Independent or little clam?

Cole seems to have a great interest in food--all food that is, except his own. The only times he has eaten off a spoon is when I hand the spoon to him and he shoves it in his mouth. And that is absolutely fine, but his willingness to even do that is limited. The most typical responses to the spoon is pursed lips or taking the spoon and shaking it. Today, after an unsuccessful attempt at pureed avocado, I took him out of his high chair to hold him in my lap while Franny finished her dinner. At this point, he stuck his hand right into the previously snubbed avocado and proceeded to shove it into his mouth. By the time he was through (minus the obvious enormous amount that didn't make it into his mouth) he probably ate over half an avocado. I've read about babies who will only eat if they can feed themselves, but I never thought Cole had that personality. And maybe he doesn't--right now, this is a one-time occurrence--time will tell. But if he does insist on feeding himself, I hope he will learn quickly not to be so messy!