Not This Stuff Again...!

Gotta hand it to the Pipsqueak -- the child isn't even three years old but she already knows exactly what she does or does not want, and expresses those desires with the strength & panache of someone decades older.

For example...

My niece likes pizza. A lot. But not just any pizza; it's got to look the part, smell the part, even come in the right kind of box... otherwise it's not "pizza" and she is unlikely to deign to touch it, much less partake of any (and she may go as far to ensure the fact that all parties present know exactly how she feels about the impostor pizza). She also likes mushrooms, so we've been eating a lot of mushroom pizza lately.

Note: I don't mean that we're eating pizza on a daily, or even weekly basis; it's just that 99% of the time when we get pizza, it's a plain cheese pizza with mushrooms as the only topping. I miss my sausage, my pepperoni, my Hawaiian or gyro pizzas -- but the Pipsqueak will not eat meat (except for the occasional chicken nugget or cut-up hot dog at daycare), so it's mushroom pizza or plain cheese pizza. A small sacrifice, but a sacrifice nonetheless.

Anyway, back to the story... Mom & Dad had recently brought pizza home for dinner on an evening when AJ had to work late and they had the Pipsqueak over at their house. Miri will sometimes eat her pizza by devouring as much of it as she can cram into her mouth, other times by picking the mushrooms off & eating them before rejecting the now half-naked slice as "finished" -- the latter being how she ate one adult-sized slice. She started on a second slice but only picked off one or two small bits of mushroom near the point, then decided she was done and went to play with her stuffed menagerie.

A couple of hours later, AJ finally sprung loose and stopped by to pick up her daughter. Of course, Mom had extra pizza for AJ as well, so my exhausted sister sat down for a few minutes while Mom heated a couple of slices. However, as soon as the plate hit the table, the Pipsqueak announced that she was hungry and wanted pizza. (Having trouble getting the Pipsqueak to eat something? Put it on Mommy's plate and it is instantaneously transmogrified into exactly what the Pipsqueak wants to eat, right now, no excuses, get outta the way or risk tooth marks on your fingers...)

Mom, knowing her granddaughter well, had wrapped that 2nd almost-untouched slice and put it in the fridge instead of throwing it out so within moments the Pipsqueak had her own hot slice of pizza on a plate in front of her on the table. She took one look, and...

"I already ate that!"

With that, she pushed the plate away, reached for Mommy's plate, and proceeded to practically inhale both adult-sized slices in their entirety. The moral of the story is that we now know we cannot give the Pipsqueak "used" food; once she deems herself "done" with something, it is DONE, and she will indeed recognize (and reject) it later.

I love my niece dearly, but I'm beginning to fear her teen years...!

PS - Mom, pro that she is, had kept several more slices of pizza in the fridge so AJ did (eventually) have pizza for dinner.