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BABY BRAINS

Every time Caroline learns a new major skill (sitting, rolling, kissing her toes, etc.) her naps suffer. She is so excited to wake up and practice, practice, practice. It calms down after the newness of the skill wears off, but it is so amazing to see how much babies love to learn.

I love learn. In fact, when I went back to get my master’s degree…I loved being in class again. I loved being a teacher and watching my students learn. And now, I love being a mama and watching Caroline learn. She learns new things daily. I blink and she’s mastered a new skill. I love that she loves to learn.

She gets frustrated when she can’t figure out how to do something on her own (as we all do). Yesterday, it was the spoon. She wants so desperately to feed herself, that she takes the spoon from me and is attempting to do it on her own. She’s far from mastering this skill as she isn’t coming close to having the right upward angle to get food actually into her mouth- but boy does she want to learn. I have her hold on and I show her the motion that she needs to achieve in order to use the spoon successfully. She was so excited about this, she insisted on bringing the spoon with her on our outing to shop for Father’s day.

When she was 5 months old she spent a few days trying and trying to roll from back to belly. She succeeded, and then never really tried again. Now that she is 6 months old, she’s learned she can roll from belly to back. The past three days she’s woken up early from her naps, just so she can try and roll from belly to back. She sticks her butt up in the air, and pushes off with her feet as she rocks to the side. She would try for several minutes, and then, finally she’d flip over. She would have this look of satisfaction on her face. Now (a few days into this), I lay her down on her belly for her naps and she immediately flips over.

The excitement of it all keeps her awake for awhile, so yesterday I tried a new tactic. I placed her on her belly about 10 minutes before her nap. She rolled. I rolled her back. She rolled. I rolled her back. We did this a few times, until she was definitely showing signs of being tired. I placed her in her crib and crossed my fingers that she’d had enough practice and would want to sleep. It worked! We got our 2 hour naps back (instead of the 30 min naps we had over the weekend).

Today, I’ve noticed that she has gotten so good at this new skill. What used to take several tries (because she couldn’t get her arm out of the way), now only takes one or two. She is learning so fast. By the time I can walk out of the room and grab the monitor, she’s already flipped over. Soon she’s going to be pulling herself up to stand and sit in her crib! Now she’s thinking of rolling the other way again. She never quite mastered back to belly, so she’ll have some more learning to do, and she’ll love every second of her success- as will her mama.

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