Food Critics

Once upon a time, before the girls were born, I had intended to make my own baby food. I had researched the neatest gadget from Williams Sonoma, and I could just picture myself in my little apron, cooking only the best for my precious babies. I somehow never got myself in gear, though, and before I knew it, the girls were four months old and the pediatrician told me to start feeding them. I found myself standing in front of a sea of Gerber packaging at the grocery store.

I worked diligently to introduce the girls to every possible variety of baby food, even going to several stores in town to find different fruits and vegetables. They eventually developed a liking to literally everything I fed them, and I felt really good about having built a solid foundation for them to be "not-picky" eaters.

All the while, Aunt Karen would comment about the poor babies having to eat baby food as smells from Mommy’s home cooking wafted through the house. How fair is it, she would challenge, that they are eating pureed squash, just knowing that Mommy and Daddy are going to enjoy five-cheese lasagna with banana bread for dessert???

During the girls’ one-year check-up with the pediatrician, he said it was time to transition them from baby food to “big people food.” As exciting as this was, it also seemed very daunting…what would I cook for them? And what if they didn’t like it?

Over the past several weeks, I have been trying to plan our menu to include foods the girls can eat. To date, they’ve eaten dishes such as baked sweet potatoes, roasted carrots and Irish potatoes, creamed spinach, split pea soup, white bean chowder, and baked tilapia. (And how nice was it not to buy any baby food during my last trip to the grocery store?!!)

While at first they balked at the new textures, they have begun to take a liking to what I think is “the good stuff.” With some dishes, though, I can tell they’re still not so sure. I can just imagine them talking to each other after supper, saying, “Hey! What happened to Grandma Gerber???"