Wednesday, June 27, 2018

How One Little Princess Cup Brought Me To Tears



I made an impromptu trip to Walmart, mostly to get out of the house. It was pretty much the only thing open at this time of night. Not surprisingly I came home with unexpected goodies: a giant checkers board game, a couple of new toys, candles, and several new character cups that I nabbed for only 30 cents a piece. I knew we were in need of a few new ones because there were a few in our cupboards that no longer had a character on them from all of the washings. That's in addition to the bite marks from little teeth all around the edges.

Some of those cups had been around a while. I pulled them out of the cupboard and threw them into the recycling bin. I stopped when I got to a particular princess cup. Instead of tossing it as I had done the others, I set it on the counter and had a staring contest with it. Even if the cup isn't aware that it was a staring contest, it totally was. Of course, I couldn't stare well through the tears that welled up in my eyes.

You see, this cup is more than just a cup. It's the last surviving cup from the first round of "real" cups I ever bought for my kids and daycare. I actually remember buying this cup so many years ago. I picked it out with one of my daycare girls in mind. It was before I had a little girl of my own to buy princess stuff for. It was when we were practicing with the big cups and phasing out sippy cups. My oldest had just turned three. He's now ten. I've had this cup for seven years.

While I remember buying this cup as though it was yesterday, I can't recall how many fights this cup has seen ("no it's my turn for the princess cup!"), how many spills, drops, and everything in between this cup has been through. It's always these very mundane items that get me. These silly items that make me realize the passing of time.

This little scratched, bitten up cup got me and it got me good. Just always assume when you see me staring and crying at a random thing that there's some kind of story to go with it.