Look at all them cute little piggies!

Good news, people -- for the past couple of nights, Milo has reverted back to his normal sleep patterns, e.g., going down without much of a fuss and waking once during the night (excuse me while I pause to knock all the wood within arm's reach) , so I'm hoping that the growth spurt or whatever the heck it was that was disturbing his sleep has worked itself out of his system. I bow to the superior wisdom of Hetty Vanderijt and Frans Plooij, the doctors who wrote
The Wonder Weeks, the book I mentioned in my last post.

I actually think that Milo's little hissy fit WAS due to the kind of intellectual growth spurt described in the book. In just the past couple of days, he's become far more aware of his surroundings, and is demonstrating a tremendous increase in dexterity. He's now watching Rob and I very closely, and monitoring our movements as we walk around the world.

He's also taking notice of our dog Nell for the first time, and is quite clearly seeing her as a cohesive moving object, rather than just a random collection of canine body parts. And he's started moving his fingers independently of each other. After paying them scant attention, all of a sudden he LOVES grabbing and batting the toys dangling off his little "Tiny Toys" activity center (that thing's a godsend, I tell you -- he can entertain himself in it for a whole half hour at times!) . He can even amuse himself by playing with his own fingers.

And just this morning, I'm pleased to announce, the little guy discovered his toes! It was quite hilarious. He was sitting on my lap during our little post-feed chat time (during which he usually flails and squeals and I try to imitate the sounds he makes -- impossible -- and do my best not to laugh TOO hard at his hysterical facial expressions), and his whole attention was focused on something near the end of his leg.

Then I realized it WAS the end of his leg that had him gripped so completely. He was flexing and curling his toes and staring at them intently with one eyebrow raised, as if struggling to wrap his head around the fact that yes, those tiny little sausage things were actually attached to him, and yes, he could actually make them move! On command! Through the sheer force of his own indomitable will!

It was quite the moment, I tell you.