Last Wednesday, Mama made an excellent coq au vin and some homemade polenta. The girls could not get enough of the chicken, and Thalia love the polenta. But Siena, well that was another matter.

We thought Siena would like it, because it is very similar to corn muffins (which she loves), just with the consistency, in this rendition, of oatmeal (which she loves). We told her as much.

She took a spoonful, ate it, and announced as she often does, “I love it!”

Then, she leaned over to me, sitting on her right around the corner of the table, and whispered really quietly so that Mama (in theory) couldn’t hear, “Daddy, I didn’t really like it.” Of course, we could all hear it, and it was everything we could do to keep from laughing, since she was both trying so hard to give the appearance of liking it and also so hard to let me know what she really thought without hurting the chef’s feelings.

I suppose this is the evolution of the way she used to handle it, where after she’d say, “I love it!” to trying something new, and we’d say, “Great, do you want some more?” she would routinely answer, “No thanks.”