Feeding Baby Bear

Being something of a foodie myself, I find that being creative in putting together new meals for Andrew is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding aspects of being a mommy. Recently, he's really taken to feeding himself finger foods (sniff sniff!), although he still doesn't mind being spoon-fed. Here's a list of what he's been eating lately:

Slightly mashed, cooked peas (canned, no-salt-added)
Diced sharp cheddar cheese
Soft-cooked ditalini pasta (thanks, awesome tip, Kate-Kate!)
Diced pears, carrots and other fruits/veggies (again, no-salt-added veggies, and fruits in fruit juice, not syrup)
Dry cereal (Annie's Bunny Love, because I had a coupon, but when that box runs out we're switching to Cheerios)
Whole wheat toast
Potato chunks or mashed potato balls

He'll also eat home fries off our plate if we go to the diner for breakfast, and he looks covetously at things like pancakes and omelets...not quite yet, Roo!

Here's what we're going to try soon:
Baked sweet potato "fries"
White fish, flaked small of course -- haddock or cod
Turkey and veggie meatballs -- probably baked, or maybe fried in a tiny bit of olive oil
Asparagus
Butter beans and black beans, slightly mashed

Any other suggestions out there for a 10-month old? I'd like to get as many flavors into him as possible now, before he gets to that "picky" phase. Good lord, I hope he doesn't get picky. I remember refusing to eat certain shapes of pasta when I was little, just because of their texture. And I loathed any type of non-string bean (again, texture). And I hated stuffing. And real butter. Sigh. The good news is that despite all that, I'm decidedly NOT a picky eater now.

Tomorrow I'm sending him to school with cooked pumpkin mixed with a dash of cinnamon :-)

Oh, also -- Roo has started, just in the past day or so, with some aggressive behaviors at daycare. I sternly said "No" when he started hitting me the other day. He doesn't do it in anger -- I think he does it just to see what reaction he'll get from the other party. Anyway, I've told his teachers that my current plan is to continue to sternly say "No" or "We don't hit," consistently, and to put him down or walk away from him if he continues after the warning. The idea is that if he's trying to get attention or a reaction, then he needs to learn that he won't get it by hitting. We're also working on reinforcing, positively, what the word 'gentle' means. The cat will appreciate it, at least...