, but she already had all of her other teeth by then. Not that it's going to matter to Michael's molars or canines that he hasn't finished up with those eight front teeth yet. When it's time, it's time, I suppose.

In the meantime, he's working hard at his newest challenge: walking. I'm a little surprised, now that he's become so much more focused on working at it, that it's taking him so long to get the hang of balancing out in the open. I want to say that it happened more quickly for Abby, but chances are that my memory is simply skewed, and even if it's not: different kid now, right?

He's still managing to break his own records each day, however slow his pace might seem to me. He took twelve steps across the living room this evening.

He's also started developing a new form of self-transportation that I've dubbed the knee-shuffle. He takes to one knee, and drags himself across the floor with his other leg in some kind of a crawl/walk compromise. I really don't get it, because it looks terribly uncomfortable, and certainly doesn't get him to where he's going any faster than crawling does. But I imagine that it's helping him build some important muscles, and perhaps some confidence, and that can only be a good thing.

The biggest change of all, though? The end of the formula era (and good riddance). If I never have to smell it again, it will be all too soon. We've been working towards this moment for the last couple of weeks now, slowly decreasing the formula ratio until we were down to 75 milk/25 formula. And tonight was the last bottle that he will have with any formula at all.


Though I have no particular love for formula, and definitely won't miss its added cost, Tom and I were feeling a bit sentimental about the moment (hence, the picture), not least because it also signals the impending end of bottle-feeding.

The washing and preparing, I will not miss (though, for now, I'll simply be transitioning to an equal level of washing and preparing of sippy cups, instead), but the move away from bottles is a move away from Baby and toward Toddler. So, I made sure to hold him through the feeding, even though he's a big boy now, and in recent days takes his own bottle in a chair by himself more often than not, and to treasure the moment.

Because pretty soon, my baby will be a baby no more.