Tea Baba
My mother loves tea. Not the high-falutin’ loose sort that you need to brew for exactly 4 minutes over an öfchen, which is a crazy German tea apparatus with a candle that my husband totes around all winter while he wears his hausschue: instead, my mom likes the sort where you toss a Lipton teabag into a cup and put it into the microwave for 90 seconds.
And then she is happy happy happy, and that is sort of more my speed when it comes to tea.
Why? Well, probably because, when I was a baby, she fed me tea. In a bottle. Milky tea in a bottle, sweetened with sugar, and we called it teababa. I remember her handing one to me whilst I was in my crib.
Don’t be scandalized. Many women (though not my mother) smoked during pregnancy. For all I know, I was a smoker when I was a baby, too. (I can’t be expected to remember everything that happened when I was a baby.)
And who cares if I’m only five feet tall* and that is my mother’s fault because of the teababa? I’m actually taller than my mother; goodness knows what her mother was giving her to stunt growth.
Anyhow now I’m a coffee drinker, though it’s decaf for me these days. Yes, I agree, decaf doesn’t even count, but after pregnancy and early nursing, when I couldn’t have caffeine, I can’t go back lightly, since quitting caffeine requires at least a 4 day stint of weeping and not being able to make it out of my pajamas.
Henry drinks decaf, too. I mean, we don’t want him too, but he is VERY OPINIONATED on the subject of whether or not he can have some of my coffee. And it turns out that he’s sometimes more opinionated than I am, so I am frequently trying to wrestle an iced coffee (decaf) out of his hands, while passersby judge me, or at least I imagine they are judging me. Why must iced-coffee cups be clear! Heh heh heh, he loves his decaf, I try to slip into conversation of people on the street so they don’t think that I am mother to an actual one year old coffee drinker.
I just have a one-year old decaf drinker.
This winter we’ll see whether Henry likes tea, and if so, if he wants it from the öfchen or from the microwave.
*big exaggeration
Church Avenue Chomp 
Only began love affair with tea when indoctrinated by Irishy college chum who was never without her “cup a.” Interpreted pediatrician’s advice to keep wee one with a digestive problem well-hydrated with “plenty of fluids” to include warm, sugary, comforting tea instead of the then widely-prescribed coke syrup or coca cola. Read of a study today that reports tea drinkers have rates of cognitive decline 17 – 37 per cent lower than non-tea drinkers. Now don’t you just love the teababa?
My kids drink coffee with milk and sugar. What’s the big deal? I mean, sometimes I need them to help me stay alert with late-night driving and stuff. Another plus – it jump starts their day at school!
My dad started smoking when he was six. When I turned six, I started drinking coffee (not decaf) and even though I was told it would stunt my growth I didn’t believe it cause my dad starting drinking coffee when he was four and he’s over six feet tall (I’m only 4’9″ but who can say?)*. My kid is six and she doesn’t drink coffee but she just started ordering Shirley Temples in restaurants and listening to the “Tween Radio” station on Pandora. I’m interested to see what Henry will be doing at six, since he’s already ahead of me, my dad, and my kid.
Hausschue: what is it? You have the fanciest husband of all. Or maybe all husbands in Brooklyn are fancy. And, a question for Mum/Mom: If I start now, can I slow my cognitive decline? Or did I need to start 35 years ago? Because I really need something! My 22-month-old finished sentences for me.
Teababa is an amazing discovery.