The Proper Drinking of Beverages, Toddler Style

I thought that drinking from a cup was pretty straight forward, but according to my son, there are actually quite a lot of rules involved.

• First of all, while sippy cups are allowed, cups without lids are greatly preferred.
• No matter what kind of cup you are drinking from, the liquid inside is not just for drinking. There are several activities that you can and should use this liquid for. These include:
• ... dropping on the floor - Watching liquid drip out of a sippy cup is good for hours of good old-fashioned fun. Who cares if the playpen smells funny tomorrow because the milk that was generously sprinkled on today starts to go bad?
• ...pouring on the high chair tray to further mealtime food fun - Playing with your food doesn't have to just include solids, adding liquids to the mix only increases the fun.
• ... marking your trail - Sometimes you just need to hold your sippy cup upside down as you walk through the house so that you can remember your path.
• ... ensuring that water is still wet - Sometimes when drinking from a cup without a lid, you need to repeatedly stick your hand in it to ensure that water is indeed still wet. If in the process of sticking your hand in the cup water spills on the table around you, that just means you have more ways to enjoy the liquidy wetness.
• If you get bored while in the possession of a cup full of liquid, feel free to come up with more ideas to add to the above list.
• When drinking from a big-kid glass, you are allowed to throw a fit at any offers offer assistance from adults, even if you end up spilling the entire contents of the cup on yourself and start to cry because it's cold. Toddlers can figure these things out for themselves, even if it takes a little (or a lot) longer and so adult intervention is never appreciated.