Last week my daughter and I took a trip to Target to pick up a few necessities baby necessities. On the list was diapers, wet wipes, pacifiers and sippy cups.
It all was pretty straight forward, nothing complicated at all for a father to handle.
Evi’s in the cart and I’m letting her pick out the colors that she’s attracted to which makes my decision making even easier.
I’d put two options in front of Evi and the one she reaches for first is the one we go with.
She picks the “Tommy Tippee” blue cup with the airplane on it. Evi’s pretty straight forward about what she wants.
No muss, no fuss and we are in and out of the store in about 15-20 minutes.
I know when we get home, I’ll need to wash the pacifiers and cups so she can start using them. The cups come already fully assembled so I quickly take them apart, wash them and let them sit out to dry.
The entire premise of a sippy cup is based on suction and it is especially designed so when the cup is not vertical the contents of the cup DO NOT spilled all over the place. Which is why they are so great to use with a one year old like my daughter.
A half hour later I put one of the cups together. Fill it with water and give it to Evi to drink. After a few minutes she’s soaking wet from all the water in the cup.
Further inspection revealed to me the silicone membrane that keeps the water from leaking is sitting at the bottom of the cup.
I think to myself, “Well that’s not good.”
I unscrew the lid and put the membrane back into place.
This happened several more times that day until it was time to take Evi back over her mom’s house. I thought nothing more of it until the next day when I picked her up again.
This time we head over to the park. Once again I hand Evi the sippy cup and a minute or so later the front of her shirt is covered with water.
Pulling the cup apart again, I’m getting pretty frustrated!
I’m thinking to myself, “There couldn’t be another possible way of putting this damn cup together, right!?”
I mean, “How many possible ways are there to assemble a sippy cup. It couldn’t be that complicated! I’m a grown adult!”
I even handed it over to my friend, Neal who was sitting there at the park with me watching his son.
Neal said, “Yeah man, that looks right.”
So I begin to believe that I have purchased a faulty sippy cup. What else could it be? It MUST be the manufacturers fault! I’ll just need to make another trip to Target to return this one.
I’m sitting there with the top of the cup in my hand, turned one piece over and that’s all it took!
The cup snapped into place perfectly and didn’t look like it would fall out.
I said excitedly to Neal, “I think I figured it out!”
Now for the real test. “Hey Evi” I said handing her the cup.
She holds it in her little hands and takes a big swig of water. The membrane holds in place and she has no NEW water covering her shirt.
Success!
It’s the little tweaks that make the difference. The nuances when doing anything that determine the difference between success or failure.
I just needed to be smarter than the sippy cup!
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