Gimme that!

For the past several weeks, we have been trying to get Shreya to hold things. Stuffed animals, rattles, fingers, hair (uh, no... not hair!) For some time now, she has been able to hold on to our fingers while sitting in one of our laps or while strapped in the infant carrier. Having a finger to clutch is, after all, a good way to remember that Someone is looking out for one; Someone who can't get away, because one has got their fingers. 

Holding things though, is a different story altogether. To get her to hold a rattle or other toy, for instance, was a matter of prying her fingers open, placing the toy in her tiny palm and pressing her fingers closed around it, only to have her drop it as soon as one has loosened one's own grip on it. This afternoon, however, when I held out Mrs. Turtle to her, she cautiously closed her fist around the toy and held on for several minutes, looking contemplatively at it, and the at me. (Don't roll your eyes! These things are exciting for first-time parents!) And then, she did it again. Twice. Making three times in all. What she does three times, she can do.

I wonder about the nature of her learning. Has she merely developed the motor skills required to keep her fist tightly closed? Or is she actually aware that she is holding Mrs. Turtle? (And thereby defying gravity, preventing Mrs. Turtle from falling down, but I'm pretty sure she isn't aware of that aspect of it.) I don't know, and I'm not even sure how one might devise an experiment to determine the answer. ("No designing experiments!" says Tom, indignantly.)  But I do know that it is fun watching her learn.