Filling containers

A week or two ago Molly discovered she can put objects into containers, not just take them out. This has opened a whole new world of possibilities. One of her favorite places to put things is in somebody's hand. She also likes to try to put things in my mouth. This afternoon we were out in the yard sitting in a pile of fallen leaves. I was so proud of her for not constantly putting the leaves in her own mouth (at least in the beginning), but she kept trying to put them in my mouth. Silly girl.

We came inside and she had a good time taking my hat off my head and trying to put it back on again. Here she is handing it to me.

She is also figuring out how to stack blocks (only two high so far) and the other day she decided to put her books back on the shelf rather than take them all off. Could this mean she's ready to learn to pick up after herself? Somehow I doubt it.

Her father reports that she emptied out his laundry basket (typical) then crawled into it (never before witnessed) and picked up the clothes off the floor and put them in the basket with her. We're not sure if this counts as filling a container or if she was just confused and thought she was emptying the floor.

She has been so much fun lately. For the past few days I've just been watching her play (she won't let me read magazines or books at the moment) and it's fascinating to see her little mind work. She's figuring out how to use her toys in more sophisticated ways. She seems to be sorting things. It's hard to tell because it could just be coincidence, but I notice things like she'll carry two rings away from her big tangle of plastic rings and they're both white ones with black dots. Out of a whole basket of plastic food (part of the latest haul from our neighbor), she picked out the spatula and fork -- the two utensils. Then she tried to spoon feed me.

Of course, this joyful child is the one we see during the day. Nighttime is a different story. After a few weeks of relatively good sleep (down around 7 and staying asleep most nights until around 4 to nurse and then down again to around 6), she started waking up again last week at odd times and not wanting to go back to sleep. At least so far we still tend to get a good 5-hour chunk of quiet at some point in the night. That's luxury compared to our sleepless summer.

Speaking of sleep, it's time for me to catch some right now. That 4 a.m. wake-up call is harsh.

Last thing -- another random shot from the other day when she was crawling around inside the cabinets.