Sometimes Water Bottles Are JUST for Water

Things I Probably Should Have Known Already: Chapter 1
Sometimes Water Bottles Are JUST for Water

There are a lot of special events in my daughter's first grade classroom.  I think it's great.  Recently they were celebrating "Cuddle up with a Book" day, which meant that the kids were able to wear pajamas to school.  They were also encouraged to bring a pillow, a blanket, a stuffed animal, a couple of their favorite books, and a clear liquid drink in a container with a lid.

My daughter was pretty excited, so we planned what she was going to bring and packed everything up the night before.  After some pretty intense begging, she talked me into letting her bring ginger ale as her special beverage.

The next morning, we're running around in our usual pre-school craziness.  I pack her lunch, dump some ginger ale in the water bottle she normally takes to school, make sure she's got her backpack, and drop her off.

Fast-forward to that afternoon.  She's emptying her backpack, and I notice she has a little ginger ale left in her water bottle. "Do you want this babe, or should I just dump it?"

She looks at me with a glint in her eye and grabs the bottle.  "Stand back, Mom."

"Wait, what?" I ask confused.  "If something's going to happen, go stand by the sink."

She moves over the sink, flips open the top of the water bottle, and WHOOOSH! A stream of ginger ale shoots up in a high arc and splashes against the underside of the cabinets above my sink.

"WHAT?!?" I exclaim. "DID THAT HAPPEN AT SCHOOL TODAY?!?"

She tells me that it did, and it was *so* high it touched the ceiling in her classroom... and then her teacher had to call for a custodian.  I didn't know it was possible to be mortified and genuinely belly-laughing at the same time until that very moment.

My husband laughed too, and then turned to me and said, "I can't believe you put it in her regular water bottle."  When he saw my confused face, he gave me a little lesson about how the carbonation had no place to go and that I should have consulted the insert that came with the bottle.  Really?  Like I still *have* an insert from a bottle we bought over two years ago?!?

After that impromptu "science lesson" - I immediately sent her teacher an email:

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I just wanted to apologize for my daughter accidentally decorating your classroom ceiling today. I had NO IDEA that some water bottles aren't designed to handle carbonated beverages. (And here I thought she could "get away" with bringing ginger ale for the special day today. Ha!)

Again, sorry for the unexpected excitement!


My daughter's teacher replied almost immediately.


Hi Nicole,

No worries!  I didn’t think to mention that to the kids about water bottles with clear pop in them.  I think it just threw us off—it was like it happened in slow motion.  Really, no big deal!  I felt bad that she didn’t really get to drink much of it!

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Saints, people.  Elementary teachers are saints.

Well, they say you should never stop learning... even if it IS something I probably should have known already.