Weaning

Ben and Erin came over to play today. 

Margot took advantage of Ada's being occupied with her new playmate to spend some alone time with her toys. 

Ada and Ben get along famously. Their first collaboration as little ankle biters was to both climb up on the toy basket and simultaneously tip it over and start removing the contents for distribution around the carpet. 

Everywhere Ben went.. Ada was not far behind him. Here they are playing with the musical barn thing and animal magnets. 

The time has come at last to begin weaning the girls. They are ten months old so it is a little early but my motherly intuition tells me they are past ready. They have been nursing 4 times a day since they were 8 weeks old. Last week (I think) I dropped that back to 3... this week we are down to 2 (morning and night).. next week I will drop one of the two and then we will only have the last session to let go of. I am sure I will miss the closeness of this, but I will appreciate getting my freedom back. Also, they have never really linked nursing with comfort.. in any sort of observable way (of course there is comfort in nursing but since they don't get to really cuddle as they nurse - eating at the same time - the comfort factor is a little harder to come by). Last week I noticed Ada starting to really ask to nurse. She is not hungry and she really just wants a cuddle. I have never nursed the girls for a cuddle (unless they were sick). I can not deny that it feels nice to be wanted for the sole purpose of a mommy/daughter snuggle. However, this is not a trend I want to encourage. I have been toying with the idea of weaning them before we head to Florida in a couple of weeks and Ada's new habit just sealed it for me. I know I will miss it when it is all over with. They will not remember that I single handedly nourished them for the first 4 months of their lives. That I dedicated myself to nursing them 4 times a day for almost 10 months in total. That I made the difficult decision to try this thing, succeeded with God's graceful mercy,  and now feel comfortable in bringing it to a conclusion. But I will.