We have a VERY independent toddler on our hands, the kind who insists on wielding her own spoon even if holding it upside down means the food won’t make it into her mouth, the kind who pushes the booster seat away and sits directly on the chair even if she doesn’t quite reach the table and, in her most recent manifestation of independence, the kind who will not let you break her food into manageable pieces. This means that pancakes, turkey burgers, and slices of toast must all be left perfectly intact , no matter what. Malanga Mama has to control her impulses when she sees Malanga Toddler shove entire pieces into her little mouth.
Sadly, Malanga Papi didn’t understand the importance of food integrity until we took a family trip in the snow yesterday to our favorite neighborhood patisserie. We bought Malanga Toddler a croissant, one of her favorite “special occasion” foods ever since she had her first taste of one in Paris in August. She took a few licks of the croissant, shoved it around her paper plate and seemed generally happy just contemplating it until Malanga Papi picked up the croissant and broke a piece off to feed to her.
HE BROKE HER CROISSANT!
An immediate meltdown ensued. Malanga Toddler cried her eyes out as if Malanga Papi had just murdered her favorite doll. She shoved the plate away and yelled. Not only was she not going to eat the piece of croissant Malanga Papi offered her, she wasn’t going to eat any of the remaining croissant and she was going to cry and cry instead.
Malanga Papi made a quick dash to the counter and bought another croissant. Then, taking advantage of Malanga Toddler’s continued tantrum, he switched the plates on the table, putting the broken croissant on his lap. She took a break from crying to inspect the new croissant, very, very carefully. Then she deemed it acceptable. In the meantime, in a stroke of brilliance, Malanga Papi offered her a piece of croissant from the one he had on his lap, without letting Malanga Toddler see the source of the piece. She took the piece, compared it to the croissant on the table, convinced herself that her croissant was not ruined, and popped the piece in her mouth.
She ate the entire croissant this way, while croissant #2 remained pristine on the table, a comforting sight to her eyes.
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