The Girl Loves Flour

Maybe teaching her how to sift wasn't such a great idea. What I first thought was simply a desire to feel and taste, and therefore truly experience the flour she sifted has turned into an obsession.

Making pie shells will apparently never be the same. Not only does she get to sift the flour to mix up the dough, but then *gasp* Mommy sprinkles MORE flour all over the counter! Is there anything better?

I have to be quick in my rolling so I can keep greedy fingers away from the pie crust. As I roll, they are quickly stealing the flour from the edges that are pushed further toward her. Once the pie shell has been liberated from the counter, it's a free-for-all. She's like a whirling dervish. I place the crust in the pie shell and fill it, turn around and there is not a speck of flour left on the counter. Instead, there is a very happy little girl, her face, hands and clothes telling the story of where it all went.

But she knows the routine - and has also developed a dislike for dirty, sticky hands, so she steps off her stepstool, picks it up and takes it to the bathroom sink where she turns on the water and washes her hands. It's up to Mommy to dust her clothes with the towel, though.

With Thanksgiving she has had lots of flour opportunities - two pies baked Wednesday (pecan and pumpkin), then a double crusted pie on Wednesday (apple) and today I made turkey pot pie for dinner.

I can't imagine liking flour the way she does, and hopefully it will do her no harm. In the meantime, she sure does enjoy it!

And she still loves pumpkin pie. This afternoon she declared she "needed pumpkin pie". So I gave her a piece and she had no trouble finishing it all by herself. Not that I thought she would - she helped herself to the rest of my piece Thursday when I left the table to get something.