Big Boy Cup

I came home from work yesterday in kind of a grump mood. My grump mood lasted almost 30 whole seconds before Elijah came up to me and gestured me to bend down to Eli level.

“Dada,” he whispered. “I think we should tickle Mommy. I’ll distract her and you tickle her.”

At which point he walked up to her and shouted, “I am distracting you, Mommy!”

Suddenly, life seemed full of endless possibilities. And I decided right then and there to switch Luca from bottles to Sippie Cups. Our doctor has been encouraging us to wean Luca off bottles for a while. I’m not sure the medical reason. Maybe she doesn’t want him to have to bring baby bottles to college.

Anyhoo, we haven’t been really trying to get him to make the switch. Why? Because he looks so damned cute walking around in nothing but a diaper with a bottle in one hand and a fire truck in the other. And I’ll miss his shouting of, “BA-BA!” at 5:50am.

But I was full of milk and vinegar last night and declared in my head that I was making the switch.

After his bath, I asked Luca if he wanted to drink his milk out of a “Big Boy Sippie Cup.”

“Ho-Kaaaaayyyy.”

I handed him the cup and said, “Look out! Big boy coming through! Stand back!”

The funny thing is, he was actually proud of himself. There was a distinct swagger to his toddler stumble. And he stopped in front of Elijah and dramatically drank from his cup to get his attention. Like all big brothers, Eli ignored him.

I scooped him up and laid Luca on the changing table. As I removed his diaper, Luca tried to drink from the Sippie Cup. A much different experience than drinking from the flow control of a bottle. He immediately chocked on the deluge of milk and had a violent coughing fit.

I righted him on the floor, repeating, “You’re ok, you’re ok.”

And then he barfed all over himself. And me. Disgusting, toddler food barf. Elijah just happened into the room.

“Luca barfed!”

“Barf!” Said Luca.

“Should I go get mommy?”

“No,” I said. “We don’t need to bring her into this,” I tried to mop up the barf with Luca’s pajamas.

“Barf!” Said Luca.

“I think we should get Mommy.”

“No! Leave her out of this!”

Eli then began shouting for his mother.

Diana came down and observed the situation. Child covered in barf. Husband covered in barf. Sippie Cup covered in barf. Floor covered in barf.

She realized life was full of endless possibilities.