The Cup

Harper is in school 3 days a week. On an average of 2 out of those 3 days, she comes home in her spare set of clothes. The clothes she went to school in are sent home in a plastic bag, usually soaking wet.

I knew we needed to be working on her drinking out of a regular cup, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. School doesn't allow her age group to use sippy cups, and we have not been commited to working with her at home, finding it so much easier to just hand her a sippy and avoid the mess. I know fully well that she tends to throw her head back, pouring the entire contents of the cup all over her self, and I wasn't sure I was going to have the patience to really sit and practice with her without both of us getting super frustrated. But something in me told me to face my fears and go for it.

I went and bought the same plastic cups the school uses from Walmart and poured the tiniest amount of milk in the bottom to start with. I was determined to sit with her and really practice at dinner one particular night. She dunked, but at least it didn't make a huge mess. I reminded her "two hands, drink slowly" about a dozen times. She did pretty well, but as soon as she set the cup down, she flicked her hand and knocked it over, almost drenching me. ::big deep breath:: I was about to give up, when I literally told myself "don't cry over spilled milk". I sucked it up and tried again. I again repeated my mantra of "two hands, drink slowly" a few dozen more times, until Harper got so sick of hearing it that she kept setting the cup down every time I said it. I finally stopped repeating it and let her just drink. And she did great!!

Ever since then, at almost every meal we've eaten at the table, we've given her a cup with milk, and it's been SO much less stressful than that first night. She occasionally still turns her head while drinking, causing it to spill, or she only uses one hand and it falls out of her grip, or she gets daring and throws her head back. But in the two weeks since we've been practicing at home, she's only been sent home in her spare clothes once. I call that definite progress!!

Here's a video I took. She's coughing from an earlier moment when she thought it was funny to pretend she was choking.