New Skills

Oh the times they are a-changing...
Don't really know why I said that, I can't stand Bob Dylan. Still, Joseph has been making some big strides this week (and then falling over, he he!) in what he can now do on his own.
I've been trying to make him use a sippy cup for some time, but had given up due to his complete lack of interest. I wasn't sure if he simply didn't like any other fluid than milk or whether he found the change in liquid delivery too different to cope with.
Well, remembering a tip from a while ago I tried again, this time laying him on his back with the cup. It took a dew goes, but suddenly he was sucking away at the spout and has managed to have small amounts of drink out of the cup. Tadaah!
Also this week....
He was rolling around on the floor after his morning bottle of milk and he got hold of the bottle, I let him do this quite regularly as he likes to play with them. He got himself sat up and started sucking on the teat. Nothing came out of course, the bottle was pretty much empty and he was holding it at completely the wrong angle even if it wasn't. It gave me inspiration and for his next bottle I tried the same trick, I laid him flat on his back and gave him his bottle. It worked a treat, he just lay there sucking on it until it was empty, clever boy!
This has left me with something of a quandary. If he feeds himself his own milk then I get an extra 45mins to an hour each day that I'm not spending stuck on the sofa and I also get three short patches when he's happily glued to the spot and I can relax. On the other hand, that's the three longest cuddles I get now and the only time he'll sit on my lap without getting squirmy very quickly. I suspect then that there are days when I will be stressed and tired and he will feed himself and days where I will want cuddles and he wont. At least he's still so young that when he has a bump a Mummy cuddle is the only remedy!
Finger feeding is going rather well, a new favourite is turning out to be eggy-bread, an old holiday treat of my childhood and the first thing Joseph has eaten where half of it didn't end up squashed up and on the floor. The only problem with it is that it's quite high in fat so I don't want to do it too often. Joseph has also decided that anything on Andys plate is fair game and will often insist on having a taste, which is fine if Andy happens to be eating porridge, but not if it's Thai green curry!
And in less than two months our little one turns one. Plans are afoot.....