Mondays are hard

Mondays might be the hardest day of the week. After spending the weekend together doing whatever (and sleeping in until the very late hour of 7:00AM!), we have to get back into the work/daycare routine. On Mondays Grace is groggy when I wake her up as the sun is just rising above the rooftops across the street. She cries when I leave her at daycare (although the sitter says it only lasts for about 5 minutes). And she doesn't feel like eating in the morning before we leave the house so I feel guilty about sending her off without a full tummy. When we get home she is fussy, cranky, and clingy, especially anytime I try put her down. All this gets better as the week progresses and by Friday we are back in the groove.

Why then, did I pick Monday to take away Grace's bottle? This is what happens when you read those "How to-Parenting for Dummies" books on Sunday night before going to sleep. I happened to read a few pages about weaning babies from their bottles. The book said it should be done in the last half of the first year, so I panicked. We are well past that! She is over one and still using a bottle!?! Okay, I know that is not unusual in reality. I see plenty of children older than Grace with bottles. But, I figured, what the heck....let's try it. So here we are, the first evening down without a bottle. She didn't drink as much formula from the sippy cup as she would if it had been in the bottle, but on the positive side, she HELD the cup herself...something she refuses to do with the bottle. And, just so you don't think I am meaner than Cinderella's stepmother, I am not going to make the sitter take the bottle away until next week. Probably not until Tuesday.

We DID have fun today. We played in the kiddie pool and then Grace went on the swing all wrapped up in her cozy towel. Just look at that face! This picture has to be my new screen saver.