Tara is a very easygoing child, but for some reason she has chosen to be fussy about her food and her fingers. When eating, she can be very particular about certain types of food. Some things she won’t even try based on the look of them. Also, she doesn’t like to have bits of food on her fingers, which is unexpected for a child who will fingerpaint with yogurt if given the chance.

This morning, I reheated some crepes and spread them with lingonberry jam for the girls. Tara’s crepes I rolled neatly and cut into bite size pieces, forming little rolls. Tara sat and began eating. Pointing to the sliding door where she had previously seen a spider, she asked, “Where spider go?” “It’s gone,” I said. “It went to work. Spider went to work.” She then continued about eating her crepes and cereal.

At one point she had speared a bite of rolled crepe and was lifting it to her mouth when the end of the roll came off the tines of her fork and flapped loose. She scowled and gingerly tore off the flap, then held it out to me and said, “It’s icky.” I humored her and took the bit of crepe and placed it on her tray. Happily, she continued eating. When the same thing happened again, she again tried to tear off the bit of crepe but instead pulled the roll off her fork. Since she was still holding the end, the roll unfurled, spilling lingonberries into her cereal. Her eyes opened wide with horror and she yelled out “OH NOOOOOO!” We spent the next couple minutes removing tainted bits of cereal from her bowl before she would continue eating.