Lili-isms, Part 2

My daughter used to be a fantastic eater. After consuming nothing but breast milk for the first 6 months of her life, she took an immediate detour past rice cereal and headed straight for the pureed carrots. For months, she ate anything and everything we put in front of her. Peas! Sweet potatoes! Banana! What culinary adventures!

That all came to a screeching halt a few months ago, coincidentally around the time she began to really grasp the concept and unabashed power behind the word "no". These days, I watch Mama slave over the type of elaborate, homemade meals served routinely in 4-star hotels, only to have them dismissed with the dramatic swipe of an overly precocious toddler arm and a resounding "Nope! Nope!". This display is inevitably followed by a request for either a) bread or b) cheese. "Peease?". And so it goes.

During another dreaded dinnertime this past evening, I hoisted Lili up on her "big girl" chair (booster seats are soooo 2009) and presented her elaborately prepared meal of Moroccan cous cous, spaghetti, and pureed spinach. She immediately pointed at the pile of green sludge on her plate, looked at me, and declared "Ribbit!". She then slid off her chair and toddled toward the kitchen, demanding bread along the way.