A little six-year-old friend who visits my house, sometimes helps me make pizza’s. That’s what we did yesterday. She is very accomplished, has opinions on many things and has now graduated from needing to stand on a kitchen chair to being able to reach the bench without the aid of a chair.

I do the cutting and my little helper spoons the ingredients over the bases. Tomato paste, cheese, onion, capsicums, ham, salami, mushrooms and, on my little friends half of one pizza, she spoons pineapple. After the bases are piled high we break over an egg, then pepper and chilli flakes, except for the pineapple section. Miss six managed to break the eggs perfectly yesterday…a big achievement.

Off she went home with a pre-prepared pizza for herself and others, held proudly and carefully in her two very capable hands. It never ceases to amaze me how much a young child can learn in six and a half years…such precious years not to be taken lightly.

This morning my little friend arrived at my back door returning the pizza tray.

‘You know what I am?’ she called as she placed the tray on the bench.

‘No what are you?’

‘I’m a vegetarian now’

‘Is that so, why are you a vegetarian?’

‘Because I don’t eat meat anymore, meat comes from animals and I don’t want to eat    animals’.

‘Okay, it’s good to make decisions for yourself about all sorts of things’.

‘Yep’ then a pause…

‘Um, is ham meat?’ asks six-year-old

‘Afraid so’.

‘Oops!’ she says, as she flashes her eyes toward the pizza tray…