Ba-Ba all gone?

That's what my baby girl asked me this last week. We're working to say goodbye to the bottle, or the "ba-ba". Bailey will be two in one week and my goal was to actually keep the bottle around until then (because with two bottles a day, she gets 16 oz of milk which has some good fat, protein and calcium for her growing body); on top of which, it's one of the only times that she'll sit still and cuddle with me. Bailey does really well drinking water from her cup but milk does not go over that well. That may change the longer she's off the bottle, or I may just have to supplement her diet with more cheese and yogurt, I guess we'll have to wait and see. Now that her 2 year birthday is just days away, I decided to cut back from two bottles to one; so instead of an evening bottle, she now sits with me and eats some yogurt. Having said that, the second night into her new routine, Bailey asked for her "Ba-Ba" and I told her not right now; to which she asked, "Ba-Ba all gone?". Brought me to tears. I immediately wanted to say, "no baby girl, you may have your ba-ba...let mommy go get it for you", but I stood strong and cried to Tom instead.

"Growing up is hard to do"...isn't that a song? I can remember my mom quoting me this when I was a teenager but, now that I'm a mom, I've decided that the song was written by a mommy who was sad to see her babies grow so quickly. It's a hard thing to do, the curse of motherhood that no one tells you about....loving them enough to watch them grow, because (eventually) that means they'll grow into their own person and won't need you the way they do when they're little. So...the ba-ba's almost gone, big girl underwear is now part of the daily routine...I'm pretty sure that school and dating is next week. I'm locking the doors and stocking up on ba-ba's.

Yep...growing up is hard to do.

Mommy and Bailey, out for a walk 1.24.09

This is her "ready, set, GO" stance :)

Our beautiful girl....