Oranges

Edith is going through a phase where she’s once again completely uninterested in food, but she is extremely interested in feeding me. Every morning, I give her some Cheerios and a banana in her high chair, and for a week now, I have been made to eat all of it myself. I give her a little bowl of oranges every weekend afternoon, and both days this weekend I subsequently had to sit there and be fed an entire bowl of oranges, piece by piece. She’s very focused and patient as she inexorably pushes food at my face. It doesn’t work to turn away or hand it back to her or try to put it elsewhere. She doesn’t get upset about it, but she simply does not stop until I have cleared her plate of every last bite. Then, she looks at me with a sort of proud satisfaction.