The great sippy cup fiasco

AwesomeCloud hasn't liked sippy cups very long. He still preferred a bottle when we adopted him 11 months ago, and last spring he decided he'd rather have pretty much any other drinking receptacle over the sippy cup. We still make him use it; it's the only thing that doesn't spill. (He still manages to dribble milk all over the house and dampen the front of his shirt, but at least the sippy cup doesn't leave huge puddle traps on the kitchen floor like an open cup does.)

His new thing? Travel mugs.

So this morning I packed him a travel mug full of water and we headed to the playground across the street. The whole way, he'd walk five steps, demand his coffee mug. Drink, give it back. Walk five steps, demand his mug. Cry when I tried to coax him to keep walking.

"The playground is right over there!" I said. "I'll give you your water when we get to the playground. Do you really want to cry over water? Really?"

He stopped crying and started walking again, but less than a minute later it happened all over again.

At the playgound, he hugged his mug obsessively and toddled over to the bench with me.

"Go play," I said. "I'll sit here and keep your water safe."

He sat on the bench grouchily and clutched his mug. Another woman remarked that he was the very picture of a grownup who hadn't had his coffee yet, except that he was two.

(Mine didn't contain coffee either. I'm a tea drinker. I've gone down the coffee addiction road before and I do not like it there.)
He did play eventually, and then we went home. As soon as we got home, some friends of ours, John and his daughter Zoe, dropped by with this monstrosity:

And another monstrosity which is a wading pool shaped like a boat, but which Google won't give me a picture for. No matter; it's in the yard right now.

John thought it would be fun to check out the playground across the street, so I refilled Cloud's water mug and packed Zoe a sippy cup, and back we went.

Zoe liked her sippy cup just fine. Cloud, however, the consummate sippy cup snob... rejected the travel mug. Nope, he wanted the sippy cup. He really, really wanted the sippy cup. I was starting to worry, because even in this heat, he'd rather drink nothing than be stuck with that hateful ol' travel mug.

I bet if I offer the sippy cup to him when he wakes up from his nap, he'll reject it again. He'll probably demand the travel mug.

Which is now. Gotta go rescue a cranky just-woken-up kiddo. Have a nice day!