It’s been a little while since I’ve done one of these posts (ok, I’m already failing at the “wordless” part) – so here are some shots from our flight to Florida and our first day here!

Up at 3.30am and ready to hit the road by 4:30!

ps- that mirror distorts our faces, which is actually kind of funny.

Our little nugget, awake before her usual time but doing great.

The 3 of us on the plane, enjoying a snack.

There was an empty seat, so we installed our car seat and Peanut loved it.

She did so great! (details to come).

Waiting for daddy to get our luggage and enjoying the warm weather at the car rental lot.

Peanut, enjoying a walk along the water.

She loved walking around in the sand.

Ok, so one of her pantlegs is tucked in – it’s the cool thing to do.

Watching the sun set form the balcony,

while we enjoy dinner.

Cheers!

There are apparently two primary school of thoughts on dropping the bottle: (1) going cold turkey or (2) letting your kid dictate when they’re ready.  Here is some advice from the commenters:

(1) going cold turkey

been there done that (haha! awesome name)

I just decided on a day and dedicated that day to the big switch and when they got up they were only given the sippy cup all day long. No other choices. My oldest just took it and gave me no issues. My middle child refused to drink all day. He picked up the cup and hurled it at me and cried and cried and cried. After about 9 hours of refusing to drink and practically refusing to eat he finally gave up and sucked down a huge cup of milk. He wasn’t happy the next day when he woke up and I handed him a sippy cup but he took it and that was that.

Emily

We cut out the bottles cold turkey. Packed all the bottles away (so she couldn’t see them) and only offered the sippy cup, as recommended by our pediatrician….why prolong the inevitable. It took one day. Don’t get me wrong, it was one very long day…crying, throwing the cup, etc, but by that evening she was drinking out of the cup and hasn’t had a bottle since. The sippy cup with the straw worked best for us.

(2) letting your kid dictate when they’re ready

Turner

I’ve asked friends how that transitio at a year works and most of them just tell me that their child gave it up on their own when it was “their time”. Maybe like 13 or 14 months? One said their child went from wanting it one day to couldn’t care less.

Been there done that (kid #3)

When she recently turned a year old I told my husband I was going to do the same thing- switch everything over in one day. HAH. She would have nothing to do with that. After a whole day of refusing to drink and practically not eating anything I caved in and gave her a huge bottle- she sucked the whole thing down. I tried again the next day- she refused again. So I decided that I would wait a week and try again. She refused again. So I decided to wait until she as 13 months- by this time she was always taking a sippy cup at every meal and kept a water-sippy cup in her crib for when she would wake up during the night thirty. I picked a day right after she turned 13 months and she totally transitioned with no issues. She clearly was not ready right at 12 months even though she had been using sippy cups for months during meal time. I think the latest I would have let her go with the sippy cup would have been 14 months- but I don’t feel bad about her not having transitioned when we went for our 12 month appt. I told the dr. she would be off of them by the 15 month appt. and she was off of them by 13 months.

Lori @ I Can Grow People

All in all though, the whole transition takes some time and patience–just like going from breast to bottle. She’ll get it when she is ready!

Hilary

My son is 14 months today and still on a bottle but I’ll tell you why I’m not worried about it.

Jameson will drink from the sippy with a straw during the day but not in one sitting. This works at home but at daycare they don’t just leave it out for him to sip on all day so it’s not working there. I figure things will change naturally over time. He’ll start drinking more in one sitting at some point. He can do it, he’s just not given the opportunities he needs to make the change right now.

Cheryl

This probably isn’t helpful at all, but my son kept his bottle FOREVER… and you know what, he’s just fine. I tried taking his bottle away at one, and he had the same reaction as Peanut. I like to pick and choose my battles, and this just didn’t seem like it was something worth fighting for. At the end of the day I thought it was really important for him to be getting his milk intake, and I wasn’t all that concerned how he got that. So, basically I did offer the cup during the day, and if he refused, then he didn’t drink, but I still gave him a bottle at nap and bedtime. Then you can always revisit it in 4-6 months!

