The Battle of the Spoon

My son began eating rice cereal at 4 months. I was eager to introduce him to solids for many reasons, topping the list being that he is long and skinny and I thought it would be helpful in bulking him up some, and I also thought that giving him plenty of time to get used to solids and eating from a spoon would be beneficial to his eventual eating habits and oral motor development. He loved his baby cereal from day one, eating from the spoon like a little bird, that little mouth popping open for bite after bite. On a complete side note I switched to baby oatmeal rather quickly because the rice gave him bouts of constipation, and now he has moved on to happy baby organic multigrain cereal which is made with oats, amaranth and guinoa. Good stuff. We mix it with various fruits for breakfast. Time passed as it always does and after 6 months he began eating various single item purees and then pureed baby stews and eventually moved on to feeding himself soft foods like banana. He has become an excellent eater and happily chows down on spinach, brown rice, quinoa, any fruit you can think of, broccoli, peas, sweet potato and on and on. BUT!!! In the last few weeks he has taken a dislike to the spoon, especially when it comes to dinner. He wants to feed himself and will eat a ton from the tray but just does not want me to feed him. At first I could sneak in a few mouthfuls here and there but he is getting really upset with the whole situation and I am getting frustrated and upset at dinner times because I don't want to be fighting with a 9 and a half month old and making his mealtime miserable for both of us. I've done a bit of research online and spoken to a few friends, and I have decided that I am going to give up the spoon battle when it comes to dinner time. He is still accepting the spoon at day care and when daddy gives him breakfast. I initally thought that I should keep insisting on at least a few bites with the spoon so that he learns that the spoon is part of meals and not an option to refuse, but I don't want to make it so aversive that it affects all meals and I absolutely despise upsetting him in any way. The real battle here is that he continues to eat a variety of foods, not really HOW he eats them at this stage of the game. My plan is to get a bit more creative with getting grains and smaller foods into some kind of finger food consistency and let him try a suction bowl. I want dinner time to be pleasant again. I guess the real lesson here is adaptability and creativity.