I’m feeling awful warm and snuggly about my kids these days.  Yes, they drive me to the brink of sanity DAILY, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love ‘em more than my luggage.

Liam has been talking more and more and the things that come out of his mouth just charm me again and again.   He may be an ornery turd on many occasions, but you can’t deny that he’s cute.  And when he’s requesting his third viewing of “Cars” that day… well that’s kinda cute too.  And so is the little dark look and stomped foot when I say, “No way, Jose.”  With his newfound vocabulary, we’re having a much easier time getting our requests, demands and reprimands through to him.  Sure, he doesn’t listen 100% of the time (what kid does?), but to see him actually DO something we tell him to?  Well that’s just plain awesome.

The other day, he had a little pan of cereal, much like the one pictured above.  He loves me to put his cereal for breakfast into one of the bowls or pots that came with the play kitchen he and Evie got for Christmas.  He had it over on the “counter” in the play kitchen and was having himself a little feast.  Evie determined that someone was eating something and since she is all “FOODNOMNOMNOM” these days, she booked over there to share in the fun.  Liam’s instinct was to push her aside and thwap her on the head.  I reprimanded him and then, not hoping for much, asked very nicely if he could share a little with her.. let her have a little too?  At best, I figured he might portion out a few kernels of cereal in front of her and keep the rest to himself.   But, bless his heart, he passed over the whole pan full and let her have her fill.

Of course, then she up-ended it all over the floor.  But seriously, for a minute there, I thought my heart was going to burst from pride.

He’s been doing that more and more lately.  Listening to requests of mine and acting on them.  And I’ve been very sure to praise him heavily every time he does something kind to his sister or does something for me when I ask him to.  So far, he seems to really like the praise.  So I’m hoping this means we’ll see a lot more of this “Nice Liam” in the future.

They still don’t play that great together, but it’s coming, little by little.  Right now, they’re both sitting on the couch (sans cushions because that’s the only way Evie can climb on it is when the cushions are removed), eating some graham crackers for snack and watching “The Backyardigans”.  Evie will kick her feet and Liam will do the same and much giggling ensues.  Moments like these are golden.  They are golden because they are RARE.  More often than not, Evie has grabbed one of Liam’s cars that he has lined up so dutifully on the back of the couch (see above photo) and this earns her a shove and a thwack on the head.  She cries, I yell at Liam, lather, rinse, repeat.  So I make sure I enjoy the golden moments that much more.

Evie is knocking on the door of 15 months and is growing up before my very eyes.  She is WALKING.  Did I mention that?  In the last week or so, she has gone from cruising around furniture, to taking a step or two here and there when she thinks no one is watching to flat out walking across the floor.  Is her technique flawless?  Oh heck no. It’s a good thing this girl is cloth diapered because otherwise her rump would be black and blue from all the times she has plopped down on it.  But seriously.  WALKING.  God help us all.

She’s also getting better with the sippy cup.  Just today, in fact, I gave her some water with a splash of apple juice in it and she has downed that sucker.  This is amazing progress.  Now if I can get her drinking milk reliably out of a sippy cup, maybe she’ll decide to wean.

That’s a slippery slope right there.  Weaning.  I’ve never nursed for this long before and I think it’s actually pretty awesome.  I’m loathe to shut the door on our nursing relationship because it will also be shutting the door on nursing altogether.  At the same time, I know it’s natural for her to grow up and away from me as a source of nutrition.  And the nursing has been taking a toll on me health-wise because DUH, I am The Lame when it comes to things like taking vitamins and making sure I keep myself healthy.  But I don’t really want it to end.  At the same time I know that it has to.

*cough* Anyhow.  Where was I?

Oh yes.  My little girl.  With her wispy-curly hair (Fuzzhead, I often call her).   And her dimpled grins.  And her tendancy to turn really, really cranky if she’s not fed on time.  This girl loves FOOD.  She will eat ANYTHING.  And a lot of it while she’s at it.  She’s Liam’s polar opposite in the eating department, which is kind of a breath of fresh air.  In fact, if anything, she’s liable to steal your food from you.  I guess if she flashes that dimple at you while she does it, that makes it okay.

Okay, well Liam is trying to sit on Evie and she’s rubbing her eyes and acting tired (a whole two and a half hours EARLY!) so I guess the golden moment is over.  Time to return to reality.  Thanks for joining me on this rose-colored love-fest though!

When Harry was a baby, I totally chickened out on the sippy cup issue. He’d been nursed exclusively (obviously, with jarred baby food as well) until he was a year old. Then, instead of getting him drinking out of a sippy like I should have, I gave him whole milk in a bottle. (And I would put him to bed with said bottle of milk. Don’t yell at me, I already know what a completely STUPID thing that was to do.) It wasn’t until he was TWO AND A HALF years old that finally got him drinking out of a sippy cup. It was murderous. And a mistake that I vowed to never repeat with any subsequent children. Hence, my frantic search for the Perfect Sippy. I remembered how difficult and lengthy that search was with Harry, so I knew that Liam wouldn’t necessarily go ape for the first sippy cup I brought home. And I was right. So far, all the cups I’ve presented him with have been met with lukewarm response. He’s shown more interest in them since I’ve started adding apple juice to the water I’ve given him in these cups, but he’s still not wild about any of them.

The Nuby cup has been tried often. He’ll drink out of it, but has shown no real loyalty. Same with the Gerber cup. It’s missing a valve so it’s “spill proof” properties aren’t entirely intact. However, that’s been actually helpful in training him to realize that something will indeed come out of these cups if he works it right. Of both of these, he seems to enjoy the softer spout to bite on, but that might not be a good thing to get him used to.

We also have one of these Playtex ones, but the spout is hard and he hasn’t been as impressed with that style. Again, it’s a take it or leave it sort of cup. We purchased on of these Nuk learner sippy cups (like you see to the right. It cost a fortune and for some reason has been sitting in our sink getting nastier and nastier and since Kile is supposed to do dishes, he just hasn’t washed it and I haven’t washed it because DUDE, that’s his job now so… yeah. But the one time or two we tried it, he seemed to like it better than some of the others. So I might cave and wash it tonight and try it out on him again. See what the verdict is. But it did cost a fortune, so I’d sort of like to find a cheaper option.

We also got one of these Nuby (is it Nubby or Nooby?) straw cups but he doesn’t seem to quite grasp the whole straw idea yet. But I think he’ll like it when he finally does. We also have a couple of Take n’ Toss style cups that we’ve tried when he’s sitting up in his high chair. Like the Gerber, it’s been nice for teaching him that something will indeed come out of the spout when he drinks from it. But it’s not a real viable option for grabbing and going. And eventually, here in a month or two, we’d like to get him off bottles for good. So something more durable is definitely a must.

Harry used to have some cups very much like these Munchkin cups. They were ultimately his favorites and he used to carry them around with him everywhere we went. When we went on the Great Sippy Search all those years ago, this was the cup that won out for us. So I’d sort of like to get my hands on one of these, see what Liam thinks. I also wouldn’t mind trying out the Dr. Brown’s sippy, since we had such a great experience with their bottles. However, considering how expensive those bottles were, I imagine these aren’t cheap either.

So my question to you, dear readers, is what sippy cups worked for you and your rug rats? I’m going to Walmart tomorrow but I’m smarter than to assume this search will magically end tomorrow with the holy grail of sippy cups. I imagine this is going to be a search that endures for weeks on end. So please, give me your advice and let me know what worked for you. Cuz I will have this child off bottles sooner rather than later.