Alida's lips moves as she repeated the word silently to herself, and Staas had to smile at his daughter's tenacious quest for knowledge. "For-mi-da-ble," she whispered just a little bit louder, but he knew tomorrow it would be "fordidable" again. As smart as she was, she was only four.
Then she was grinning back up at Ira once more, with her bright, beautiful, little girl smile. "With extra sauce! It's yummy! Pep'roni pineapple, pep'roni pineapple, pep'roni pineapple." The little ditty was accompanied by a stomping, marching motion, and that carried them to the crosswalk, where she gripped Ira's hand tighter and stopped dallying as they sped across.
Once they reached the apartment, Staas left Ira in charge of jackets and such, as he headed straight for the kitchen where he turned on the oven and washed his hands. Once every few weeks he made pizza dough, and all he had to do was pull it from the fridge and roll it out before cutting a bunch of tiny circles out if it. About the size of a cookie, they truly were tiny pizzas. Staas was a big fan of small equals fun in kid-speak.
"You sure you want peanut butter and cheese, kiddo?" he called into the livingroom, and then had to repeat himself as Theo was having too much fun being walked around on Ira's feet to listen.
"Ja. Ik wil graag kaas en pindakass, Papa," was eventually shouted back amidst a sea of giggles.
"Crazy kid," Staas said quietly with a shake of his head, but he got out the peanut butter. He very carefully peanut-buttered two pieces of dough, then added a third. It had to be tried, and he certainly wasn't going to take food from his kid's mouth.
He grabbed the marinara sauce, put a dollop on each piece of dough, then spread it with the spoon, going back for extra on Alida's two pizzas, and making sure to go light on Theo's. He put cheese atop all of them, then cut up his mushrooms, tomatoes, and peppers finely, along with the packaged pieces of pepperoni for Ira and Alida's. He then added three pieces of pineapple to each of Alida's two pizzas and Ira's three, then second-guessed himself and added more mozzarella to Theo's bizarre concoction.
He slid the cookie sheet into the preheated oven, then tossed a quick salad in a bowl, adding a light Italian dressing. He watched his kids dancing around the apartment with Ira, and decided not to bother them with setting the table, and did it himself.
Soon enough the pizzas were ready, and he told the kids to wash-up and come chow down. He put the pizzas all on a platter for the center of the table. Buffet style was also fun in kid-speak. It was like a treasure hunt to find your own food. Glasses of milk joined the food on the table, and he waited for his brood (and Ira) to join him.