Smart Kids, Bad Housekeeping, and Mmm Mmm Chocolatey Goodness

Ms. Boo knows how to open the cabinet latches that I have on several cabinets around the kitchen. This isn't a problem because there isn't anything dangerous in those cabinets, and generally, she can be trusted with whatever she finds behind the doors.

There is really only one cabinet that I don't want the kids in. It contains cereal and peanut butter. And my little snacker would go nuts with unlimited access to it.

But Boo is too short to reach the latch at the top of that tall cabinet. So, its contents have remained undisturbed for a long time.

That all changed yesterday.

Unbeknownst to me, Ms. Boo climbed up on a chair and unlatched that cabinet. She decided to make some chocolate milk for herself and Bug. The part that befuddles me is that she knew how to make the chocolate milk.

See, we had this HUGE canister of Ovaltine. It was a hold-over from the days when I weaned Boo (now almost 5) and she wouldn't drink regular milk. I was trying to mix in Ovaltine to get her to drink it. But she didn't like it. And, bad housekeeper that I am, we still had that canister of ovaltine sitting in the cabinet.

We just recently finished it, and I never bought more. But Ovaltine is the only thing we have ever used to make chocolate milk.

So, what did Boo use to make chocolate milk?

Well, Nesquik, what else? (Didn't is used to be called Nestle Quik? And what do they have against the "c"?)

My husband used to use Nesquik to make homemade chocolate ice cream. Our ice cream maker broke about three years ago. But the Nesquik remains for the same reason that the Ovaltine did.
Only we have never touched it. It just sits there. I have no idea how LBoo knew what it was or what to do with it.

But she did. And before I knew what was going on, she had two cups of milk poured and had dumped a few spoonfuls of Nesquik into each one.

This was just before we left for the evening service at church last night. Neither of the kids finished their chocolate milk. So, we left for church and the chocolate milk just sat there.

Then we got invited to a friend's house after church... and we stayed kinda late. So when we came home, we just got the kids in bed. And, having promised Boo and Bug that we'd "camp out" with them in the living room, we spent a good deal of the night with them (until they fell asleep and we could sneak out.)

And, this morning, my sweet son walked up to me, innocent as you please, and started talking to me. I have no idea what he was saying, because all I noticed was the big, chocolate milk mustache he had on his face.

"Mr. Bug," I said, "what have you been eating?"

He just looked at me. Then, I remembered. The chocolate milk was still on the table (for the same reasons that the Ovaltine and the Nesquik were in the cabinet so long.)

So I told Bug that I didn't want him drinking that chocolate milk.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because it has been sitting out all night and it isn't good anymore."

"But MOM," says the boy, as if his response will somehow negate my concern about drinking spoiled milk, "It's CHOCOLATEY!"

Makes me want to kiss that spoiled chocolate milk mustache right off of his little Nesquik-y face.