Public Service Announcement - Sippy cups that don't suck are hard to find!

Back story: Liam and my body mutually decided to wean him from the natural feeding method (if you know what I mean) at 8 months. He's been drinking formula from a bottle since then, because he still needs the nutrition, but now at nearly 10 months, The Monkey has become pretty indifferent to the bottle itself. He's been able to drink from an open cup (with a LOT of help) since he was about 6 months old, but we were looking for a cleaner way to give him liquids, one that lets him assert his independence yet bypasses the massive cleanup effort after each meal.

And so we began looking for a good sippy cup.

Lord, people, does it really have to be this hard? It is nearly impossible to find a good sippy cup! We had kindly been gifted with several different sippy cups by my best friend (hi, Mere!), and while we are very grateful for the thought, most of them stunk. "Spill-proof" cups are designed more for the parent than the child - they have horrid valves on the spouts that keep the liquid from coming out, even when you want it to! Liam sucked and sucked on the spouts, and nothing came out - may as well have been a closed cup for all the drink he got out of it. We looked online for a good cup, but everything was "spill-proof". We Googled "old-fashioned sippy cup," because I swear I remember a simple cup with a simple lid with no valve, but we didn't have much luck.

Then, in the back of a cabinet, we found the last of Mere's gifts - a little "take and toss" semi-disposable sippy cup, a simple 7-oz cup with a pop-on top *without* a valve, designed to be a travel cup. I tried it out, but you still have to suck pretty dang hard on the thing. Suddenly, inspiration struck: I poked a little hole in the top and tried again...

Perfect. Absolutely perfect. You tip the cup into your mouth, and the liquid comes out very slowly. A slight suck and you have a good flow going. Best of all, the cup isn't trying to double as a bottle like those awful "spill-proof" ones, so it will actually be a good transition to an open cup for The Monkey.

We tried it out at his last meal. Perfect. He figured it out in 2 seconds, and this huge grin came on his face. Yes, folks, the Gadrows are back in business.

P.S. We still have to help him a bit with the sippy cup - this is not a "give it to him and walk away" cup (which wasn't what we were looking for, anyway). We have to help him hold it, and keep him from turning it upside down or throwing it, but when he drops it or tips it over accidentally, only a little comes out, making it an excellent alternative to the open cup. Plus he "gets" it, and it was super-cool to watch that realization come over his face.