Entry Sixteen- Baby Shampoo

I caught myself buying baby shampoo the other day. It was in the cart as I walked around the grocery store. Then as I was putting it on the conveyer belt to check out I thought, “why am I buying this?”. My son is 22months old. Does he still need baby shampoo?

Recently, it seems as though people have been commenting on how much older Oscar is looking and how tall he has gotten. But he still seems so little to me. I would say that his abilities now would be comparable to when my daughter was maybe 10-12months old. He is sitting on his own, crawling, furniture walking, he is working on consistently pulling himself to stand independently. He doesn’t have any words yet, but has become increasingly vocal. He can eat many solid foods, but we haven’t tried hard solid foods yet like a raw carrot. He is independent with a sippy cup, but we still give him milk from a bottle 3 times/day and we are working on straw drinking.

There, I just caught myself again, why do I still give him milk in a bottle if he can independently drink with a sippy cup? I justify this by telling myself that with the bottle I will know exactly how much milk he is getting (he does still spill a bit with the sippy cup). Is this really a good excuse? Or should I be pulling the bottle and transitioning to solely using a sippy cup? Feeding especially has historically been such a challenge for us and quantity of intake has always been a stressor. I have developed these habits of doing things a certain way and now I am questioning whether or not they are still necessary?

Many things have been a challenge for Oscar. As a parent, when you go through a period of time when everything seems to be a struggle and finally you achieve something, it is nice to rest there for awhile. To take a break before the next challenge and struggle. I think I am “resting” now. But not for long!

Because of his abilities, I probably do think of Oscar as a 10-12 month old baby. And then I will remember that he is going to be 2 years old in October. My job as a mom is to challenge my kids and to give them every opportunity to be their best version of themselves. It is harder to do this with a special needs child. There are so many past struggles that paint how things are done today. Too much history, too much trauma.

Why am I still doing things a certain way if my child may be capable of more? I think that it is because for a second something in my day feels “easy”. I want to challenge Oscar, I want to learn what his full capabilities are. To do that, I need to only enjoy the “easy” for a second and then prepare for the next challenge.

Back to the baby shampoo, I did tell the cashier that I wouldn’t be purchasing it and left it at the register. Oscar is old enough to use the same shampoo and soap as his sister. Our next challenge is to make an Occupational Therapy appointment to discuss transition from the baby bottle.