He made faces at her in an effort to get her to slow down, but to no avail. She merely smiled at the funny expressions he was making and continued to ladle the food into his mouth as fast as she could. Thomas was so mortified by the entire operation that tears of helpless humiliation welled up in his eyes and began running down his cheeks. Still, she continued to shovel food into his mouth until his mouth was so full that cereal dripped from his lips and ran off his chin to collect on the bib that protected his huge toddler’s tummy.

As he tried to swallow the oatmeal, he felt the front of his mouth with his tongue and discovered that he only had a couple of teeth in front.