Sloan turned 9 months old on Monday.  Normally, this kind of stuff doesn’t phase me…but this week entire week has given me heartburn.

Zach and I officially made plans and travel arrangements to go out of town [just the two of us] for our anniversary.  I decided that I should slowly start to wean Sloan in advance.  I figured I would just replace a feeding with a bottle here and there.  She only takes a bottle one time a week – when the babysitter watches her on Saturday nights – or when Zach puts her down if I am randomly gone.  I’ve heard horror stories about weaning babies from nursing, so I figured I would take it easy.  Sloan had a different plan, though.  She basically weaned herself after one bottle feeding.  After giving her a fast flow bottle of formula she didn’t care to nurse.  Not only that, but she has completely switched to formula, dropped an entire feeding, dropped a nap, learned to say “ma-ma”, and started standing all by herself.  All over the course of 48 hours.  I know I should have been relieved, but I was crushed.  Nursing has been something I have had to work really hard at from the very beginning.  If I am being honest with myself, this whole transition to bottle feeding was harder on me than it was for her.  It went WAY too fast.  I already miss nursing her, but she was obviously ready because by her second bottle she wanted nothing to do with me and decided that she was just chill doing it all on her own.

I think the hardest part was realizing she didn’t need rely on me for that comfort anymore.  Nursing was the one weapon in my mom arsenal that I had that never failed.  It’s been hard for me to imagine that this phase of her life [infancy] is over.
I basically smothered her the entire week – forcing her to love on me every chance I got.

Tuesday we drove down to Orem to check in on the progress at the Alder HQ.  Sloan’s favorite area of the entire building is the collaboration lounge.  She’s the best Junior Designer I could ask for.  Half of the way finding I designed has been installed.  I did all the directories for the buildings – my favorite application has been on the concrete walls.  It is coming together as planned and it’s such a relief to check these items off of my list to do.

Sloan slept the entire way home.  She loves the sun roof in Zach’s car [my car was being serviced] and zonked out watching the sky pass by above her.I am pretty sure Sloan has Zach’s balance.  She acts like standing is something she’s been doing for the last 9 months.
And since I was already on the brink of an emotional cliff [and it felt like Sloan kinda gave me and my boobs the middle finger] I thought I would pack up all of Sloan’s newborn supplies.  I managed to make it through the whole process without any tears, so I’d say it could have been worse.

Mid week Zach had a hockey game down in WVC.  Normally his games are at 10:30 [wayyyy past Sloan’s bedtime] but this week he had a match at 6:00.  Sloan got to witness her dad in his element and was completely zoned in.  If it weren’t for her little head darting back and forth from side to side I would have thought she had fallen asleep.  She loved every second of it.The icing on the cake was Zach scoring the game winner with 30 seconds left to play.  He’s a real ringer, that guy…
The rest of the week was packed full of work stuff.  I managed to clean my house – not like Sloan contributed at all.  She gets really slothful when it’s time to do chores around the house…Friday the girls in my family decided to have a ladies night since some of the men were on a Fathers/Sons activity.  We went to dinner at From Scratch and went shopping at City Creek afterwards.

We ended the evening at Baskin Robbins.  Never a bad idea.

Saturday we met up with Zach’s family for a reunion down in Riverton.  We shared lunch at a park and got to catch up with a few people we rarely see.

When we got home from our get together Zach and I got ready for our date night.  It was Zach’s choice – so he went all out and treated me to a corn dog from Hot Dog on a Stick and a movie at the Megaplex at the Gateway.

In all seriousness – I would spend an entire Saturday night just talking to Zach, nothing more, and be completely happy.  Date Night was a success, even Straight Out of Compton was a winner.  It left me wanting a Raiders hat in the worst way.  And I LOVE Ice Cube, so…you know.

Sunday after church we dined at home, just the three of us.  Zach scored some salmon fresh from Alaska from one of his clients and we barbecued it for dinner.  Sloan enjoyed her first taste of fish and to our surprise, didn’t hate it one bit.  

Nine months old?  She might as well be nineteen.  And hopefully she’ll still love me (minus the lactation).