Eat Something! (said in a Jewish motherly voice)

Around Thanksgiving this year, we started Nash on solids.  Let me just say that there is no need to feel like you ever have mastered something in motherhood. As soon as you feel as though you have a grasp on something, they change and grow and whatever you just learned is completely obsolete. It's like trying to stay ahead of technology; it's never going to happen. He seemed to enjoy rice cereal ok, but I feel like it's just a filler and really want to raise an adventurous eater. After all, Isaac and I are foodies of sorts and want our son to enjoy a wide variety.  I decided, before he was born, that it would be very important for me to make his baby food. I am a great cook and I was sure that whatever I made him he would gobble up with a large smile on his face. I am still waiting for the big smile after he eats.  The one stand by that I know he will eat without crying, twisting away and contorting his face are pears. This little man loves his pears. Thankfully, we get a lot of pears this time of year in our Bountiful Basket and have been able to keep him satisfied with that. I keep trying new combinations, but after so many looks from your infant child that seem to say "What are you trying to do Mother?! Poison me?!" I get a little discouraged and go back to the stand by of pears and rice cereal.
Last week we were in the grocery store and I forgot to pack him any solid food. He was STARVING and creating quite a scene. I ran to the baby food isle and found a package of Plum Organics baby food, threw off the top and squirted a little into his mouth. He ate the entire thing before we got to the checkstand to pay for it.  All these weeks of trying to make the most delicious baby food and my son prefers packaged goo to my delightful cooking.  It makes me think of the time Nic and I would beg my mom to please buy the Chips Ahoy cookies instead of homemade chocolate chip cookies.  As a mother it just breaks your heart and you secretly want to kill Nabisco and all the packaged food companies for poisoning your darling child's system with the added sugar and sodium and brain with marketing ploys.
As of now, Nash is beginning to eat better and his taste buds seem to be expanding past pears.  I just keep trying to cram healthful things down his throat in hopes that one day we find the magic combination that makes his face say "Wow Mom! That was the best thing I have ever had. Can I have another tablespoon of it?"