Taste psychophysics and a prep course for admission into the Future Bedazzlers of America

E has this thing...let's call it a quirk. E has a quirk, and this is one among hundreds that we work around because she processes the world differently than the rest of us and once if you would have asked me my opinions on sensory processing and tactile defensiveness and sensory seekers I might have looked at you like you have three heads, but now we have quirks that we incorporate into our lives and for the most part they bring us no undue complications. E needs a lot of hugs and snuggles and says she gets itchy if she hasn't had enough touch contact. She doesn't like jeans or khakis or any pants with buttons and zippers and rigid waistbands. She doesn't eat chocolate because foods that are too sweet make her teeth itch. And she can't look at her milk when she drinks it.

What?

It tastes bad when she sees it. My sweet girl will drink water or juice or chamomile tea out of a clear glass and she will not dribble and she will not spill and she will not knock it over but milk-- milk needs to be in a covered container or she gags on it.

Just the fact, ma'am. I don't understand it either, but it's real.

We keep a full stock of lidded straw cups since all three kids travel with milk to school, so we haven't had a problem until I cavalierly switched our cups to a new brand. The old ones leaked, and I'm a jerk.

The new cups aren't completely opaque and suddenly, E was choking on her milk again.

At first my solution was to encase her cups in extra unmatched socks but the cups wouldn't stand upright that way, and you know how I feel about facing more laundry, especially socks.

The solution became - and this doesn't look crazy at all - beer cosies. Behold:



These $1 cosies aren't very fancy, though, and we do love fancy around here. I also need some projects to entertain the girls with when we're off for Passover next week. You know where this is going, right?

I'm operating on two premises:

1) Accessories can make the look
and
2) In the game of life, the girl with the best beer cosy always wins.