Exile of the bottle

As those of you who read my blog regularly know, Simon has had troubles with food in all aspects. Last week, I finally put my foot down.
At 14 1/2 months old, Simon still refused the sippy cup for the bottle. Every time I gave him milk or juice, I'd start with the sippy cup. After 20 minutes of screaming and throwing the cup, I finally broke down and gave him a bottle. He would then sit in his bouncie chair for a good 10 minutes and feed himself from a bottle. Part of me really enjoyed this, because I had 10 minutes to do dishes, fold laundry, or just sit on the couch and be 100% unproductive. But even given the joys, last Thursday, I'd had enough.
I fed Simon is breakfast of oatmeal and poured him 4 oz of milk in his sippy cup. He threw the cup and screamed at the top of his lungs. It was quite the scene. I couldn't take it anymore.
Though he couldn't really understand me, I looked at him and said "Simon; you are almost 15 months old. You are way too old to be using a bottle. No more bottle." I then packed away all the bottles. After a couple hours and much screaming, Simon had finished the sippy cup of milk.
It's been six days since Simon last had a bottle. He is hydrated and getting the nutrients he needs from milk.
The main problem is, he can't feed himself. He still can't drink when he's vertical (cup or bottle) and if he lays down with the cup, he chokes. That means; he stands up holding my arm, and I hold the cup for him.
I'm not sure if we're progressing since I'm back to feeding him and it still takes about an hour to finish, but it just brings back wonderful memories of trying to nurse. There's a lot of screaming and meals now take anywhere between one and two hours.
Another breakthrough; Simon ate 3 chicken nuggets! I am so happy. Not that chicken nuggets are filled with nutritional value, but they're the only non-sweet thing other than bread Simon has agreed to eat (other than baby food of course).
With these two breakthroughs, I'm starting to think we may break through the eating barriers after all. We may be able to go to a restaurant without Simon dumping all his food on the floor and screaming... one day. For now; we'll stick to take-out.

Though this has nothing to do with food, I felt the need to post this picture. Simon was of course sick last week. We kept a roll of toilet paper in the family room because his nose was constantly runny. Jacob asked me to come look at something quickly in his office. This is what I saw when I came out.

I guess he was tired of me wiping his nose. This destruction took approximately 15 seconds. What the picture doesn't show, is the wad of toilet paper in his mouth. I've never met someone with so much desctruction power. I guess that's what happens when you have little boys.