Have you tried straws?

Just recently we took a long trip to Connecticut to visit my family and successfully made the long trek back....I am convinced we would not have survived the trip without one simple invention...THE STRAW.  It started in Chick-fil-A.  I was at the table trying to ward off boredom blues with my twenty-one month old when I finally ripped open a straw and gave it to her. To my advantage, my daughter's obsession with lines and bendy objects led her to at first, smile at the straw, then tentatively chew, then ferociously gnaw on the straw.  She bent it into a million positions with graceful agility while I sat back and wondered why I never thought of this before, why this isn't stated in the Mommy handbook of all handbooks...SO, I did as any other mother would have done.  I grabbed three dozen straws (without the management seeing), threw them in my purse and headed for the car like a woman who just robbed a drugstore.  The whole way home, I just kept chucking straws in the backseat.  One by one they dropped to the floor.  No biggie. It's on Chick-fil-A.

Our obsession continued...was in the super market the other day when I spotted a package of 100 bendy straws with all different colors and stripes. How could I pass them by?  Swept those up without a second thought. I have simply come to the conclusion that every mother should be buying straws by the hundreds.  Why aren't they selling them at Babies R Us, Target and the local baby boutique at the register?  They should be handing them out instead of candy and popcorn. I'm convinced that this is the secret thing that needs to be in every mother's purse. Mandatory if you have toddlers...

If, however, you need a more durable straw....maybe one, that your child could use for therapeutic chewing, go to the hardware store and pick up refrigerator tubing. It comes in long ten foot portions.  June REALLY likes the refrigerator tubing.  AND my speech therapist even endorsed it, saying it was really good for her to chew on...especially those back teeth.  I give her that as an extra special treat. Who knew my child could be so motivated by a straw? Try it yourself!

June wishing she had a straw