Weaning Elli...

There are so many developmental milestones I look forward to in the lives of my children.  The first time my baby smiles, holds his/her head up, rolls over, babbles, sits up, scoots, crawls, walks, talks, waves....etc....so so so many.  I love these times, and I love cheering my kids on and watching them progress past these milestones.  That being said, I can also say that there are also many developmental milestones that break my heart.  I don't think I am alone in my feelings, so you moms that are reading this need to leave me comments and remind me how normal my feelings are (if they are indeed normal :)).  You would think, that after 6 children I would have toughened up and outgrown these heartbreaks.  But, no.  It still makes me ache when my children outgrow crying for Mom when she leaves, when they outgrow their baby fat and start to look like toddlers, or in Brandon and Trevor's case - teenagers.  I have a few relatives and friends who are dealing with their children leaving home - God help me. Ok, I am not going to focus on THAT ONE now or I am going to lose it!!  Right now, we are graduating from me feeding Elli, to Elli taking a bottle or cup, and normal food.  We started out last week by pumping up the volume on the amount of food she eats at each meal, and introducing a bottle and cup (not sure which one she will take up more quickly).  That might sound like a "false start" to alot of you, but let me say that this was truly a challenge because Elli would much rather nurse than eat food, and having never had a bottle or a pacifier (she is the only one of my 6 six children to not want one), she thinks the bottle and cup are a toy to chew on.  So, having done that, and being somewhat successful, "somewhat" because she still plays with the bottle and cup more than she drinks from them, this week we began skipping the morning nursing.  This step is much harder.  Elli usually nurses in the morning to take her morning nap.  Needless to say, she has gone 3 days without a good morning nap:(.  It really is pathetic and hard.  It takes every ounce of strength that I have to NOT give in.  I feel bad for Joshua - who hates to hear his sister cry and is trying to concentrate on homeschooling - and for the twins - who are making requests for milk and bathroom trips and having to repeat themselves a hundred times because I cannot hear them over the crying, or because I just got Elli to sleep and am fearful to move lest she wake up.  I took some pics of Elli today, finally falling asleep, and some pictures of the twins making my day a whole lot better by their silly antics...ENJOY...

Joshua working so hard in the background, and Elli finally giving in to her sleepiness...

 

Reagan playing Indiana Jones...amid heaps of laundry - ugh...

Jason playing a much gentler Max Steel...he is a character in a book for those of you not familiar with him...