The past couple of weeks have led to my daughter discovering her hands. I thinks he's always known she had them, but now she's realized she can DO THINGS with them. Now she's obsessed with touching and grabbing at stuff. She has a play mat that she lays under and reaches up to grab the rings that hang down from it and shake them to death. If she shakes hard enough, one of the toys that hangs from the mat plays music and she spends a lot of time trying to work out what exactly she does to make the music happen. She's starting to hit the one that plays music more often now, though, so I think she's working it out. She loves it. She lays under the toys and babbles at them like she's having a conversation with some of her best friends.
She's also discovered she can grab the ring on her pacifier and pop it out of her mouth. Furthermore, she can sort of throw it at you if she wants. This has come in handy for her when she wants to fight falling asleep, since the evil pacifier makes her sleepy. She will also put her fingers up by her mouth so she can work them under the edge of the pacifier and flick them forward to push it out of her mouth. My mother is unimpressed with this new found talent of hers, since she uses it to fight naps and scream bloody murder. She doesn't seem to mind the fact that other people don't appreciate her new fascination. She has also figured out she can hold the pacifier by the ring, and she's made a couple of attempts at trying to put it back into her mouth, but she's not very coordinated yet so she basically just ends up smacking herself in the face with it. Stupid baby.
She seems to have preferences now as to what she does with her free time. Gone are the days of laying around on her lounge pillow hanging out all day. She has shit to do. She has rings to shake, and pacifiers to throw, and baby push ups to do. It's kind of nice to see her interacting with other things and taking interest in what's around her.
I do, however, wish she'd take less interest in the television. We never put her in front of it, but if it's on while she's in the room, she'll work to try to see it. We had to move her play mat because she could turn to the side and see the tv and then she'd just lay there mesmerized by it and pay no attention to her toys. We don't want her watching a lot of tv just yet, so it's been challenging to keep her from staring over at it whenever she can angle herself to get a view. To combat this, we've started reading books to her to keep her attention. By we, I mean my husband, because he does all of the best voices. Stories are an interactive experience when my husband reads them. He does different voices for different characters. He makes the story literally interactive, so if there's a poem about the wind, he reads it and blows on her face and hair so she gets to feel the wind while he's reading about it. I will never be up to his level on stories and reading, but that's ok. It's awesome to watch him read to her, and to watch her stare up at the book like she's totally paying attention to everything he's saying. I'm sure at this point she has no idea what he's saying to her but she likes being talked to, and she likes the color in the illustrations, so she pays attention as much as a three month old can. I like to watch him with her, and I like to watch her smile up at him like he's the coolest person ever. She's totally a daddy's girl already.
She's also discovered she can grab the ring on her pacifier and pop it out of her mouth. Furthermore, she can sort of throw it at you if she wants. This has come in handy for her when she wants to fight falling asleep, since the evil pacifier makes her sleepy. She will also put her fingers up by her mouth so she can work them under the edge of the pacifier and flick them forward to push it out of her mouth. My mother is unimpressed with this new found talent of hers, since she uses it to fight naps and scream bloody murder. She doesn't seem to mind the fact that other people don't appreciate her new fascination. She has also figured out she can hold the pacifier by the ring, and she's made a couple of attempts at trying to put it back into her mouth, but she's not very coordinated yet so she basically just ends up smacking herself in the face with it. Stupid baby.
She seems to have preferences now as to what she does with her free time. Gone are the days of laying around on her lounge pillow hanging out all day. She has shit to do. She has rings to shake, and pacifiers to throw, and baby push ups to do. It's kind of nice to see her interacting with other things and taking interest in what's around her.
I do, however, wish she'd take less interest in the television. We never put her in front of it, but if it's on while she's in the room, she'll work to try to see it. We had to move her play mat because she could turn to the side and see the tv and then she'd just lay there mesmerized by it and pay no attention to her toys. We don't want her watching a lot of tv just yet, so it's been challenging to keep her from staring over at it whenever she can angle herself to get a view. To combat this, we've started reading books to her to keep her attention. By we, I mean my husband, because he does all of the best voices. Stories are an interactive experience when my husband reads them. He does different voices for different characters. He makes the story literally interactive, so if there's a poem about the wind, he reads it and blows on her face and hair so she gets to feel the wind while he's reading about it. I will never be up to his level on stories and reading, but that's ok. It's awesome to watch him read to her, and to watch her stare up at the book like she's totally paying attention to everything he's saying. I'm sure at this point she has no idea what he's saying to her but she likes being talked to, and she likes the color in the illustrations, so she pays attention as much as a three month old can. I like to watch him with her, and I like to watch her smile up at him like he's the coolest person ever. She's totally a daddy's girl already.