[sak9645]

This reminds me of an Adoption Day story.

When I received Becca, she was 18.5 months old and terribly shut down -- no smiling, no crying, little curiosity, etc.

At our first lunch together, I ordered some cold cows' milk from room service. I poured some of it into a bottle and tried to hand it to her.

And immediately, this terribly shut down child gave me the most enormous SNEER -- the big lip-curling kind. It was as if she was saying, "What the H*** do you think I am? A BABY?"

As soon as I took the bottle and poured the contents into a sippy cup, Becca picked it up and drank thirstily. She was clearly familiar with sippies, and was an efficient user even of the Playtex kind, which requires the child to suck very strongly. I later learned that she was also capable of using a straw.

Becca wanted nothing to do with bottles or pacifiers -- EVER. She had clearly been taught that Big Girls do not use them.

She enjoyed sippy cups even at four, when she could clearly use a regular cup without spilling. It was actually hard to get her to give them up.

Sharon