Summer races on

Oof, it's been a whole month since I've posted--a month full of changes.  Mazin is now bursting with sentences.  The first one complete with subject, verb, and object was, "Where da boob?"  (It was dawn; he was looking for his usual morning nip, and I was trying to hide under the covers.)  And yesterday, we got a four-word sentence:  "Dada make da pop-pop."  (Dada made the popsicle.)  Yeah, Dada makes the popsicles once, and he gets all the credit forevermore.  Really Mama is the one who makes sure they are stocked in the freezer. 

In other news, Mazin is no longer breastfeeding.  It was a surprisingly easy transition.  He still asks to "nyew" on occasion, but I just remind him that "we don't do that anymore," and cuddle him instead.  He's OK with it.  I feel good that we were able to do it without tears and trauma.  It's funny, I thought I would be sad and emotional about it, but I'm not.  I guess that means we were both ready.  The whole process took about two weeks, and we started with cutting out nap nursing.  That was easy enough--I just had to make it happen some other way, like with an Ergo or stroller ride.  After a few days I stopped nursing him at bedtime.  The trick was to get him so tired before putting him to bed that he wouldn't even care about nursing.  And to have John take him to bed whenever possible.  So that just left the routine 5 a.m. nursing, which I thought would be the most difficult.  I figured he would get upset and wake up for the day much too early.  I was wrong about that.  One morning I said, "you don't need to nurse now," and he fussed around only a bit before falling back to sleep in my arms.  And that was that.  End of an era.

Mazin is acting so independent these days, at times it is startling.  I don't know if weaning has been a cause or effect--it's kind of a chicken or egg question.  Is he more independent because he's stopped nursing, or was weaning so easy because of his increasing independence?  While I don't miss the nursing, I do kind of miss the fuss he used to make when I would leave.  Now when I take him to daycare, leave him with Dada, or give him to Nanna, he just says, "Bye Mama," like it's no big thing.  I'm glad he's happy, of course, but there is just a twinge of sadness that I'm not quite as necessary anymore.  I suppose I should take that as a sign of parenting success.  Besides, I know deep down that I'm his real favorite...