The barnyard training did me good

Last weekend we started teaching Liam how to drink from a cup. We cut some apple juice with water, put a few ounces in a sippy cup and let him have at it. Of course, he didn't know a sippy cup from a hole in the ground, so it took some time to get him to catch on. A sippy cup is not nearly as forgiving as a boob, requiring a certain angle and amount of finesse in order to extract any liquid at all. Liam was more interested in drinking than playing (for once) and so preferred to let us handle the details while he just enjoyed. This scene rather reminded me of feeding bottles to lambs as a kid on the farm - there was just something about the propping-up of the cup, the angle at which Liam went at it - it was a bit of deja vu. I told Chad this and of course he hadn't the foggiest idea what I was talking about. I'm sure none of you city folk do either, but trust me, it was a childhood-flashback moment. Who knew I would get a chance to put the technique to use again later in life, on my own child, no less?

If all goes well with the sippy, I can pack that $40 set of baby-registry bottles away. They'd be untouched and returnable had I not had the pre-Liam nesting instinct to get them all out and sterilize them. Live and learn.