The "Open mouth insert...anything" stage

Time for another update on the development of my “Little” 7 month old. Mia is an incredibly sweet, LARGE (with a capital L and triple chins) little girl. She continues to develop and explore the world and has started reaching milestones and developing skills before our eyes, which makes the whole process so rewarding.

Currently, Mia’s stage is the ever so passionate “open mouth insert…anything” stage: the stage in which some part of her developing brain is coaching her along saying, “Get that! Put it in your mouth! Now that! Taste it! Put it in your mouth! See that thing? Put it in your mouth!” She takes these instructions VERY seriously and is quite adept at not only reaching things, but also at accurately smashing them into her mouth. Or the side of her cheek.

She is not at ALL discerning. If it exists, it’s good enough to taste. As far as I can tell she has NO ability whatsoever to discriminate between a CLEAN finger and a NOT so clean finger. Coinciding with Toby’s current independent streak and concomitant weakness at hand washing pretty much ensures that Mia has already had a taste of peanut butter and many other things.

I was watching her in the bath tonight and was baffled by her persistence. As the bath toys floated by sat there flailing both arms about, clenching and unclenching her fists in a fit of excitement while her gaping mouth DROOLED in anticipation of all the THINGS that she could POSSIBLY put in her mouth. Bath toys being small and all, she ended up settling for the soapy-bath-water-filled-facecloth that was much easier to get her hands on. As she contentedly sucked the bath water out of it, I contemplated to myself how LUCKY we are to outgrow this little stage.