good eating

I was a notoriously finicky eater as a kid. Just ask my friend Jen, who spent her 11th birthday tromping around Baltimore's Inner Harbor looking for a restaurant that had a grilled cheese on the menu because that's just about all I ate. To this day I'm still not a fan of most fish, and my understanding and appreciation of vegetables is limited. An ex-boyfriend once asked me to pick up avocados so he could make fresh guacamole and I came home with artichokes. Whoops!

Matteo hit a crazy growth spurt this week. When he first started daycare two weeks ago, 9 ounces of milk got him through the day. Today I had to send almost double that amount! And when we eat dinner he stares at the food going into our mouths, hypnotized, like the snake in the old Disney Robin Hood cartoon.



Last night as a test, I put a teeny bit of ice cream on my spoon and fed it to him. He lunged for it, sucked it down, and then looked up at me like some sad urchin in a Dickens novel. I practically could hear him thinking, "Please mum, can I have some more?" If he had a little empty gruel bowl in his hands he would have held it out in front of him.

I was hoping to get him to six months on nothing but breastmilk but I think it's time to test the waters of real food. As much as I can, I want to try to make my own baby food. It's good for Matteo, but even better, it's good for me to get to know and love vegetables. I can't expect him to become a good eater if I'm not, so we're definitely in this one together.

I just bought this great new baby cookbook Love in Spoonfuls, which has really simple recipes for each stage of baby eating: 4-6 months, 7-8 months, 9-11 months and 12-18 months.

First up, winter squash purée. Wish us luck!