Over the last couple of weeks, I've been sitting the kid on the edge of the sink and explaining how I'm making a bottle for her. I show her the steps, do it all right in front of her.
Most of the time, she finds it fascinating, ahe realizes food is coming and she doesn't freak out. A couple of times, when she was starting a hunger-induced meltdown, making the bottle in front of her actually calmed her down.
And I'm pretty sure that, in just a few more weeks, she'll learn how to do it herself, which should free up a lot of time. As the saying goes, give a kid a bottle and she eats for a few hours; teach her to make a bottle, and...and you'll probably end up with a giant can of formula spilled on the floor someday.
Let me get back to you on that one...
funny coincidence...
We took my (2.5 yr old) son to the mtns a couple weeks ago to go fishing for the first time.
While we stayed up there, the fridge in our condo was one of the freezer on top/fridge on bottom designs. So the handle was lower and easier for him to get to. He really enjoyed being able to get his own juice and milk bottles whenever he wanted. I wasn't too opposed to it either!
To top it off, the first time we were leaving to fishing (which had been much-hyped), he ran to thr fridge as we were leaving the condo, and grabbed the container of worms I'd forgotten! We may need to get a new refrigerator at home now!