And no shiitake mushrooms!

We've begun to go through a lot of baby food at our house. The boy who for so long considered solid food beneath him -- and as a result wound up with solid food all over him, and all over us -- is now going through a good 10 ounces of the stuff every day. A lot of it he likes: squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, pears, applesauce, green beans. Some of it he doesn't care for: bananas, peas, anything with meat in it.

One particular concoction has been met with considerable ambivalence: Vanilla Custard Pudding. He'll take a few bites, but he doesn't seem excited about it. It's sweet, so you'd think he would like it, but there's something funny about the consistency. Or maybe it's the label.

See, Gerber baby food now comes in little clear plastic containers rather than the jars of yore. The particular variety of food is printed on an inner lid that you peel off and throw away -- sort of like on a can of Pringles. Because that lid gets tossed, Gerber also prints the variety on the side of the container, so you know what it is if you put the leftovers in the fridge. There is limited space on the side, though, so sometimes they have to abbreviate. "Apples, Strawberries and Bananas," for example, becomes "APPLES STRAW BANANA."

So maybe when we're feeding him Vanilla Custard Pudding, the boy looks at the spoonful of sticky, whitish goo and then looks at the label ...



... and thinks to himself: Ah, no, I'll pass, thanks.