Mommy and Adelais taking alittle nap...

touching hair

One of the cutest things is to watch Adelais touch her own hair. Andrea pointed it out to me - it is as if she is surprised everytime she touches her head that there is hair on it. Lately she has been also exploring her face - she'll just sit there with her eyes closed, slowly moving her hands over her face. It is as if she is getting to know herself through touch - which, actually, is probably exactly what she is doing...

A Smile

Here's a great picture of Adelais smiling...

Mouth Play

I have read about this, but it wasn't really until this week that Adelais started to mimic what Andrea and I did with our mouths and tongues. It started with Andrea sticking out her tongue and Adelais responding - it was so cute! Recently it has also involved opening and closing her mouth in response to us. I imagine this is connected to the fact that she is making alot more sounds now. All different kinds of sounds - "AHHHs", "YEEEEs", gurgles and etc.. As we're moving our mouth and tongue, making sounds and even just talking to one another she just sits there and stares at our mouth so intently - it looks like she is just trying to figure out what the heck you're doing - so, of course, she can do it too!

Look & Hit

On Sunday we put Adelais down on her play mat - it is one of those mats with little toys hanging overhead for the baby to look at as well as manipulate. We've only put Adelais on it once or twice as she has seemed too young to really notice anything. But, as her eyesight has gotten better we've put her on it. On Sunday she was lying on it staring very intently at three little bells that were hanging to her right. All of a sudden she did a couple of movements with her right hand hitting the bells and causing them to make sounds. She went on to look at other things, but after a minute or so she returned to looking at the bells and then hitting them a couple of times. I'm totally convinced that this was one of her first volitional movements to manipulate the outside world. It was so amazing to watch her thought process - look, and then hit. It was a first glimpse of a whole new world opening for her.