Chocolate milk connoisseur

This may look like the face of a chocolate milk loving two year old boy.
But don't let that face fool you, he's quite the little connoisseur!

You see, Caleb detests milk and all things dairy ~ with the exception of Danimals yogurt smoothies (which thankfully have no high fructose corn syrup), Yoplait's Dora yogurt (he only eats the strawberry-banana and vanilla flavors), whatever kind of cheese stuff it is in Taco Bell's chicken quesadilla, and occasionally the cheese on pizza. So it's been somewhat of a challenge to get this little growing guy the calcium his body needs.

And while it was over a year before Kylie ever tried chocolate milk (not because I was mean, but why offer it to her if she liked white milk just fine?) we quickly found ourselves trying to woo Caleb over with the sweet stuff. Kylie happily offered him a sip of hers one day, nice and chocolaty ~ made with Hershey's syrup ~ and he took one mouthful and then opened his mouth in disgust and let it run down his face. Then started the "Yu-hee, yu-hee!" and a suspicion of ever drinking after Kylie again. So we let it rest and decided that if I had to buy 24 Danimals smoothies a week to get him his calcium, so be it.

Until he decided to make a liar out of me at BJ's the other day. The sweet, grandmotherly sample lady was there trying to get us to buy HUGE containers of Nesquik. She asked me if I wanted to try some chocolate milk and while it sounded good, I remembered my recent swearing off of sweets, smiled politely and said, "No thanks." Then from the car part of the shopping cart comes, "I want some Mommy!" So I figured why not, they had been good up to this point, and it may just buy me enough time to finish up my meat stocking trip without a meltdown.

I go to grab two cups (out of habit) and at the last second only reach for one. The lady says that I can take one for each of the kids and I smile and explain to her that my son hates milk so much that he won't even drink it in chocolate form. I hand a cup to Kylie and prepare to go on my way when Caleb starts hollering, "E tu Mom-ee!" The lady sweetly says, "You can just throw it away if he doesn't like it," so I grab one (and some napkins) and prepare for the milk running down his face and onto the floor.

What does he do? Spew milk like a chocolate volcano, making a complete mess of his smart little polo shirt, the cart, and the surrounding floor? Of course not! He slugs it back like it's water and he's been in the desert for a week without a drop to drink. The lady smiles at me (I think almost with a sweet "I told you so" kind of look) as I humbly grab the ginormous container of chocolate crack powder and put it in my cart. So much for consistency.

By the way, it isn't just a change of taste on the chocolate milk thing. Last night I made Kylie some chocolate milk with the Hershey's and Caleb tasted it and spit it out, but chugged his glass I made a few minutes later with the Nesquik. To me chocolate milk is chocolate milk, but to the connoisseur...