New Discoveries

Tye is growing up so quickly these days. She has started reaching for and grasping onto objects, which has really opened new doors for her. With her new ability to hold desired items, she is learning more about her surroundings with every passing hour. She's especially interested in toys with faces, like her Sophie the Giraffe toy, given to her by her uncles at Christmas.

Everything Tye can reach goes into her mouth. She's not just sucking on fingers anymore, though; she's gumming everything with surprising force. Fortunately, there's no fussiness yet that makes me think she's teething, even if her drooling has gone into super overdrive along with the mouthing of anything in reach.

Tye has also recently discovered the joy of sucking her thumb. While I have the typical motherly concerns that this may become a hard-to-break habit, she's just so cute with that tiny thumb in her mouth, I actually love it.

Last night, we watched The Discovery Channel's new nature series, Life. Like the Planet Earth series, the photography is breathtaking and the new animal behaviors captured on film are extraordinary. I sat, completely captivated, for the whole two hours of the season premiere. Did you know that female poison dart frogs carry their tadpoles on their backs and deposit each one in their own puddle, and then lay unfertilized eggs in the puddles for them to eat? Or that male African Bull Frogs guard their tadpoles and will dig ditches to connect their diminishing ponds to larger bodies of water? Amazing.

Recently, watching Tye has been just as thrilling for me. We spent at least an hour playing together on the bed yesterday afternoon, me just watching her grasping the string of my sweatshirt, her reaching for it repeatedly. With every new skill and each new concept she learns, Tye becomes more independent, more her own person. I'm discovering with new clarity that watching her grow is watching the development of a whole person. What an amazing, terrifying role we play as parents.