Grabby

A while back, Elise discovered her hands: "What are these pink things that are constantly floating in front of my eyes? I'll call them....hands!"

Then she discovered that hands are cheap entertainment. She happily gummed them all day long.

And in the past week or two, Elise has been turning her hands into tools, and grabbing anything within reach.

It's been fun to watch the progression from batting to holding to maneuvering. [Thinking back, Kalina could care less about toys at this age, so this is somewhat new to me.] I imagine it's been somewhat frustrating at times for Elise, but she perseveres like a true honor student.

Her first attempts could best be described as wild stabs. "Maybe if I try hard enough, the toy will jump into my hand!" Success was limited, although at times if we positioned her just right in her playgym, calculating the angle and force of her next arm thrust (like true honors students ourselves), we could set her up to land a toy directly into her mouth. Maybe this helped her keep going.

As Elise gained further control of her arms and hands, she could use them like giant paddles, scooping goodies into them and funneling the object toward her mouth (the ultimate goal, as she realized after weeks of sucking on fingers).

And once Elise became better with her aim and grip, she gave up sleep entirely for a few nights in her excitement, stifled only by her swaddle. I imagine she'll be the type to pull all-nighters in college. When placed in her playgym, she'd relentlessy grab and mouth anything that came into her path.

This has included my hair and glasses. In fact, Elise took me by surprise today with her vehemence in wanting to play with her mommy's hair. I could see the headline now: "Mommy devoured by smiling 12-pound infant." If it hadn't been so ridiculous, I would've been scared, and indeed became a bit unsettled as Elise grabbed my glasses away and mustered all the strength she could to pull me closer, for sampling. I rescued myself well enough by prying off her sweet little fingers, but it took more strength than I'm generally comfortable using with a small child. Good thing Kalina wasn't in on the stunt, too or I would've been in over my head. Literally.

Elise seems to prefer toys that jingle or rattle, as well as soft things, but is generally not picky. Her favorite so far seems to be a stuffed whale toy that was a Christmas present from Aunt Nancy. The baby dreams big, trying to drag the whole thing into her mouth at once with her little paws. Is she bound for grad school, perhaps?

This new development has, by the way, just about trained Elise completely out of a pacifier. She's happy to chew on one if we hold it in for her, but rarely sucks it, even when tired. Sometimes it'd be nice if she still used it (an easy fix to lots of baby problems), but we're mostly relieved we won't have to wrest it away from her in weeks/months/years to come when it would start to cause more problems than it solved.

Currently, Elise is working on perfecting her grip (on larger objects than a handful of Mommy's hair) and timing it so that her fingers contract just as they're coming into contact with a toy, just like those "claw" games you find at restaurants and arcades. I suppose if college doesn't work out, she can earn a living winning stuffed animals.

Next up: rolling. Today I finally answered the question: "Why is my baby arching backwards in an almost perfect semicircle on her playmat?" Turns out, Elise is in the beginning stages of rolling onto her tummy. And today for the first time since the wobbly newborn days when she coudln't keep her balance no matter how she was positioned, she managed to roll to her back on her own. With a little practice, I bet we'll have the baby rolling across the room in no time.

Photo: Yes, those are forest animals all over Elise's soft, fuzzy sleeper!