How Zack became a fan of chocolate milk...

OK... Here's what happened.

In December of 2002, we had a winter weather event. There was a little snow. There was a lot of ice. The power went out just about everywhere.

We were living at Crooked Chute and while there was a wood-burning fireplace, we didn't have gas logs. Or a generator.

Since it was as cold as _________________ (fill-in-the-blank with your own favorite simile), we all piled into the family room, putting sheets over the doors to the kitchen and the office. Mind you, when the power is out in 23 degree weather, nine-foot ceilings are NOT a selling point for a house.

Once we managed to scrape together a small pile of fire wood, we tried to stay still and close to the fire. It wouldn't have been too bad if we never ever had to get up and go down the icy hall to use the bathroom. Brrrrrrrr!!! On so many levels.

After 24 hours we and our next-door-neighbors, the Przybylas, realized that the power was going to be out for a while. We pooled the contents of our refrigerators and what we couldn't cook for dinner on the gas grill outside, we put into coolers on our back deck because: a) outside it was below freezing while inside it was a toasty 48 degrees, so the food stood a better chance of staying fresh on the deck, and b) if you put a whole bunch of really cold things together, they tend to help each other stay cool.

At dinner we learned that Joy is, like, the best cook EVER! She made these kabob things that were the best I've had. Joy rocks. She should have a post too. She's from Texas originally and has a hospitality streak a mile wide. She's the only person I know who still knocks on your door with a glass of tea in her hand and says, "Can we visit?" Amazing.

Anyway... Joy, being the superwoman she is, had a carton of chocolate milk in a cooler on our porch. And it wasn't just any chocolate milk. She took plain whole milk and mixed it with the exact amount and kind of chocolate her kids liked.

At night the Przybylas headed home to sleep by a gas log fire and our little family all huddled together under blankets in front of the wood-burning fire. Zack was around a year old and would drink a bottle now and then, especially at night. So when he woke up around 2:30am and it was SOOOOO cold and he was crying, Jimmy grabbed a bottle and filled it with the milk from our cooler so Zack would have a snack and go back to sleep. Only Zack drank the milk and declared it "Party Time." He was up over two hours and we were dumbfounded as to why.

In the morning light, Jimmy went back to the cooler to get Zack some milk and was perplexed as to why the carton was so full. He knew we'd given Zack a bottle in the night, but the milk looked as if it hadn't been touched. Then we had a thought... "Uh oh!"

Sure enough, there was only about 1/3 of a carton of chocolate milk left in Joy's cooler. Oops! We gave Zack a bottle full of chocolate milk. It WAS Party Time!

From that moment on, if we gave Zack a bottle of plain milk, he'd refuse to drink it, but chocolate milk... look out!