We Had a Busy Day

Our young'in had one heck of a day.

First, it was a weekday, but she spent a lot of it with her dad. I think this hopped her up a little bit, especially as I was away upstairs for a bit (I didn't have to rush through my shower!) and then out mailing packages and buying a few last-minute groceries.

Second, she learned something. It is either the tiniest of milestones (seen from the perspective of all the things she will learn in her lifetime) or one very large one (seen from the perspective of everything she's learned so far). See yonder kick 'n' crawl aquarium image? Mine is similar (last year's model that I got on sale, the dangly toys differ and the mat is a different pattern) but you get the idea. Well, after her second evening feeding, she wasn't in a mood to nap. I was going to use the mat to give her what we parents of infants lovingly call "tummy time", so her neck muscles would start to strengthen, but I started her on her back to get her used to playing there.

Well, little missy seemed very interested in the dangly stuff, so I decided to see how interested she was. I borrowed her hand and batted it at the dangly thing just over that hand. I got a reaction (trust me, you don't see such definite reactions in such a small baby often) so I did it again. After a bit of repetition and some rests (can't just keep wrenching the poor kid's arm around) she started flailing a bit on her own.

I thought it was random at first and that she was just excited to be playing, but she was very specifically extending her right hand (the one I'd been playing with) and she was fixing on the mirror toy (the one I'd been batting) and only that toy. I tapped it and said her name a couple of times, then I pushed the mirror and let it swing. B got this very determined look on her face, fixated on the mirror, and then thrust her little arm up toward it. She missed and gave me the scrunchy face, then tried again and just grazed the bottom of it!

I clapped and tried to generally let her know that was a job well done, and she did it about a dozen more times before she got fidgety and I picked her up.

I know it's a little thing, but I taught her something. I showed her, she tried, failed, kept trying, and then did it. Moreover, she realized that I told her she'd done what I taught her correctly, and then she did it again when I prompted her. I think that may have been our first real moment of intellectual connection. She got it. She doesn't know what she got, but she knows I showed it to her and then had fun doing it on her own.

And if anyone out there is going to rain on my parade and tell me that something I showed her and then watched as she did it on her own, then repeated very carefully (she didn't bat at the other toys, nor did she seem to be trying to flail her left arm at all) was a fluke or random baby movement, just take another moment and then don't. I looked into her little excited eyes and watched her lock them on me after she whacked that mirror, and I know what we were doing.

Best. Christmas. Present. Ever.

Third, she's eating like a maniac. She was all restless (which is why I'm still up) and it took me forever to realize she was actually still hungry even after she'd already eaten more than she usually does. I'm glad, because she needs to pack on a pound or two. Unlike her mom, who has to take off twenty of them and that leftover fudge I have downstairs that I made for presents for the neighbors and such isn't helping!