A strange and hopeful happening

A few days ago when we put Hansen to bed he took one sip from his bottle and gave it back to me. This is very good because we are trying to break him of the habit. So after that I left the room and of course he started to cry. I read in my Parents magazine that a good way to get your kids to go to sleep on their own is to tell them you will be back to check on them in a minute, and then wait longer every night until they get bored of waiting and eventually go to sleep. Well I went back in and set his bottle by his side and told him it was time to go to sleep. He was quiet after that!! I was so excited but still wasn't sure how it was going to go. Now tonight he has a cold which I'm not happy or excited about but I knew he probably wouldn't want any milk so I just gave him his sippy cup with water in it. To explain the sippy, I have been giving him his bottle and sippy for the past few nights. It usually goes like this. We put him in bed, have prayer, tell him goodnight, then shut the door. He then cries and I wait for a minute. Then I go back in, give him his sippy , tell him it's time to go to sleep, and then I leave. It worked like a charm tonight so I'm hoping above all other things right now that this will continue to work. I don't think I will stop checking in on Hansen after the one minute because after I check on him he is usually fine even if he is still awake and playing in his crib. He goes to sleep eventually. Now the next step will be to get him into his big boy bed. The strangest thing about this whole thing is that I remember telling Hans a few months ago that I hoped Hansen would just not want his bottle anymore just like he kinda stopped breast feeding at 8 months. Well if this isn't quite the same I'm still alright with it, but it seems like it might kind of be the same. The other thing I left out is that every week I reduced the amount of milk I was giving him in his bottle. We started at 6 ounces and got down to 2. I guess he didn't really think it was worth it anymore. Thank goodness for the advice of others the world around.