Milk and Milestones

Tonight I dumped a carton of potentially bad milk down the sink. The carton should have had been good for two more weeks, but after receiving a tip from my oldest, I sniffed the milk carton and decided it smelled more like cheese than milk and I tossed it. The thing I don't understand about milk is that the "best by" date is always off. It always goes south before the date said it should. None of us are milk drinkers in this house. Sure there is the occasional bowl of cereal consumed but rarely does anyone voluntarily pour and entire glass of milk to drink. So, our 1/2 gallon of milk occasionally goes bad before it gets consumed and the dumping of milk is not a rare occurrence. Tonight as I was watching the milk slowly pour into the sink, I had a completely non-scientific revelation. A few images flashed before my eyes and then I made the connection: my best friends love milk.

The first image that popped into my head was Rachael asking the waiter at a Spanish Tapas bar if she could have a glass of milk. The waiter looked a little perplexed but granted her wish in time for her to raise her glass of milk to our Sangria and toast in celebration of our friend's birthday. Time after time after time we would have dinner together and Rachael would have a full on big gulp glass of milk and I was always just about as perplexed as the Tapas waiter...milk with dinner?

Next image is Mika pouring a massive glass of milk to go with a slice of cake. Mika and I both love cake, but I prefer to have a cup of Joe with mine and she drinks milk. So one night when we were all living in Clarksville I was serving up cake and Mika got out the milk to go with it. I don't know why this image sticks in my head so much, but I remember hearing the "glug glug glug" of milk pouring and looking over at this huge glass of milk she had prepared for herself. She looked at me and said "what?" That was the first time I realized she was a milk drinker and the first time she found out how grossed out I get at the sight of a glass of milk.

And lastly before those cute little milk mustache ads were popular my sister was sporting those on a daily basis. Although she doesn't drink milk like she used to, the mustache image still sticks in my head and makes me giggle. She loved chocolate milk and plain old milk and would easily drink a gallon on her own before the expiration date. She easily consumed 4-5 tall glasses of milk a day. I don't know how she got it down without throwing up.

In conclusion, my three best friends are milk drinkers therefore it follows that when I am searching for a new friend....I should find out if she likes milk.

And in other news.....Gabe stopped sucking his thumb.

When did this happen? I don't remember the last time I saw him sucking his thumb. It was so cute how he used to put his thumb in his mouth and curl his pointer finger around his nose. We have been encouraging him for 2 years now to stop sucking his thumb but he continued to tell us "no". The dentist assured me everything would be fine and that he would stop when he was ready. I laughed, she clearly doesn't know Gabe - he will never voluntarily give up that thumb. But he did. He just stopped sucking his thumb. I'm a little sad I'll never see him all curled up with his blanket sucking his thumb, or see how he unconsciously would put his thumb in his mouth when he was sad, scared or hurt. He is grown up now, he doesn't need it. It is a big milestone.