Linus Van Pelt

This baby is my baby at certain parts of the day. When Mama goes off to school or work, he's mine then. Mine to feed, clean up, clean after, dress, clean up and after again. If that doesn't make him partly my baby, I don't know what does.

So, he's a blankie baby. None of MY kids were. They weren't even pacifier babies, oops Lorene was. Until she lost it (at about this time of her life). And we aren't saying anything about pacifier toddlers either, at least not in this post.

But, Zane looves his bottle, I mean sippy cup. Don't you dare call it a bottle when Lorene is listening. I think it is a great way to get around giving your babies bottles after a year. Those sippy cups are just like bottles anyway, same silicone nipples, just a different shape, and fancy colors and easy to hold shapes.

Of course, if you want to eliminate bottles altogether, there is a natural, economical way to feed babies and toddlers. It's convenient, and always the right temperature.

Warning!! Disclaimer!! Whatever!! This not a forum, or soapbox, or argumentative site, this is about our life right now.

Every morning after Zane gets up and I change him and feed him some breakfast, which is usually dry cheeries eaten with a fork, and some fruit, he finds his bottle (sorry) and brings it to me to be filled. He usually grabs my hand to pull me to the fridge, or the counter where his sippy cup is, then to the fridge, and then bottle....arrrgh, sippy cup, in hand he goes to find this blanket. It might be in another room or in his playpen, but he will find it and then he wants up in the blue chair, and snuggles down to enjoy it and rock with me.

That's MY boy!

P.S. My mom preferred blankies and pacifiers for her babies. Those things helped the babies quiet themselves. Of course, that was when breastfeeding was hardly encouraged and no one ever thought about pacifiers being so controversial. There is a picture around somewhere of my brother Tim crawling into the fridge with the 'fier (which is what we called them) hanging on a string around his neck!! I'm assuming mom was cleaning it. Some of us kept our blankies around for so many years we won't tell you how long. I switched my blankie for a little "wash cloth" pillow stuffed with old nylons that my Grandma Black made for me because it didn't need any explanation. I remember giving up my pacifier. Mom had a little box on my dresser for it to live in and it was supposed to stay there. I wonder if I only had it at night for awhile. I remember sneaking in there to suck on it once it a while and then guiltily put it back. I figured I was about 3 or so since it was in the apartment house where we lived after we lived in the trailer. Mom says not, that she can't believe I remember giving it up at all. Well, long ago memories are often distorted, so who knows.