At Least it was Decaf...

It's never good when your two year old screams, "Need coffee!"  I do understand the sentiment however, and I know that I am partially to blame for it since I love coffee myself and love making coffee creations at home. 

Coffee has always been part of our lives.  I started drinking coffee at age 10 at Mount Herman, a family camp in Northern California, when the servers in the dining room decided it was a good idea to place the coffee carafe on a table full of kids while their parents sat blissfully unaware at another table.  Lots of cream and sugar later, I was hooked. 

I discovered the mocha at age 12, courtesy my uncle, and way too much of my babysitting money found its way into the register at the local coffee shop soon after.  I will be forever grateful to him for that! 

In college, one of the restaurants I waited tables at had an incredibly fun espresso machine so during our slow times, I showed the very green baristas how to make really fun concoctions. 

Brian and I used to go to Diedrich's coffee at least once a week until they closed when Starbucks bought out their leases.  I must confess I did go through a period of mourning when that happened since that is where we went on our first date. 

And it is embarrassing to admit but I've worn out two espresso makers and I'm several years into our third one during our now seven years of married life. 

After we bought our house, we had to cut our discretionary spending significantly and so I sadly gave up my $3.50 cup of coffee habit.  I started buying cheaper brands of coffee in bulk and making it at home and the result has been way too much exposure of coffee to our kids given that they now hear the word "coffee" and come running.  It's even more of a reaction than I get for "ice cream"!  The current favorite in our house now is the nonfat decaf hazelnut mocha frappe. 

I realized that we might have a coffee problem though when we were visiting my parents for my sister's wedding.  Late one evening, we went to my brother's softball game and my mom made coffee to take with her.  Ethan sat down next to her at the game and asked her for a sip of our course, my mom being grandma, the beloved KK as my boys call her, could not turn down his request for a sip.  Half a grande size mug later, he handed it back after shaking the cup saying, "I think there's some left."

They always say that you can see your own flaws in your kids and I'm definitely seeing my coffee excess in them so I'm wondering if it is time to made another strategic sacrifice in this arena.  It is probably a sign when my five year old gets the whip cream and tells me I forgot to put it on his frappe.  Sigh... at least if was decaf...