Big Kids Eat Jam

One unusual thing about Siiri is that she doesn't drink juice and she doesn't eat jam. She didn't even eat berries until she was 3 years old and went out picking and eating tiny naturally growing strawberries in the forest with her grandparents. She's generally a good eater but she just REALLY HATES JAM. Even when I make a cake with pieces of fruit, whole berries, or a berry filling, Siiri picks out any parts that even remotely resemble jam. Even when she doesn't see the jam, she tastes the sweet-and-sour flavor and cringes.   She hates anything resembling jam so much that she will leave her favorite part of the cake uneaten if it's even touched a cooked piece of apple. She has happily eaten uncooked fruit as long as I remember and access to berries is very seasonal anyway.

Last summer when Siiri had just recently eaten strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries for the first time, she asked for frozen raspberries from the freezer. She was slowly nibbling on them and declared, "I am now old enough to eat raspberries!" and as we were discussing age and eating different things, she said, "When I am four years old, I will eat jam." I was amused, but I also remember thinking that, since it's Siiri, she might be telling the truth.  If she really thinks she will eat jam when she's 4 years old, she actually might, but I will not believe it until I see it! I made a mental note to remember her bold statement but I also decided not to remind her of it because I wouldn't want her to force herself to eat anything just to keep her word.

Months passed and Siiri's 4th birthday was approaching when Siiri again started talking about it. "Mom, is my birthday almost here? Will I be 4 years old? Does it mean that I will eat jam?" I replied something like, "Yes, you will soon be 4 years old. Will you eat jam? If you say so." As her birthday drew closer, she talked about it more and more. She mentioned it several times during the week before her birthday. I found it extremely hard to believe because about a week before her birthday, a tiny amount of jam somehow got smeared on the side of her plate of porridge; Siiri stared at the jam in absolute disgust and couldn't start eating her porridge until I had cleaned the jam off her plate. 

Finally, it was Siiri's birthday. We made porridge, like we always do, and took out the jam, like we always do. Siiri sat down and said, "I am now four years old. I will eat jam now." I took some porridge on a spoon, smared it with a little bit of jam and gave it to Siiri. She stared at it a little while and then, in a motion that can be described with the phrase, "lets get it over with!", she put the spoon in her mouth. All time stopped. She turned the food in her mouth, looking like she's trying not to vomit and then swallowed, looking suddenly very pale.  I handed her some water and she grabbed it and washed down the "foul" taste. She said, "Now I am four years old. I ate jam."

Later she sometimes mentioned that she now eats jam, but when I casually offered her jam, she always refused. It was very brave of her to try jam and I didn't want to push it. Her birthday in May was followed by a summer of eating lots of fresh berries. Perhaps Liisa has also been giving a good example in this regard. Liisa drinks juice, eats jam and all kinds of berries and fruit. When we bought some perfect sweet cherries and gave some to the kids, Liisa rushed to eat as much as possible as fast as possible. Siiri was curious and tried some as well. Sweet cherries are of course delicious so it didn't take long until they were both eating plenty of sweet cherries. Siiri even happily ate a few sour cherries when we got to pick them fresh from a cherry tree. However, Siiri still seemed to hate jam.

Fast forward to yesterday. We were driving home from a wedding and we had been driving about 2 hours and were discussing dinner. Siiri requested, "lets make pancakes! Pancakes with jam! It is my favorite food in whole world!".  We tried not to show our amusement too much, "with jam? Are you sure?". Siiri replied, "yes! Lets make pancakes with jam. It is the best food!". So, just because we were curious, we agreed with that plan and made pancakes and I served it with the strawberry jam that I made this summer.

Siiri took a pancake, covered it with jam and ATE IT!  She was thoughtful while chewing but she ate it and asked for more. I helped her put more and more jam on her plate and she ate all of it. Today in the morning Siiri said that she now eats jam and only wants jam on her porridge. She actually ate the jam first, then added more jam and ate that too.  Wow.

Moral of the story: trust your kids. You never know when they might be telling the truth.