On Shoveling Pureed Carrots Mixed with Oatmeal into A Child's Mouth

Mixing the oatmeal into the carrots reminded me of my mother feeding Ilana when she was little. That oatmeal was always intriguing to me--light and airy, sort of like snow that isn't cold.

Well, we battled--the seven-month-old kid and me. I sang to him (Edelweiss and Jingle Bells) and yelled at him (especially when he fussed and smeared the carrots all over his face and hair and shirt and all over me). But actually it was helpful when he cried, because then his mouth was open and I could slip some more carrots in. Well, I didn't know how much to feed him, but the darling six-year-old girl kept encouraging me: "You're doing good; just a little more;...just a little more."

When I showed his mother how much he'd eaten (by how much was remaining in the baby food jar), she was very surprised. She said she'd never been able to get him to eat that much. Alas, the baby is fat already, and I had just forced him to eat more than he wanted...