I should have known better.  Letting Gracie walk around on the Cocoa Beach pier with her Dora sippy cup was asking for it.  Before we could do anything to stop it, the cup goes sailing over the rails and into the sea.  Gracie had decided she didn’t need Dora anymore.  Those cups are coveted by us, as the really tough ones seem hard to find.

I know, I know.  Sippy cups at ten years old.  Gracie doesn’t understand the concept of drinking from a cup, glass, or straw.  She’ll either spill a cup’s contents all over the place or herself, crush and/or bite through disposable plastic and styrofoam cups, or throw the cup with the contents in it.  As for straws, Gracie thinks those are chew toys.

Gracie likes to cruise around in the kitchen, always looking in or around the sink for a drinking implement to destroy.  Everything should be put away all the time.  The dish soap, dish rags, bottles, cans, dishes, etc.  She’ll destroy all of it if it’s not put away.  Can never relax without shutting Gracie into her room.  Once she took one of my favorite pilsner glasses from the sink.  When she saw me coming to take it from her, she launched the glass into the air as she ran away.  Naturally, Kristine and Gabby come running into the kitchen after hearing glass shatter onto the tile floor.  Panicking, I yelled at them to freeze.  Thankfully, nobody stepped on any of the shards.  I see a future with no glasses in our house.

But back to the sippy cups, we’ve seen her destroy those too.  Because of her pica and/or need for deep pressure, she bites and chews on just about anything, including her sippy cup.  See below one of the cups she’s been working on.  Gracie has actually cracked the plastic on some of the less robust cups.

And going out to dinner or sitting at our dinner table with Gracie is always fun.  We have to worry about her throwing, I mean hurling her sippy cup through the air or down onto the table.  I’ve been hit in the head with those cups, both my mother and I have snatched them out of the air in mid-flight at restuarants, and have had our food scattered all over the place when Gracie decided to throw the cup down onto the table.  Once she aimed her cup at my mother’s armoire containing glass doors and all kinds of china inside it.  So glad the glass doors withstood the impact.  Gracie is now seated at my mother’s house with the armoire behind her.

Finally, if you happen to be strolling the beach in the Space Coast and find a Dora cup, let us know.