Oliver update: 14 months

At 14 months, Oliver is teetering between babyhood and toddlerhood. But calling him "Toddler Oliver" doesn't have the same ring as "Baby Oliver," so I'm going to hang on to Oliver's babyhood for a little while longer. He's still small enough to cradle in my arms, he still babbles his baby language and still looks adorable in onesies with sassy phrases printed on the front and hats with ears that make him look like a teddy bear.

Even if part of me wants Oliver to stay a baby just a little longer, another part of me recognizes when he's grown up. He knows how to use a sippy cup, so a week and a half ago I decided it was time for him to give up the bottle. I was spurred mostly by Oliver's pediatrician who said he'd like to see him off the bottle by 18 months. Because I didn't see Oliver making the switch unless he was forced to, I decided we were going to do this cold turkey. And do it now so that I'm not handing Oliver a sippy cup of milk the night before his 18-month wellness check so I can answer yes when the doctor asks me if Oliver has transitioned from the bottle.

Day 1 of no bottle had some limited success, but then Oliver vomited in the middle of the night because of what I found out later must have been the Norwalk virus. Thankfully the vomiting was a one-time occurrence, but when he continued to have diarrhea throughout the next day and seemingly refused to drink anything, dehydration became a huge concern. I never got out the bottle, but I compromised by holding the sippy cup (with warmed milk no less) for him. I felt like a cop-out to my hard-line approach, but a friend who's a doctor said that because babies suck differently on a sippy cup than they do a bottle, and this sucking motion doesn't impede dental development, making the switch to the sippy cup, even if someone is holding it for the baby, is still a very healthy step. So I stopped worrying about whether he would hold his own sippy cup of milk and considered it a success that we were even using it at all and took comfort in knowing that he was well-hydrated.

Then two or three days ago Oliver started willingly drinking from a sippy cup by himself. We place one or two sippy cups on his tray at mealtimes, (always one with milk and sometimes another filled with water) and on the first day of no bottle he wailed at even the site of his cup on his tray. But we've just left the sippy cups there and maybe he finally warmed to the hands-off, no-pressure approach. And I think when he decided to give it a try and realized he knew how to use it, he was quite proud of himself and wanted to show off. Because what baby doesn't want to show off when his mom is ridiculously cheering every self-fed sip from the other side of the table? Oliver still sometimes hands the sippy cup to me and I know he wants me to hold it for him. But I feel like we're now of "will he or won't he?" and I oblige.

But it's not just the sippy cups he hands (well, throws) to me. He's long been in the phase of handing things to people, which he often tries to take right back (and when he hands me half-chewed food, that's fine if he wants it back). I've mentioned before that throwing books to me is his new way of saying he wants me to read to him. The other day, he lifted up a bag of Goldfish grahams and held it patiently in front of me. Translation: empty out this bag for me because I'm hungry for a snack. Those imploring big brown eyes are too difficult to resist!

Oliver's cold seems like it may actually be gone, but after a second round of antibiotics didn't appear to work, I'm convinced the ear infection might stick around for awhile. The doctor had said that unless his condition worsens, (develops a fever or appears to be in pain) I don't even need to bring him back in. Oliver doesn't appear to be in pain, but it's clear there's some discomfort and I can't tell if his otherwise non-rosy disposition is a result of the lingering ear infection, or just the usual trials of toddlerhood, like teething and being told "No!" one too many times. Oh how I wish I could ask him what's wrong (Is it your gums, your ears?)!

Just in the past week we've witnessed Oliver stand up on his own without pulling himself up on anything. He's even taken a few steps, but we think the steps were really caused by momentum as he lurched himself towards our arms. But these upright moments are still few and far between so I'm not going to make any predictions that he's going to be walking any day now.