Grasping at Straws

I am pretty sure I have never been more happy with one of my children accomplishing a simple task than I was last night!  HE GOT IT!  He really got it!  We have been grasping at straws – literally – for over 3 months to get Finn to transition from the bottle to a sippy cup as recommended by our pediatrician.  He hates sippy cups. HATES them!  This kid is strong, and opinionated, and he was having nothing of this sippy cup business.  So, friends suggested straws.  I know for a fact Emma and Lara got straw cups by about 7-8 months, and Jake by 10 months.  Finn just wants to bite down on the straw as hard as he possibly can!  Then pull it out of the cup!  UGH!   We even had one straw cup (highly recommended) by Playtex that you could squeeze to help get the flow started.  HE HATED IT!  You see where this is going, yes?

In my ever growing  love of the Internet and all things social media, I am lucky enough to find very resourceful pages to follow on Facebook.  Some of my favorites that I follow that deal with prematurity and the NICU are It's a Preemie Thing,  Peek-a-Boo ICU and Life After NICU.  Around Christmas time, someone posted about the “Mr. Juice Bear” from Beyond Play on the It's a Preemie Thing page.  I was very interested in it, but wasn’t ready to purchase it just yet. My mind changed about a week later after more unsuccessful attempts at sippy cups and straws. The special squeeze bear and tubing straws arrived Thursday night last week.  My mom tried it with him on Friday, but he just wanted to play with the cute bear!  I mean, he is cute…  (And yes, this is a honey bear bottle and basic tubing, but it works!)  But when I tried it Saturday at dinner, HE DID IT!  I had been squeezing the bear to prime it get the milk into his mouth, and suddenly one time he actually closed his lips and sucked the milk on his own!  And then he did it several more times!  

He has been using it, as well as the Playtex cup mentioned above, successfully all day!  He still tries to bite the straw more than he should, but he can do it!  He can close his lips and suck!  YAYAYAYAY!  So proud of him!

And in other news, we had Finn's 15 month / "I SHOULD BE ONE" photo shoot this week!  I am so impressed with Shawna Meyer and Touch of Wonder Photography!  We had a GREAT time in the mini-session we won back in the fall with her contest!  The hat and scarf he is sporting were the props I won from Shutterfly Prop Shop in the same contest.  This is the image Shawna posted as a sneak peek!  I can't wait to see the rest!