Kelly

My only advice is to not stress about it. My Daughter did the same thing, Would drink water and if I put milk in she would take a sip and immediately spit it out, even though she would drink milk in a bottle. I didn’t push her and she eventually weaned herself off of it. I would still give her a sippy cup of water with meals and she would drink that just fine. She took a bottle till about 18 months and then my son was on a sippy cup by 11 months. I think they just have their own agenda. It doesn’t hurt her either way. She will eventually take the sippy cup when she is ready.

Rebecca @ The Reluctant Housewife

Zoe had been drinking from a sippy cup for months and months by the time she turned 1, but the bottle was always at night and in the morning. I tried to go cold turkey, but inevitably, we wouldn’t have a clean sippy cup and would grab the bottle because it was there.

I think if Addi is having such a hard time with it, I would hold off a bit. But then when you and Jon decide that “today is the day” then just stick to your guns… and good luck! =)

–Some other advice (sippy cups, transitional sippy cups, and just plain ol’ patience)

Been there done that

One thing I would suggest is to always make sure and say what is in the cup- I repeatedly said- JUICE JUICE JUICE or MILK MILK MILK. so she learned the difference and wouldn’t take a sip and throw it at me! 

Lori @ I Can Grow People

We had the best luck with a starter sippy that had a soft spout on it–much like a bottle–so the change wasn’t too different.  Is Peanut partial to a particular brand of bottle/nipple? Maybe that brand makes a starter sippy that she could try. Then once she gets the hang of that you can switch to a sippy with a harder spout later when she is older. All in all though, the whole transition takes some time and patience–just like going from breast to bottle. She’ll get it when she is ready!

Hilary

For the record we have about 15 sippys in the house and he drinks out of them all minimally like this, so opting for the straw one as his official cup was just a matter of choice…

Emily

The sippy cup with the straw worked best for us.

kelley

my SIL has and they just swapped the bottle with the cups with straws.

Becky

Mine needs two kinds of sippys: playtex with a straw for water and take and toss with a straw for milk. One is hard and the other is soft – who knows why else?

Amber

We started to transition at about 11 months and gave Morgan 75% breastmilk/formula and then 25% whole milk. Each week I would give less and less of the formula/breastmilk (50/50, 25/75, 0/100). At about 13 months we finally gave up the night time bottle but it was definitely the hardest one to let go and took almost 2 months to finally get off that one.

The only cup we had good luck with is Nuk Learner Cup.

If we gave her any other cup, she didn’t take it so well but this one was awesome. She still loves that cup if she ever sees it but it does take time and finding the perfect sippy cup.

laurenbtrain

We used a transition bottle too. It has three tops for as they grow and so we just slowly transitioned. I think it took a week. We gave her the cups to play with for toys during the day and she loved them. She liked mimicing what we did too so we made it a game. If I can remember tonight I will take a pic of the ones that we used to transition. Anyway, after her playing with them for a few days and after us making a game out of it, she wanted nothing to do with the bottle anymore and was all about the sippie cup…same thing with straws now. She thinks they are so cool and we have just had fun with it and letting her learn. Our ped recommending that we switch too at 12 months. For us, we didnt stress over it. We felt like it was a good goal to have but no pressure. So around 12 months we started and by 12.5 she was done

Kristen@thelittlepotato.com

we also did the day time bottles switch first, about a month ago when he turned 12 months old. so he gets a sippy (we only use straw) of milk after both naps.

Jess

We started playing with straws and have had great success with the Playtex straw cup. It’s rated for 4+ years, but it’s fairly leakproof (not 100% for a 1-year old) and he has mastered it. It doesn’t seem to require the “bite and suck” the younger straw cups seem to require. It’s a soft straw which can tuck under a little slider lid on the cup’s lid for travel

Sara Spires Bridges

When we went through this Bryce would not drink milk from the sippy cup and disliked most of them. We asked the doctor and she assured us it was fine and to just keep trying and only offer beverages in the sippy cup and he would eventually drink from it. Basically it is a power struggle and we just had to be the stronger ones. She said her daughter went days without milk and that is fine as well. Hope this helps.

As a result of all this (thank you!), Jon and I talked through the options and decided that we would give Peanut another month or so (until she is finished with the breast milk and we are on 100% whole milk) and then we’ll just change over cold turkey.

If you’re catching up, read Q& A part 1 and part 2.

