Figuring Out the Hands

It's kind of fun to watch M turn from a head and a digestive tract with curled up, useless appendages into a person who has arms and legs and knows how to use them.  Or is at least not frightened when the brain sends them electrical impulses and makes them move.  She's been working really hard on her thumb.  She knows that she wants it in her mouth, and she pretty much knows where it's located - in a sort of a general, Afghanistan is in central Asia sort of way (geography learned from a Risk board isn't really trustworthy.  One wonders what sort of board game she learned her anatomy from).  Watching her try to get it there is pretty funny, and I snapped a series of pictures today chronicling her valiant attempts to maneuver it into her mouth.*

This first picture captures her after a failed attempt.

 

The next pass came close; she snagged her thumb in the corner of her mouth, but she couldn't stick the landing, and the hand escaped.

 

You've got to love the joy for the moment that her thumb was in her mouth.**  This elation, however, was fleeting, and replaced by awe and a certain amount of trepidation.

 

You can imagine her saying "we're going to need a bigger mouth."***  Unperturbed by the dismal chance of success, however, she adopted the "hands spread out like starfish, mouth open wide, flailing both hand and head" approach to thumb insertion. 

 

Strangely, success attended this strategy.  I wouldn't, however, recommend it as a general rule, since the fingers are just as likely to land in the eyes.  I put this to her, but she wasn't in much of a mood to listen, and besides, as she had succeeded in getting her thumb in her mouth, was hampered in her speech and also had a bit of an advantage in the argument since she her thumb had gone in its intended destination and hadn't put out her eye.

 

 

*Please excuse the quality of the photos.  It's hard to take a picture at arms length and hold the baby who is windmilling her little arms around hoping to land one of them in her mouth.

**Leo thinks that she looks like Dick Durbin in this picture.  I think that Leo needs to stop reading political blogs.  There's no way that Dick Durbin is a) this cute or b) this excited when he gets his thumb in his mouth.  EDIT: Here is a picture of Durbin that Leo thinks supports his position.  I'm willing to grant a superficial similarity, but continue to insist that M is much, much cuter.  And way more excited about her thumbs.

***Probably if she takes after me, no one is ever going to think that she needs a bigger mouth.