At dinner

She loves cold things. Cold peas. Cold corn. Cold anything.

Please don't think that we deprive our child. Granted, just recently we introduced dessert. Granted, a few months ago when Mommy was in a Hallmark card attempting to buy a card for some celebration, and Tahlia was throwing a fit, Mommy was in the middle of the statement of, "Tahlia you need to get back here or . . . " when she realized that there was no "or." There was no television time. There was no special food. Mommy didn't really think that saying, "Tahlia, you need to get back here now or we won't give you any whole wheat DHA infused bread with Smart Balance spread for snack later," would really have the effect that she needed.

Maybe Tahlia's love for cold things is genetic. Recently, we were reminded that when Mommy was really young, she loved eating popsicles during the summer time, too. By popsicles, I mean ice on the end of a stick -- literally. Mommy was allergic to most food as a young girl and so couldn't have real popsicles. Never having had the real thing, she was enamored with the ice pop. One day, when one of her little friends was visiting they decided to have a "popsicle." Of course, the little boy who was her friend, had had the real thing and immediately expressed his disapproval. Most children would have been heart broken, but Mommy just continued to enjoy the cool yumminess of frozen water in the shape of Micky Mouse with no calories.

But she loves cold things. We have been looking for popsicles that don't have any added sugar. "Good" popsicles if you will. Sure, there is the Breyers brand that states that it is sugar free. They are, but they aren't. They are sweetened with Splenda. When I bought them, only to discover they were seasoned with Splenda, I felt a little betrayed. I ate them, and seethed with the feeling of betrayal. Tahlia, with red juice flowing down her chin, ate them with glee. So did Mommy. My feelings of betrayal almost stopped me from having one the next day, but I needed to rid the house of Breyers near lies, and so I seethed with a red tongue.

We found them. We realized that we only had to go as far as our refrigerator. We bought popsicle makers and poured V8 pomegranate and blueberry Fusion juice in four of them, and poured OJ in the other four. Viola -- healthy popsicles. We were excited when we put them into the freezer -- Tahlia cried. I wish I could tell you that she cried out of happiness, but it wasn't. It was out of sadness because she wanted popsicles then, at 8:00 am. We tried to distract her with pancakes.

Which brings us to tonight. We are having dinner, and Tahlia is chowing down on some chicken and macaroni salad. She is excited because, if she eats a hearty meal, she will have desert -- a juice popsicle.

She impresses me with the amount that she eats, and I ask her if she wants a yellow popsicle or a red popsicle. She could have said so many different things:

"I would like a red one."
"Red."
"Red please."
"May I have a red."

But no. She looks nonchalantly around and then says, "How about a red one?"

I laugh loudly at her silly phrase, a phrase that she has obviously learned from hearing Mommy and me speak.

As I go to fetch her popsicle, I realize she has not had any vegetables, so I ask her if she wants corn or peas.

I return with her popsicle and a bowl of peas and watch as she repeatedly says, "Cold! Cold! Cold!" as she chomps down a V8 pop and frozen peas.