My mother-in-law, Pat, used to laugh about how difficult it was to feed vegetables to her now-vegetarian son when he was a child, and now that David's own daughter is here, history seems to be repeating itself. Hayden loves to eat her orange veggies, like sweet potatoes, carrots and squash, but isn't always so happy to see their green friends, the string bean or pea, on her spoon. And like David's mom, who had to sneak some very finely-pureed broccoli into his pasta sauce to get him to eat any, I've had to get pretty creative as well.

Why am I even trying so hard? I'm not one for tortuting my child, but with babies who are on limited diets—vegetarian in Hayden's case—it takes extra work to ensure that they don't limit their options further. Which in some cases means repeatedly offering them certain flavors and textures until they accept them. Trying to sneak a spoonful in Hayden's mouth while she's laughing can be a colorful exercise in futility; the end result is a green mist sprayed all over my glasses after she's blown raspberries of displeasure my way, as if to say, "You silly, silly person. Did you really think you could get me to eat that?!?"

Instead, I prefer to work the flavor in gradually, so that if I'm lucky Hayden will slowly acquire a taste for it. (Much like Pat's trick with the broccoli, which she remained so proud of decades later when it became one of David's favorites.) Mashed tofu and other veggies didn't do the trick for us , but pears and apples have proven to be the perfect partners in crime. One or two pea or green bean cubes with three pear and/or apple cubes gets the job done.

As for those little green trees, I haven't been brave enough to venture into that territory yet, but that's next on the agenda. With Hayden nearing 9 months old, she's about ready to try "mini-meals", those chunkier, multi-ingredient offerings that should be a relative party-on-a-plate after months of single-ingredient purees. I'll have plenty of opportunites to distract her palate soon enough.