Growing Up

It's amazing to me how quickly Baby is growing into her own little person. She is starting to make her own decisions already and assert her independence. She's also showing new skills every day and I look forward to each new thing she does.

Recently she started deciding whether or not she wanted a specific toy. Previously I would hand her an item and she would take it and put it in her mouth. Now she is obvious about whether or not she wants that toy. If I try to give her something, she will look at it then either reach for it or not. She knows what she wants and will reach for something only if she wants it, not if I want her to want it.

Another thing Baby has started doing is getting mad if I take something away from her. For example, I usually give her a little lotion bottle to play with when I change her (I always forget to bring a toy with me when I put her on the changing table, and I have to give her something or she will try to roll all over the place to look and grab for things. So far the lotion bottle has fascinated her). However, when I take it away she will make little "uuuhhhh" noises or even start to cry or grab for it. Then I carry her away and she finds a new toy to play with.

Baby also likes to reach for and grab faces. When I'm nursing her she will reach her little arm up to my face and try to grab my mouth or my nose. She does this with other people when they are holding her. I think she is starting to notice different features.

She has also discovered the concept of up. Before, everything used to be down. She would look down at the ground. She would look down at toys. She would hold toys down in front of her. She would look down when being pushed in her stroller.
Now the new concept is up.

She will look up when we walk around. She will look up into our faces. She will look up at the sky and the trees when she is in her stroller. A really cool thing she does lately is hold a toy out at arms length up above her, look at it, then maybe put it in her mouth. She's beginning to use her other sense of looking at things as well as touching and tasting them. I also caught her smiling as she was shaking a rattle, listening to it. She's really learning to use her senses to learn about her environment.