Baby Book: Toys & Motor Control

Focusing on Toys
I remember the first time Julia focused her eyes on some toys. She was sitting in her bouncy seat and looked up at the cow, pig, and lamb mobile. It was very early on, but I can't remember when. Maybe it was 3 weeks? (That's part of the reason for these blog entries. It all starts to blur together!)

Batting at Toys
When we were in Georgia in December, she was in a bouncy seat, and I noticed her batting at toys for the first time. Before that, she really had no interest in toys. Friends with babies around the same age would say that their kids had "favorite toys." Julia just hadn't been interested, so it was fun to see her enthusiastically batting at the toys on the bar above the bouncy seat.

Now, she is really interested in her toys, and she can sit (well, be propped up) in a corner of the sofa and entertain herself with a toy. When I needed to drive somewhere the first week in January, I put a toy back in the car seat with her. During the drive, I heard it rustle and rattle as she entertained herself for the car ride. Amazing!

Pacifiers
Julia really enjoys a pacifier when she is in the mood. If she is not in the mood, she will simply spit it out. She has clear preference for the Nuk pacifiers over the Avent ones. At the very beginning, she never cared for the Soothies, but I know other parents who say their babies LOVED them. It is amazing how a teeny baby can distinguish between pacifiers and have a favorite.

At a couple months, she would bat the pacifier out of her mouth with her little flailing arms. Then, she would get very angry, because she didn't have a pacifier in her mouth anymore. Over the last couple of weeks, she has started to use her newfound motor control to take the pacifier out of her mouth and study it very intensely. She'll turn it around in her hands looking at all sides. Occasionally, I'll give her two pacifiers: one for her mouth and another that she can study.

"Oooh, my hair is sooo soft."
From the early days, Julia liked to have her little head rubbed; it would help her fall asleep. When rocking her, as her eyes were getting heavy, I would trace my fingers over her eyelids and eyebrows. It relaxed her and put her to sleep. R said that he would lightly run his fingertips over her entire head when rocking her, and she loved it.

Around the first week in January, Julia found the top of her head with her own hand, and while nursing, she would rub her hand all over her head, enjoying the softness of her babyfine hair.