When James was born, Ali was still very young. She was very attached me to and it was hard for her to not have me cuddling her all the time. She had already been drinking milk from a bottle so she became very attached to her bottle during the first few months of James' life. That bottle solved any and all problems that came her way and to be honest, I was glad she had it. It calmed her down and made life easier. James also adopted the addiction but it seemed to be something he did because Ali did it. At 32 months old she was still very attached to it with no end in sight. This last week seemed to be as good a time as any to break the habit.
I decided I wanted to do a sticker chart for the kids with a reward at the end of the week to help them kick the habit. It involved buying several materials such as paint, rulers, etc. In an effort to be more frugal I decided I had enough materials at home. The kids loved the charts and didn't care at all that they looked like something that took me 30 seconds and used materials we had in the garage- because they did. Ali and James loved putting their stickers on every day and the first time I was putting her down for a nap without a bottle she was so giddy. She said, "Mommy, I put stickers on my chart because I'm going to bed without a bottle and I'm going to ride a horse!" The novelty wore off and she started asking for a bottle by the end of the week but we were able to hold out till the reward on Saturday.
When we asked Ali what she wanted as a reward at the end of her bottle-free week she shouted, "Ride a horse!!!" This came as a big surprise to us because a few days before she had the opportunity to sit on a horse and nearly passed out from fear. In fact, this morning before going to ride the horses, she also talked about how she was going to shoot balloons, which is part of the show we watched on the 4th (the day she had the chance to sit on the horse). I hoped that once we got to the farm she would actually ride the horse but I had serious doubts considering how she acted last time.
It turns out she wasn't afraid in the least bit! She ran right over to this sweet little horse, Pistol, and loved every minute of her pony ride!! It was adorable!!!
James also had a FABULOUS time!!
They were so giddy through the whole farm and loved it even more than I thought they would!!
