Pepper Jack Cheese

Transferred from my other blog: The Adventures of Sisterhood. 
First published: 5-7-12 at 10:28 PM EDT

Chinese food, Indian food, Moe's queso, Flamin' Hot Cheetos. What do all of these have in common? They're often considered spicy. It's nothing extraordinary that a Chinese teenager would have a fairly high tolerance for spicy foods. After all, spicy food is delicious. However, it is a bit odd that an 18 month old baby loves spicy food almost just as much as her big sister. There are some things that I can handle but she can't, but she's 18 months old, for goodness sakes.

Target's brand, Market Pantry, sells these pepper jack cheese sticks. I personally think they're the most amazing things on the planet. I eat one with my salad for lunch every week day, if there are enough in the refrigerator.  Kylie has her own cheese. Kraft American, 2%. After dinner, if we're wrapping up leftovers and the refrigerator gets open, Kylie will undoubtedly poke her head in. She'll eye the contents for a moment, ignore our requests for her to come out and close the door, and turn to look at us sweetly. "Cheese," she'll assert, pointing at the pepper jack.

Once she sees it, she won't allow denial. Because sometimes she doesn't finish it, and sometimes we try to leave enough for me to have it with my lunch the rest of the week, we'll try to offer her other things. "How about Yaoyao's cheese?" Grandma will call. "Come eat watermelon," Mommy will coax. "Kylie, get your head out of there," I'll yell from the sink two feet away, where I might be doing dishes if my mom is lucky. Our words always fall to deaf ears. Kylie will ignore our sadly inefficacious work and toddle up to someone. She'll hold up the cheese stick and plead, with her eyes, for it to be opened.

This pepper jack cheese isn't exactly the world's mildest. Even our mom thinks it's a bit too much. Today, just a little bit after dinner, Kylie spotted it and asked for it. Our grandmother tried to distract her, but finally relented and held it just out of Kylie's standing reach. Kylie actually jumped to grab it, giggling the whole way and and down. Honestly, I didn't even know she knew how to jump. Ah, well, there's one more cheese stick in the bag. She can have it. I'll eat an apple with my lunch tomorrow instead.

-Chichi