So, Sarah has always been very opinionated, especially since she learned how to express her opinions verbally. She has been anti-butter and anti-cheese since she could say, “No.” If you make her a pancake, she almost immediately says, “No butter,” and when you offer her a bite of your quesadilla, she responds, “I don’t like cheese.” These expressions are always accompanied by a furrowing of the brow and crinkled lips to completely convey her disgust at the idea of consuming such filth.
Well, tonight, we were eating one of Sarah’s all-time favorite foods: noodles. In fact, they were the best variety for her: “twirly-whirlies,” which basically means long noodles that can be twirled around the fork. Of course, since she’s 2 1/2, she is physically incapable of making her own twirly-whirlies, so this favorite dish of hers is now a least favorite of Mommy’s. (I actually try to eat long noodles when she’s asleep or out with Daddy so I can actually enjoy eating a bowl full instead of having to pause between bites to make sure she’s getting her fill of twirly-whirlies.) Anyway, she had some plain noodles in her bowl, and I had some with butter and garlic seasoning in mine. This was actually pretty unusual because I almost always use olive oil, but tonight, I guess I was feeling a little bit dangerous 
Of course, as we were eating, Sarah requested to have some of mine. She and her father both deeply believe that everything tastes better when it comes from my plate. So, I twirled some around my fork and stuck it in her gaping mouth. She chewed and enjoyed for awhile, some of the noodles still hanging out of her mouth, her little hands holding them up to make sure they wouldn’t fall and to assist their journey through the lips. Suddenly, I decided to announce, “My noodles have butter on them.” The look on her face was priceless as her hands quickly removed the remaining pasta from her mouth and dumped it in my bowl, while she simultaneously recited her token, “I don’t like butter.” Then, after she sat there and thought about it for a few seconds, she admitted, “I like your noodles. They have butter on them? I like butter now.” It took awhile for all of these statements to escape, but after they did, she asked for more of my noodles and asked me to get the butter on the rest of the noodles in her bowl, too!!
I was so excited, I decided to push the envelope and asked,” What about cheese? Do you like cheese now, too?” She held up her hand, squeezed her thumb and pointer together, and said, “A little bit,” as she shrugged her shoulders. My visions of eating mac ‘n cheese with my daughter quickly vanished, however, when I asked her if she would take a bite of a quesadilla if I made one. She immediately said, “I don’t like cheese.” 