The 24-Hour All-You-Can-Drink Milk Cafe is Now CLOSED (Could Somebody Please Tell Alaina?)

 

Alaina and I are both in denial when it comes to some aspects of her growing up.

We are all for her advanced verbal skills, her willingness to try new adventures,

 

her desire to use the potty, even the little bits of big-kid culture she learns from Janae, like how to be a proper princess

 

or how to color in the lines with markers.

 

But Alaina being my last child, I have to admit I am not in a hurry for her to lose all of her baby traits--and she is holding onto a few of them, herself. For example, she still loves the snuggly (which I pulled out of the closet the other day),

 

and I don't mind carrying her in it once in a while (long legs dangling and all).

 

Alaina also sleeps best in our bed (following after her brother, who slept between Jason and me until he was in kindergarten), and I am happy to have her there (I think I even sleep a little better, myself).

 

Then there is the issue that divides us: the not-so-small matter of trying to wean Alaina. This is a part of her babyhood that I am ready to leave behind us. Alaina, however, is not.

Over the past few months, I have managed to teach Alaina that she is only allowed to nurse at home, and--more recently--only at bedtime and naptime.

While Alaina hasn't liked these changes, she has adapted.

 

My newest goal--and the most urgent--has been to close down the all-night milk cafe. I have followed the advice of countless parenting books by explaining to Alaina that just as all of us need to sleep at night, the milk also needs its rest (weaning a toddler allows the advantage of reasoning with the child, right?).

Before I started on this new phase of our mother/daughter relationship, Alaina was waking up 3-5 times a night for a drink. Now, after two weeks on our new program, she wakes up 3-5 times a night to be told the milk is sleeping and to be handed a sippy cup of water . . . and then hear a song, have her back rubbed, or just simply cry her eyes out.

At the first sign of daylight (approximately 5 a.m., in case you were wondering), she says, "It's morning?" and then asks for her milk.

And after this, we can tackle the afternoon nap nurse, and then the nurse at bedtime.

I think there is a lot to be said for weaning at 12 months, even though the B.C. nurses' federation recommends breast feeding "until age two and beyond."

I guess none of us would be too happy to hear that our favorite restaurant closed down, or that the bottomless drink we'd ordered had suddenly become non-refillable.

Still, this can't go on much longer.

Could somebody please tell Alaina?