This may seem silly to non parents, but it is so amazing when babies start figuring out the real world function of things, and stop seeing objects just as fascinating shapes and colors. Don't get me wrong, it's fun too to see their innocence and non jadedness in their interest in the simplest of things, but it's so cool to see them making connections and observations and figuring out, oh! a spoon is not just for eating but is also a tool to get food in my mouth! Lilli, I think, has known the function of a spoon for awhile now, but in true Lilli fashion has held off really wanting to use a spoon until she knew she could do it right. She doesn't like a mess. Lately she's been insisting on feeding herself, and surprisingly (to me, probably not to her) she manages to actually get the food in her mouth about 90% of the time. She's learned that when I say "you eat it" that means to put the spoon in her mouth and she does it really quickly like it is a game to see how fast she can comply. This has made meal times SO MUCH EASIER. I tell the baby to eat AND SHE EATS. Communication! Eureka! I kind of feel like Alexander Graham Bell. Lilli is pretty pleased with herself too, and has an added bonus, this putting the spoon in her mouth when I tell her to is such a fun game, she'll even do it when the spoon is loaded up with stuff she might not normally be so excited about eating. Of course, this doesn't work so well with foods that will not stick to a spoon. Like kale. She has not yet mastered the art of keeping the spoon from going upside down on the journey to her little mouth.

Also, a couple of weeks ago at Lummi, grandma Mary (or GMary as she likes to be called) taught Lilli how to put the binocular straps over her head so that they would hang around her neck. Now she thinks all cords and wires are supposed to go over your head. I'm not sure how to communicate to her that this is not the best idea for all cords/wires. I'm going to have to figure something out though, because everytime my back is turned she is trying to put some cord or wire over her head and around her neck. Can you say strangulation hazard? The other day Bob was playing video games with a friend and she was sitting in the middle of the floor and we watched her completely entangle herself ON PURPOSE in the cords and wires. Because that is apparently what are you supposed to do.

All this is so fascinating to me because I remember when Lilli was born and I thought how confusing and overwhelming the big wide world must be to a little newborn infant. All they've been exposed to is the inside of a uterus, and now there is all these sensory perceptions that they don't even know how to interpret. It must be just a jumble of meaningless data. Slowly it starts to make sense, and now my baby knows that a bib is supposed to go around your neck, and that hat goes on your head, and that a spoon goes in your mouth. . .AMAZING! Will wonders never cease.