Today is our first and last work day of the week – we’re going to Florida tomorrow!  I am excited, anxious, and giddy all at the same time.  Excited because it is going to be our first vacation with the baby!  Anxious for our first flights with the baby.  Giddy for the warm weather!  No worries – I’m bringing the computer and although I do not promise to blog daily, I do promise to keep up!  In return for your patience, you get to look forward to posts about flying with a 1 year old, packing for a long trip away from home, and a ton of pictures of our little bugget at the beach.

Now, back to the subject at hand: your questions!

Happiness Is… says

“If you could have dinner with 3 dead people, who would they be? Alive?
If you were on an island and could only bring 3 things, what would they be?
Favorite quote?
All time favorite book?
Must-read parenting book (if you have one)?”

Ashley-

You’re single handedly trying to keep my creative juices floating, aren’t ya  Maybe we should add a weekly spot of “Ashley’s question of the day” – you in?

Ok, dinner – my grandmother, my grandfather (both on my mom’s side) and my uncle (dad’s brother); I would love to have dinner with some of my favorite bloggers!  Katie from Marriage Confessions, Jenna from Jenna’s Journey, and Jen from Life in the Green House.  Honestly, any of my top 25 favorite bloggers would make my day (Happiness is is definitely in that top 25 list!)

Favorite quote: “”I love being married. It’s so great to find one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.” – Rita Rudner

All time favorite book – omg, I don’t think I can name one.  I guess I’ll say Youth in Revolt.   How about yours?

Must-read parenting book: Caring for your baby and young child, birth to age 5 by Steven Shelov, Robert Hannemann.  I swear, if there is a book that comes closest to being a baby manual, this is it.

Carrie T says “What was your favorite toy as a child?
What kind of music do you listen too? Favorite artist?
Favorite actor/actress?
When will spring get here? “

Carrie-

Between you and Ashley, I’ll never run out of topics.

My favorite toy was a Barbie.  My dad brought one over from the U.S. when I was a kid (living in Russia) and I was obsessed!  I also had a ton of stuffed animals that I accumulated as gifts from my parents over the years.

I listen to a pretty wide variety of music, but my favorite is Emo.  I love so manu artists, but right now one of my favorite ones is Blue October.

Favorite actor – Nicholas Cage, favorite actress – Rachel McAdams.  (ps- I’m DYING to see The Vow, but that probably won’t happen until it’s out on video).

Spring will hopefully be here soon!

Stephanie says “I was wondering how you started peanut on solids? What part of the day did you have her try stuff and after that was she eating 3 meals or how long did it take to get to that?”

Stephanie-

I’m going to give you a quick overview, but feel free to check out these posts:

Sample meal plan for a 1 year old

Starting Puffs

Baby food 6-8 months

Baby food – yams

Starting solids

We started Peanut on cereal around 4 months but it didn’t really take until 4.5-5 months.  Peanut has always absolutely loved food- she’s a funny kid like that.  In fact, I still don’t understand how she is as small as she is since she is such a good eater!  Once Peanut took to cereal, we started adding some home made apple sauce (steamed apples, mashed).  From here, things got creative – I started making all sorts of baby food from pears to peaches to peas to sweet potato.  Peanut gobbled them all up!

We started by introducing Peanut to some food around dinner time.  Next we added another meal at daycare (around lunch time).  I think that she was on 3 meals around 8-9 months od age, which is also around the time that she started finger foods.  I can’t say that she eats a full meal at every single meal, but we always sit her down in her high chair around the same time and let her eat something.  Right now she is eating 3 meals (breakfast around 8:30am, lunch around 1pm, and dinner around 6pm) and one snack around 3pm.

I’m joining The Paper Mama today for the weekly challenge.  This week the topic is Family and I couldn’t think of a photo that reminds me more of family than this photo from forever and a half ago (about 9 months, seems like a lifetime).

The loves of my life, asleep on the couch.  Can you believe that she was ever this small?

Happy Sunday, peeps.

Hi there!  Happy Saturday!

Our weekend is full of shopping and packing (we’re going on vacation next week!), so while I do my 9th load of laundry, you get to be entertained by some more answers to your questions.  Here we go.

Aimee says “I am curious about her transition from pureed food to table food. When did you start that and how did she react to the new textures? I am getting to that point with my son but so far he doesn’t like anything that isn’t pureed.”

