Sweet Lily

The other night, we had a wonderful chicken dinner at Lori's house. Lily has been a picky eater lately (what a switch!) and didn't want anything I put on her plate. "Done!" she'd announce after giving the carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, and chicken hardly a glance.

Fine. She didn't have to eat. That was fine by me.

But of course, she was singing a different tune once the cookies came out!

"More! More! More!" She asked everyone in the room. But they had heard her Mama. No dinner? No dessert.

She got pretty frustrated. I kept offering her real food. C'mon, Lily - just a little. I WANT you to have cookies!

Nope. She wouldn't have it.

Finally, she broke down. I got her to eat a bite of sweet potato, and you know what? It wasn't that bad after all! Surprise, surprise. One bite led to another, and then another, and finally she had finished the whole thing. I wanted her to have cookies so badly, I would have been happy with just a bite or two. (Good thing I didn't tell her that.)

So she finally got it. Her ginger snap from the red Ikea tin. She carried it around with her for a good 5 minutes, showing it off to everyone, not daring take a bite lest this hard-earned treasure disappear too quickly.

She eventually settled down at the little table in the living room across from her cousin. I sat next to her, watching her savor her reward.

And to my astonishment, she broke apart her cookie, and handed me a piece. Then she handed a piece across the table to her cousin. Her smile was huge. Finally, she took a bite herself of the little piece that remained in her hand.

My heart melted for my little big girl. Boy was that cookie worth the wait.