Imitation Nation
We are very excited to report that Maggie is starting to imitate the sounds she hears from us. Tonight she did a pretty darn good imitation of both "mama" and "papa" and we've heard other indications during her normal babbling that she's listening to what we say and trying to replicate the words. Another thrilling development is that she is actively imitating gestures. We can now tell her to clap her hands and we can plainly see her thought processes before she mimics the gesture. She is also starting to clench and unclench one hand in imitation of the sign language for "milk."
Hyperbole aside, both of us are in awe of the power of the human brain and the immense joy we are deriving from Maggie's development in so many areas. These very recent developmental steps have made us both pause to appreciate how much we are enjoying parenthood and have helped us gain a very clear perspective of how much we, individually and together, have been enriched simply by becoming parents and embracing the changes we've made to put a tiny new person at the center of our daily lives. We feel enormously fortunate to have a physically and mentally healthy baby, and to be able to share our joys and frustrations among our little family and with our relatives and friends.
We'll certainly continue to document Maggie's new development with photos and videos...look for those soon.
And now, to conclude a somewhat maudlin post, here's a picture of a kangaroo.