I love my stuff!

Annabel is slowly taking to the sippy cup. I have been working on her for MONTHS. We have a vast and expensive sippy cup graveyard. Straws, silicon tips, flips, tilties, you name it, we have tried it. For some reason I am not going to argue with, she likes this one:

delish
Of course that cup cost like fifty cents.

I am a strict enforcer of the sippy. Not to, uh, throw anyone under the bus, but some people coughMIKEcoughGRANDPARENTScough are suckers for her big eyes and pleas for “bopple.” I am immune to her tricks. I will not be manipulated by a toddler, dammit! So during the day, it’s sippy or bust.

Unfortunately, even my cold, cold heart cannot outlast her at night. She will NOT take the sippy cup in the evening. Not with dinner, and she freaks out before bedtime until she gets a bottle. I’m not talking general toddler tantrums – this is the full-on wailing, shrieking, “Why are you doing this to me maaaaaaamaaaaaaaa” crying – for HOURS. And since we still live in a condo building (which is another story for another day, ugh), we really CAN’T let her scream all night. Our neighbors would kill us. I say this with certainty because if Annabel was screaming in another family’s apartment, I would probably light their door on fire. That’s how loud she is.

How can we beat this? I don’t know how to change her routine. I fully admit we have spoiled her to this point, but how can we undo it? HOW HOW HOW! My sanity, it clings to the thinnest thread!