Very Surprised

I'm one of those parents that think that babies understand a lot more than we give them credit for. This is why I try to keep a near constant chatter going of what we're doing where we're going, etc.

One piece of evidence that confirms my thoughts is the "legs down" of diaper changing. Pretty much from the start of doing diaper changes I would say "legs down, please" a number of times to attempt to get Maddie to straighten her legs while I finish fastening her diaper and diaper cover. I would say it while I would gently push her legs down if she didn't do it on her own. It didn't take long, maybe under a week, before she would straighten her legs and hold them like that for a minute or so when I would say "legs down, please." She might have been a month old or less when this started. I remeber being impressed at how small she was when she started doing that. What is language besides associations between sounds and meanings?

I sing the bus song with Maddie a couple times a day and move her arms with the song. ("The wheels on the bus go round and round...) She loves it! I love it! It's fun times and it makes her so excited and happy when we do it. Maddie (and probably all babies) don't have the longest attention spans. They gaze all around and turn their heads and check out their worlds. Well, yesterday I came home from work and Maddie was in her rocker. She was checking out the world, turning her head, not really paying attention to me directly and I sang and held the first note of this song. I've never seen her move so fast. Her head turned to face me and she got this huge smile; she knew exactly what was happening. It really caught me by surprise how quickly she focused on me and became so excited.

This is why I'm really loving having Maddie in my life. It's so amazing to watch her learn and be herself.