Drinking From a Straw (aka first taste of Chocolate)

One toasty day not that long ago, Papillon and I headed to my parents house to spend some quality time with my little brother. It was quite a toasty day (I think it was very near 100), but being as tough and frugal as we are, the three of us pretended not to mind the heat for the first half of the day.

But when Papillon's hair started curling because of the sweat, we knew we had to do something. Turning on the AC proved unhelpful, since apparently it takes central AC a solid 24 hours or more to bring the temperature down once you let it get that hot (it was like 88 inside, with the shades down and the fans on).

At this point, we were desperate for some relief from the heat. So we hopped in the car, and, armed with coupons for free iced-chocolate-beverages, we headed to a donut shop to enjoy our cold beverages and some AC.

Delicious iced, chocolate beverages:

Papillon was instantly intrigued by these yummy looking beverages. She had her own water and some cheerios, but that just wasn't cutting it. So she pulled out the adorable pleading eyes with which she begged for a taste.

Knowing that she did not know how to drink from a straw and also that, generally, just letting her put her mouth on the straw was enough to make her feel like she was enjoying what we were enjoying, I let her "have a sip" from my straw.

Much to my surprise, she instantly put her lips around the straw and took a big sip. She got a mouth full of frozen chocolatey goodness - and she loved it! Since then, she has been an expert straw-drinker, hoping, just hoping, that one day it won't be water that comes through the straw, but that delicious sweentess that her mom accidentally fed her.

After that, it was back to cheerios and water for Papillon until...

Papillon pulled out her cute act once again. This time she tried it with the store manager. She pulled out all her tricks - flirty eyes, nodding yes, bobbling her head no, etc. It was too much for the store manager, and she caved and gave Papillon an entire glazed donut all her own.

I gave Papillon a couple bites (it would have been rude to refuse the free donut), but decided a whole donut might be too much sugar for Papillon. Papillon, however, was determined to eat that donut without my help. She couldn't figure out how to pick it up and bite it. And when she tried to pull off a piece she only managed to get tiny crumb sized pieces. That did not deter her, however, and crumb by crumb, eating them faster and faster, Papillon devoured her donut.

(she did not eat all of it, but for eating it one crumb at a time, she did make a pretty good dent in it).

So there you have it, our efforts to stay cool and find some AC resulted in Papillon's first experience with a straw, chocolate and donuts. What a fun day!