The Weaning Stops The Whining From Waning

Lovebug never took a pacifier. I can count on one hand the times he put up with a bottle. And after a few exploratory bites on his fingers, he decided that thumb sucking was awful too. To be honest, I was disappointed that he didn't want to suck his thumb - I was convinced that Ironflower's thumb sucking had made her an easy baby (And in the subsequent years, I can tell you that as she's sucked her thumb less and less, she's also become more and more challenging. Coincidence? I think not.). Lovebug was not an easy baby.

But life did get better when he embraced the sippy cup. I had assumed he would hate that too. The only thing he liked to drink from (besides my boobs) was a straw, but only if the straw was in my can of Diet Pepsi. I envisioned a life of pouring out Diet Pepsi can contents, replacing them with apple juice and pretending they were mine. But for whatever reason Lovebug embraced the sippy cup.

We moved to the "sports cup" style with the straw last spring, after the speech therapist told me how much regular sippy cups had ruined his tongue placement (though, oddly, they never affected Ironflower's at all), but otherwise things remain the same: Lovebug loves him some sippy cup.

With juice.

In our defense I must say that the juice is always cut with water and it's always a healthy juice and he never has it at nap time or bed time and he needs the calcium because he won't drink milk. But still, the child drinks more than the recommended amount.

And I've kind of ignored it, because he does eat.

And because Lovebug is very, very, passionate. His motto is: "Why talk when a scream would do? Why cry when a full blown temper tantrum can get my point across? Why ask when I could whine repetitively?" So I didn't want another battle, back when they were two and one and we were moving and I was just overwhelmed all the time. So Lovebug turned into a juicehead because we were more concerned about other issues.

Sometimes I feel like one of those parents who spends years bugging her kid about his grades only to find out that he's a meth addict.

Anyway, Lovebug's solution to the once cup of juice per meal - and only water in between - was to scream every time I offered the water bottle. He started asking whining for lunch at 10:30 am, mentioning the juice first. Then he tried drinking his sister's juice, but since she uses a regular cup that didn't work (he refuses to learn how to drink from a regular cup. I haven't started that battle yet either). Then he just refused to drink all morning.

I swear to God I'm never even going to give Chunkymonkey juice.

But since it's too late for that option with Lovebug, I guess I'll just have to deal with the extra tantrums.

Oh well, at least they usually mean extra hugs, too.