I joined my sister on an early Christmas-time mini-vacation. I slept over at their house the night before so we could all pile into her mini-van at an ungodly hour for a long drive to our destination. The intent was for the kids to sleep through the first few hours of the drive before we got breakfast, but her son woke up enough during the transition to the car that he would no longer settle back to sleep until he was fed, so we made plans to stop at a fast food restaurant.
Nephew: “Can I have a soda?”
Sister: “Absolutely not.”
Nephew: “But I’m thirsty.”
Sister: “Then drink your water.”
They went back and forth. My nephew kept acting as if drinking water would kill him, and his mother insisted that he must not be thirsty enough to need soda in that case. Finally, he begrudgingly grabbed an insulated container next to him and tried to drink some. After a moment of confusion, his demeanor suddenly changed to excitement.
Nephew: “It’s frozen! Mom, it’s finally frozen!”
His half-asleep little sister perked up at this and acted excited, too, in a sort of punch-drunk way through her exhaustion.
Niece: *Chanting* “Frozen, frozen!”
Nephew: “I need a soda since my water’s frozen.”
Sister: “Not happening, kiddo, but we’ll top off your waters at [Restaurant].”
Niece: “With good water?”
Sister: “Yes, with the good water.”
Niece: *To her brother* “We get good water now!”
Me: “Okay, what exactly are you going to do to this water to make them that excited? Mixing it with cocaine?”
Sister: “Well, that would keep it from freezing…”
Nephew: “We get sugar now!”
Eventually, through my nephew’s excited explanation, I finally pieced together what was happening. It seems both kids had water bottles that stayed in the car at all times in case they got thirsty during a drive, but in winter, the water tended to freeze overnight, making it impossible to drink. My sister had brushed off her high school chemistry and come up with a simple solution that almost anything mixed into the water would lower its freezing point enough to keep it from freezing overnight, and the children, of course, decided the best choice for water mixer was a somewhat excessive amount of sugar.
Apparently, they started begging to switch over to sugar water, also called “good water” by her youngest, as soon as it started getting cold, and since their mother refused to do this, they instead eagerly awaited the first early morning frozen water bottle as proof she had to finally switch over to using sugar.
Sister: “I can barely keep [Nephew] properly hydrated during summer, and yet, as soon as winter comes around, his mid-drive water consumption mysteriously triples. Can’t imagine why that would be.”
Nephew: “I’ll drink more in summer if you use sugar then, too! [Niece] thinks we should always use it. Right, [Niece]?”
Niece: “Always good water!”
Sister: “I think I’ve gotten them both addicted to sugar now.”
Me: “Well, it could be worse. You could have used the cocaine.”
