This is a story I like to call “The Sippy Cup Disaster.” It all started with a string of sippy cup disappearances. Over time, the replacements got cheaper and cheaper because I got so tired of dropping loads of cash on buying new sippy cups every week. I don’t know where they go. Some of them, I’m sure disappear into a black hole that exists underneath the seats in our mini van. Some of them are chewed up and it’s no mystery what has caused their fate (my son’s sharp teeth, of course.) Some of them are just plain gone and no one knows where they are now. All I know, is every week we’ll have a morning or two where my son is thirsty and there is no cup to be found.
This week I bought some really generic sippy cups from the grocery store. When we got home I filled one with coconut milk (we’re a dairy free house) and gave it to my son. He appeared to be sucking, but I didn’t hear him gulping. Later that day I noticed that he didn’t seem to have drank any of the milk, which is unusual. So, I tried to drink from the sippy cup myself, and I found it almost impossible to get a sip out. It was like drinking out of one of those hamster water dispensers: a drop here, a drop there, but mostly a big disappointment. So naturally I took out the valve. That was my second mistake. (My first mistake was buying these cheap sippy cups.)
My third mistake was daring to check my email while my son drank his milk. Because 30 seconds later, the cup was almost empty, and everything within a two foot radius of my son was covered and soaked with coconut milk. Meanwhile, he was laughing with that mischievous toddler cackle and shaking his sippy cup upside down, continuing to spray milk everywhere while I watched.
I did not yell and I did not punish, because frankly this was all my fault. My sweet little monkey helped me clean up the mess with paper towels, and I realized that I need to stop buying cheap sippy cups and I need to keep a better eye on my kiddo. The end.