Grippin' and Rollin'

Mabel is hard at work as of late on some of her motor skills. She is grasping lots of things with her hands- from rattles to rings to our fingers-- and quite often my hair, which feels lovely. But watching her figure out how to hold things is very cool; she starts by putting her hand on something and then very carefully and mindfully navigates the positioning of her fingers for optimal grippage. She used to lie on her playmat and look above, marveling at the zoo animals hanging from the hoops; now, she holds those same zany animals and pulls at them while smiling with pride. But her big milestone is rolling over, which happened once Thursday, once Friday, and again last night. We position her on her tummy, elbows tucked so she can enjoy her baby gym or some tummy time on her mat, and thrice now, we've looked over and she's on her back! I've tried to get her to roll on command (I feel like I'm talking about a dog now), as I hold the video camera, but, alas, she isn't down with audiences. At any rate, she's practicing her new move here and there!