progression from stage 2 food

With a lot of distraction I am able to get Noah to eat about 6 oz a day of stage 2 baby food. He’s now 10.5 months old and he will chew on biter biscuits or wagon wheels, but cant pick up small finger food pieces yet. If he does manage to pick it up with this thumb and forefinger, he just looks at it and drops it. I really need to get him to start experiencing other textures so he can learn to chew and move the food around his mouth properly. I’m lucky to get him to eat the pureed, and I dont want to freak him out by changing the texture too much because then he may not want to eat at all. Does anyone have any idea how to increase the texture of his food without it being a dramatic change? Also, has anyone had an issue with your baby not progressing to smashed table food?