My normal.

I am absolutely in love with my little guy. And my big guy for that matter. I like my job and my coworkers. Love my friends and my family. We have everything we need and plenty enough of what we want. I'm genuinely happy every day. Therefore, I may tend to sugar coat things inadvertently. Or maybe I just leave out the less than perfect parts of our story. Well today, I'll share some of the less than desirable things.

I was talking to one of my best friends on my way home from work, and chuckled a little thinking about her baby boy on the way. I was asking her some questions about weaning off the bottle, baby proofing, etc. Her little cutie never put the first thing off the floor in her mouth, never developed a desire to pull on electronic cords and transitioned from the bottle without any fuss. That sounded like Greek to me.

Let's just say that's not the story around here. Hardin can spot a dangerous situation from a mile away and gravitates towards it like he's being pulled from the inside. He LOVES electrical cords. Not just a little bit either. He wants to pull every single one of them until they are out of the wall, or the cable box, or whatever else they may be powering. He also loves to wrap them around his neck. Because of this, we have learned to spot them before him and keep him away. If he gets to one before you and you pull him away, he does not go without a serious fight, and about 5 more attempts to get back at it. At least. That's just our normal.

And don't even get me started on the things I have pulled out of his mouth. Really, I shouldn't, so as to prevent someone calling the authorities on us. He picks up every single crumb, and piece of trash, and bug, and toilet screw cover, and door stop cover, and piece of dirt, etc., and puts them directly in his mouth. He has gone straight for bird poop on the front porch, cigarette butts on the playground, dog food, cat food, cat hair, and earrings to name a few. Thankfully we have stopped him before getting those. He also recently found a pain killer that I had lost the week after my delivery. A YEAR AGO. That's one solid year of me cleaning and Elise cleaning, and neither of us could ever find it. I turned my head for 5 seconds and that little bugger of mine found it and had it in his mouth. I just about died. Fortunately I got it out super quick, assessed that no damage was done, and went on with my day. What can I say though? We've just changed our ways a little, and that's our normal.

Our most recent battle has been the bottle. H went through a stage a month or so ago when he could have cared less about the bottle. Would hardly finish half of one. I should have just transitioned then when I had the chance. We've been down to three for a while now, and recently started giving him a sippy cup around lunch. That went fine.

A friend emailed me Monday to see how we were approaching the weaning. That got me thinking about the morning and evening bottles, and my pediatrician's suggestion to have him off by 12 months. 15 months at the latest. That night I tried a sippy cup for his evening bottle. To say that he pitched a fit would be an understatement. He sat right behind the glider where we feed him (his hiding spot), and screamed his little head off until Jason poured the milk in a bottle and I fed him.

I tried again this morning. Massive failure. Turns out my easy little baby is more strong willed than I thought possible. For lack of a better description, I'll use Jason's. He put on a total s**t show. In his hiding spot of course. He'd crawl out, look at me, bury his head in the carpet crying, and then go back to his spot and scream. Needless to say he got a bottle. Next up? A less drastic approach.

Our plan of attack is going to be to give him whole milk out of a cup in the morning and at lunch. He loves to drink out of real cups, so as long as he's getting enough from that we will just cut out anything else during the day. I may keep the evening bottle for just a little while longer (read: at least until his Mimi leaves from her visit so she doesn't have to experience the fall out). Any of you mamas that have other suggestions, bring them on please!

That brings me back to our normal. I have a feeling it's the same normal many mamas all over the world know. So what if you have to Swiffer every night to keep crud out of your kid's mouth, or keep all electronics out of reach for a few years? And who really cares if it takes more than a day to wean off the bottle? That's our normal, and we wouldn't have it any other way!

I also told my sweet friend the same thing about her little boy on the way. Hers may be just as compliant as the first, but if he's not, she won't care in the slightest. It will be her new normal and I have a feeling she'll love it just as much as I do.