Doctor says no more bottles

So the doctor asked us yesterday if Handsome is still taking a bottle. Yes, for milk. She said no more bottle - adamantly. I don't understand this seemingly ardent battle against bottles and getting children off them so early. I don't get it. If he likes the bottle, he likes the bottle. He doesn't take it in bed. He gets maybe two a day. If he doesn't get them, he's not grumpy, he doesn't care. So really, what's the harm in drinking milk from a bottle every now and then? He's not going to waltz into kindergarten with a bottle tucked into his bag for naptime. He's not going to walk into his first college class and need to quickly take a swig of milk from his bottle to calm himself before class. So really, what's the rush??

And to go even further, why is the sippy cup so much better than the bottle? It is just a different shaped bottle. It's not a cup. It's a bottle with handles.

Nevertheless, the doctor - and the rest of American society - says with a stern look that Handsome is too old to drink from a bottle.

So last night I put a little milk into one of his sippy cups. I sat down on the couch with him and handed him his sippy cup milk. He took the sippy cup quickly and started downing the milk. No time for breathing, he was thirsty. And then he stopped. He looked up at me perplexed and then at his sippy cup. "Mom, this is not water. Sippy cups are for water. Didn't you get the memo?" Ok, he didn't say that, but his eyes are very expressive. He threw the milk sippy cup away like it was contaminated and got down on the floor. I turned away to look at the computer and not two seconds later I heard Handsome say "eh?" heard massive gulping as he downed some sort of liquid and felt him handing something to me. In my head I was thinking, "Yay! He's drinking the milk!"

No. He was not drinking the milk, because if you recall sippy cups are for water. When I turned around I saw Handsome handing me the sippy cup with milk as he was drinking the water from his other sippy cup like he hadn't had water to drink for weeks. He finished gulping and then was breathing heavily to make up for all the time he had been drinking and not breathing. He pushed the milk sippy cup further on my lap and away from him. I'm sure I saw a defiant look hiding in the back of his eyes. He left the milk sippy cup and walked around the living room gulping water until he finished the entire cup of water. Then he brought that sippy cup to me to get more water.

No amount of re-handing the milk sippy cup to him would convince him to drink from it again. He had been fooled once and it wouldn't happen again. I even tried to angle it so that he couldn't see the liquid inside so maybe he would think it had water. Nope. He's a smart little bugger.

He can get his dairy from yogurt. Who needs milk anyway. Stubborn child.