Aimee-

We started by introducing Peanut to puffs around 7.5 months.  Once she discovered that she could pick food up with her fingers, she pretty much weaned herself off pureed food and would only eat food that she could handle herself.  After puffs we gave her bananas, avocado, and some other soft foods.  Then came macaroni, cheese (cheese sticks were the best), grilled cheeses, chicken nuggets, tofu, hot dogs, grapes and the list goes on!  I found the comments on the post linked above to be super helpful, we well as my favorite baby food blog: http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/

Meghan says “Have you transitioned to a sippy cup yet or are you not concerned because she doesn’t have teeth yet? How was her transition to whole milk? Did the temperature bother her? I am constantly stressed over this because my daughter HATES the sippy cup and loves her bottle. She isn’t quite 12 months yet and so I am trying to plan out how I will transition her to whole milk and eventually, the sippy.”

Meghan-

We are in the very beginning stages of swapping Peanut out for a sippy instead of a bottle.  As of right now, that’s not going too well.  I do have a post coming up this week with advice from the other readers – it rocks!  As for whole milk, we did start the whole milk transition.  Right now Peanut is drinking about half breast milk half whole milk mixture, until we run out of breast milk.  We are still warming up most of her bottles, but when she’s super impatient, she takes it cold.

Happiness Is… says “1. How in the world do you get Peanut to eat so much variety? I offer Thatcher everything and he will just play with it. Did she do that at first? Is playing with table food the beginning? Feels so wasteful and he literally makes a face if I try to feed it to him.
2. How many kids do you all want? Have you thought about #2? (if this is too personal, I get it!)
3. Do you think you will always work? Any working mom guilt? How do you cope?
4. Has y’alls relationship gotten stronger/better since Peanut? How has it changed?”

Dear Ashley-

Oh boy.

1.  We have always given Peanut pretty much whatever we’re eating.  I have no idea if she’s a good eater because of what I ate while she was in my belly, if it’s because we introduced her to as many different tastes as possible during the early solid food stages, or if we just lucked out.  To be honest, I’m guessing we just lucked out.  We do have some good days and some bad days – sometimes Peanut will eat everything from noodles to cheese sticks to tofu to veggies.  Other times she will cry until we give her some peas or cheerios.

2.  Jon and I want 2 kids – we want the kids to be about 2-3 years apart, but we’re definitely not ready yet. We’ve always talked about having 2 kids and when we finally decided that we were ready for a baby, we knew that we were committing to 2 kids and that they would be 2-3 years apart.  After Monday night’s incident though, I’m not sure that my heart can handle another little part of me walking around, bumping into things.

3.  Work.  Oh work.  Yes, I do think that I will always work.  Partly because that is the only monetary option, partly because I would be driven insane if I had to stay home with the kids all week long.

The working mom guilt – that’s a tough one.  Some days I think about the fact that our daycare sees Peanut for more of her waking hours than we do and that they’re practically raising her.  I wonder if Peanut would be happier if she was home with me, following her schedule (which she loves) and getting all of my attention.  These are tough days.  But most days I’m thankful that I get to work.  I love that Peanut has the chance to interact with other kids and adults on a daily basis.  I love that she’s learning to socialize and to be more patient with adult attention.  Selfishly, I love the feeling when I walk in the office, pour myself a cup of coffee and sit down in my chair.  It’s actually relaxing.  I also love the thrill of working and my career – the challenge, the socialization, the things I learn every single day.  These days I’m happy and balanced.

Cope?  I don’t have any good advice here.  I just let myself get through the rough days and know that there are better days ahead – days when I’ll feel complete.  When I can’t take it any more, I blog.  It’s a great outlet – and it almost always makes me feel better to read about others who are going through the same trouble.  Other times I go out to Starbucks.  I know, that’s just silly. But when I’m thinking about the fact that I just dropped my kid off at daycare and that I won’t see her again until that evening, I drive my butt over to a Starbucks before work and I drink my latte while it’s still warm.  That helps.

