It has become painfully clear that it is time to quit trying to feed the little guy babyfood.  By this I mean puréed foods, often in a jar or made with a mixer, that are given to the little ones with their delicate palates and stomachs.  On the one hand they are convenient, and on the other hand they offer some security and an illusion of control.

Over the last weeks, the little guy is more and more insistent upon feeding himself, and not only the things that we place in front of him.  Now he wants the same food we are eating.  Not just a portion for himself, but our food.  We have gone in the past with slipping baby food into his mouth when he reached for other bits of food we gave him, but now he’s onto us; his mouth is a steel clamp as soon as he reaches for things, unless he wants what we are trying to feed him.  So now it’s time to give him the same thing we have for dinner, which simply requires adding salt and strong seasonings after the fact for things we cooked, and giving him the blander version.  

The end of babyfood is also the end of an era, or the end of an age.  He is no longer a baby, and that is a bit weird to me.  He was born 1 year ago, and I can’t believe he is now eating on his own, has his own opinions, and so on.  So I guess babyfood signified something more, and keeping it too long could be an effort to keep the “baby” phase longer that it should be here.  

Things move on, children grow up, evolve, and move past things – more often than not, they probably move past things quicker than the parents want them to.  So I guess I’ll remember and remind myself of babyfood in the future as a way to say, “hey man, let go, it’s time for a new era with your son.”