My daughter is a marketing genius

Posted on February 21, 2014 by heatherlauraclarke

In my nearly four (FOUR!?) years of this parenting gig, we have tried a lot of sippy cups. (Oh dear, this is sounding like an infomercial already)

Wait, let me start over.

I got an email a few weeks back from the good people at Tommee Tippee, asking if C would test out one of their new sippy cups: the Explora Truly Spill Proof Straw Cup.

We’d never had a Tommee Tippee before, so I was interested to see what they’d be like. Surely they’d be better than the cheap Take-and-Toss things that are soaking my floors in water and juice every day. SIGN ME UP!

I thought, great! We’ll get a cup in the mail, C will use the cup, I’ll write about the cup, maybe we’ll really like it …

… What I didn’t expect was for C — at 21 months old — to market the hellz out of that cup!

She started off by having a tantrum — get this — because I got mad about her yanking apart her crappy disposable cup and dumping water on the floor (on purpose). She timed this tantrum perfectly, so she was sitting in her chair at the EXACT MOMENT the FedEx guy rang the doorbell.

I can’t make this up. Here’s the proof …

I ripped open the brown box, and saw a two-pack of the Explora cups. I couldn’t believe the timing. The kid is good.

I retrieved C from time-out, discussed the importance of NOT THROWING WATER ALL OVER THE FLOOR BECAUSE YOU ARE IN A BAD MOOD, and then told her she had mail! MAIL!

She squealed when I showed her the special cups that were just for her, and I asked if she wanted the white or the purple. “Puh-pull,” she requested. Remind you of anyone?

(I made a tutu for the first time that morning. It was epic)

I gave it a quick wash and filled it with water, and then C trotted off with her cup, happy as a … as a kid with a new puh-pull cup?

It was a lovely moment … tutu and all …

… until she rushed back to me a minute later, mad because she’d shut the top — leaving the straw trapped inside!

The cup was a little stiff from being brand-new, I think, because I had to work it a bit to get it to open up again. I opened it for C, handed it back, and she returned about 20 seconds later having done the same thing again. Oh dear, I thought, what shall I tell the interwebz about our cup?

But you know what? It all worked out within the morning. She figured out that maaaaaybe it wasn’t a good idea to shut her cup every two seconds. And the cup loosened up and figured that maaaaaaybe it was OK to let the crazy one-year-old open and close it. And since then, it’s been a beautiful friendship.

From a mom’s perspective, it’s been a VAST improvement over our cheap regular cups. It doesn’t leak, even if it’s lying on its side and the lid isn’t closed. I watched it tip over on D’s bed during storytime, and it didn’t drip at all.

It’s been four days since C was introduced to her new cups, and she’s in love with them. You can often find her toting them both around, actually. D has sneaked a drink from them here and there — because, let’s face it, glasses are totally boring — and C shrieked indignantly at him.

In the name of true brand ambassadorship — or whatever it is when you review a sippy cup on the internet? — I took a sip from it myself. I was pleasantly surprised by how the water had stayed cold (it’s insulated!) and that’s as far as I got in my observations before C grabbed it back.

Tantrums, shrieking, grabbing. My, this post is making her sound like a peach, isn’t it? Good thing she’s a marketing genius.

xoxo

*** Tommee Tippee provided us with two Explora Truly Spill Proof Straw Cups to review, but all opinions (and grabbing/shrieking issues) are our own. ***

Category: Sponsored, Toddlers

One Comment on “My daughter is a marketing genius”

Mom T
February 22, 2014

The only thing worse than when your kid keeps locking down the straw is when your kid learns to reopen their straw cup, but the straw pops up and splashes a drop of milk in their eye. Every. Friggin. Time. Does yours do that?

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I’m Heather Laura Clarke. I’m writer living in beautiful Nova Scotia, I have a 11-year-old son and a nine-year-old daughter, I married my high school sweetheart, and this is the story of my handmade life.

I have depression and anxiety, and I fight like hell every day to keep it from taking over my life. Making things isn’t just a hobby — it’s part of what keeps me alive.

Whether I’m writing novels, decorating a room, busting out my power tools to build furniture, getting muddy in the pottery studio, sewing clothes for my kids, or cross-stitching a swear word, I’m all about using my creativity to craft a life I love.

I’ve been writing this blog since 2009, so if you dig deep into the archives, you’ll meet a bright-eyed 25-year-old newlywed who was basically obsessed with having kids, buying a cozy house, and supporting herself full-time as a writer. (Spoiler alert: she got exactly what she wanted.)