4.  Sheesh, Ashley, you are going right after the hard stuff, aren’t ya?

Our relationship has changed in some ways, but not in others.  It’s so weird that I’m not even sure that I can explain.  In some aspects we are stronger than ever – there is this little human being that we made that binds us in ways that we’ve never felt before.  I look at Jon and I cannot believe what an amazing father he is.  We make a great team – the two of us.  It’s almost as if we’ve got this child care down to a science.  In some other aspects it’s harder – we have different views and opinions on certain things (i.e. emergency situations or even just small bumps and bruises).  There are so many things to take care of that at the end of the day we’re both exhausted and can barely keep our eyes open.  It’s also harder to just drop everything and go out to dinner to refuel the love fire.  Between the $$ (sitters, dinners out) and the time (sitters, leaving Peanut), we get out about 1/10th of the time, if not less.  Yet in some sense, it’s still the same.  Jon and I joke with one another, we get our evenings on the couch, we hang out and drink some wine or watch Big Bang theory.  Because we both work together, we still pull pranks on each other in the office or grab a lunch out.

Just like any other challenge in marriage, you weigh your options, find some compromise and make sure that the good days outweigh the bad days.  And they do – by a lot.

Phew.  I feel like I need a break after that one.

If the questions above apply to you, I’d love to hear your answers!

(sorry for any typos here – I’m entertaining a 1 year old while finishing this up – so no time to proof read.)

kari @ Running Ricig says “I wonder where Addison would get such a sweet, stylish vest.”

Dear Kari,

Our very dear friends purchased this awesome item of clothing for us.  You may know them – blonde, Swedish, married to a hilarious barefoot runner, owners of one of the coolest dogs on Earth?  Ring a bell?  No?  Then quit fishing for compliments. (for those that feel a little lost right now – Kari got Peanut that super awesome vest).

Seriously though – most of the clothes in Peanut’s closet are from our friends or family.  Between gifts and amazing hand-me-downs, Peanut is one lucky gal.

carrie t says “Do you call Addison, Peanut to her in real life or just on the blog? Does she get confused as to who Peanut and Addison are?”

Carrie,

We actually have about a gazillion nicknames for Peanut – but primarily we call her Peanut, P, Addi-pie, or Addison.  Thankfully, our daycare calls her Addi or Addison, so I think she knows that’s her name.

I really hope that she’s not confused when she’s older, but I don’t think we’re helping matters all that much.  Between her recurring nicknames, we also call her random things throughout the day like, Peanut-butter-face, Pie-face, P-nizzle, Pigtails, and many others.  We should probably quit doing that.  How easily are kids confused?

carrie t also says “Oh It though of another one. Does Peanut know the Russian animal sounds yet? lol I’m gonna have to watch that video when I get to work.

Dude,

That video is ridiculous.  I still laugh at Jon’s straight face.  But, yes, we’re teaching Peanut English and Russian, which includes the sounds.  We have this awesome app, Peekaboo Barn, that features animals and names them, as well as lets you record your own language!  Usually we play it in English and I tell Peanut the Russian sounds and animal names after the English ones show up.  The only one she’s picked up on so far is Moo, which is the same in both languages.  We’re probably confusing her with that as well.

I think we’re going to have a very confused kid.

Julie says “Can you talk about your breast milk to whole milk transition? (or are you still giving breast milk?) Also are you still giving Peanut a bottle or has she gone to the sippy cup? And what was that process like?”

Julie,

Aw man, we’re not doing too well in the whole bottle to sippy cup transition department.  Hopefully my previous post gives us all some good advice.

As for breast milk, we introduced a little whole milk added to the breast milk around 12 months.  I pumped for 11 months and we had a ton of breast milk stored, so I phased breast feeding out and Peanut has been drinking bottles with breast milk for the past couple of months.

Right now she is on a half-breast milk half-whole milk mix.  She didn’t seem to mind the transition in milk too much.  The bottle versus sippy cup is a whole different story.

Our plan is to phase the breast milk out completely when it runs out in the next couple of months.

That’s it for today folks.  Come on back tomorrow to learn about our transition from baby food to finger foods, our thoughts on baby #2, my working mom guilt (gulp), and some fun poll questions (Ashley decided to give me both spectrums – the super deep serious and the creative fun questions).

While you’re all gettings your Q’s in order, I thought I would reach out to those of you who are going through or went through the whole “ditch the bottle” ordeal and see if you have any advice for us.

