Reward

At four and a half years old, Tess finally decided she was ready to give up her bottles.  Her reward - a castle for her fairies to live in.

I've never been that fussed about older kids having bottles.  If it makes everyones life easier, then I roll with it.  We only allowed her to have a bottle at bedtime, and when she was sad or upset she always requested one.  Many times we just gave her an empty bottle to suck on.  We had tried a few times before to get Tess to give up her bottles.  She almost did willingly take all her bottles to the toy store and trade them in for a new toy when we told her she could have absolutely any new toy in the store.  She thought about it for days but finally decided she would rather have her bottles.  That's how I know how important her bottles are/were to her.  I wasn't going to maker her give it up until she decided she was ready.  

This weekend she decided she was ready.  She bravely threw them all into the outside recycling bin.  Then she cried/whimpered herself to sleep that day at nap time.  When she woke from her nap, her fairy castle was waiting for her.  She hasn't requested a bottle since.  We are so proud of her!