Funny enough, as I was writing this post, I noticed that many of you have the same questions – so maybe we can kill two birds with one stone.  We’ll get advice and in turn answer some of your questions.  I’ll post some of the advice form the comments in a separate post.

[ps- the photos have nothing to do with the post - I just like them.]

At Peanut’s 12 month appointment the doctor told us that it’s time to start phasing the bottle.

Ditch the bottle?  Sure!  This is going to be no big deal.  Peanut loves her sippy cup.

Wrong.

To give you a little background, Peanut has a 6 oz bottle of milk (still half breastmilk half whole milk mixture) in the morning when she wakes up, twice during the day (usually after naps), and right before bed.  We were told/read that the daytime bottles are the easiest to swap, so that’s just what we tried.

One day, after nap time, shortly after Peanut’s 1st birthday, we poured her milk into a sippy cup and tried to give it to her.  You would think that I just stuck her with a huge needle.  The kid took one look at the sippy, one very angry look at me, and wailed!  She kept crying, throwing the sippy cup down, and freaking out over and over again for the past month.  We’ve given in and swapped it for a bottle almost every time.

At daycare we’ve asked the teachers to try and give Peanut a sippy cup for one of her “bottles” since she only takes 1 nap there.  Do you think that worked?  Nope.  She just stopped drinking one bottle.

We’ve also tried to swap sippy cups (we tried two or three so far), giving her something yummy like Kefir (this actually worked but I don’t want to give her that much sugar every day, plus it makes a huge mess), and even delaying giving her the bottle in hopes that she might just be fussy after nap time.  But nothing has worked so far.

In fact, as a result of our attempts to switch Peanut to a sippy for her milk, she’s pretty much stopped drinking water from the cup as well.  (She will drink water from another sippy cup that we haven’t put milk into before).

So, to those that asked the questions about us switching over to a sippy cup?  Yeah, that’s where we’re at.

And for anyone that’s been through it – we’re all dying to hear some advice!

I’m not feeling very creative lately – I don’t know if it’s because I was on a huge blogging kick this past month or because I’m still in shock from our Monday night.  Regardless of the reason, I’m outta good ideas and in order to give myself some time to recharge, I’m going to answer some of your questions!

Got some Questions?  Post them in the comments and I’ll answer them in a post!  Feel free to browse previous Q&A posts by clicking on the button above.

In case you’re here to browse pictures of my little nugget, I won’t disappoint.

Our little busybody has been on a walking spree lately – she walks from one place to another, plops, turns around and goes again.  It’s like someone wound her up and asked her to get in as much trouble as she could manage.  And, peeps, it’s a lot!

This weekend I went to NJ to hang out with my BFF Laura and then take some photos for her at her parent’s anniversary party.  If you follow me on Pinterest, you know we had a blast on Saturday night (less fun Sunday morning).

Sunday was incredible – Laura really went all out for her parents’ 30th anniversary – center pieces that matched their wedding flowers, photos from their wedding album, and a display of their photo album.  The food was amazing, the guests had a blast, and I got a few shots in.

I also learned the following this weekend: low lit basements will not be salvaged by a puny speedlight.

I think the photos came out great considering the lighting, so in case you’re in the same situation as I am:

• Use something more than just the flash on the camera.  I have a speedlight 250 (handed down to me) and it did it’s job, although it is super slow and takes 2 minutes to recharge.  Oh, and bring extra batteries – that was key.
• Point the flash up and at a slight angle toward the back, rather than the faces.
• Try to stay close to your subjects – using a zoom lens just doesn’t work.  Flash just doesn’t travel as far as my zoom.  I stuck to my 50mm.
• Be patient and check the photos.  There were a few times when my flash didn’t recharge in time (which is rather annoying considering I’m used to taking continuous shots and then picking what I like), and I’m glad I checked and took another shot.
• Check your settings a few times prior to starting.  I landed on 1/60 f/1.8 and trying to stick to 400 ISO.
• Lesson for next time:  don’t take photos in a poorly lit basement.

Any other tips and tricks for shooting in low light?

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

We’ll be celebrating by hanging out and laying low – because after our excitement yesterday, that’s about all that I can handle.