Tah-dah!

When I look at Rain's newborn pictures, she looks like most newborns (read: sack of flour). She was kind of like a knickknack: wherever you put her was where she stayed. I remember the day she finally batted at one of her overhead toys instead of stared at it. I was cheering, "Get it! Get it! That's right, knock it down!" To see her interacting physically with the world was exciting.

The funny thing about the way Rain is growing now is that I thought things would happen gradually. If I want to learn a new sport, I expect that practice over time will give me the results I desire (or something acceptable, anyway). But with Rain, she just does stuff. There's no real build-up to things; one day she can't do something, and the next day she can.

It's almost creepy when it happens. I'll look away for a minute, and when I look back, she's doing something I've never seen before. One day I was reading a book about the kind of things a baby should be able to do at Rain's age. "This says that soon she'll be able to pass an object from one hand to another. That seems a bit complicated ..." (*lowers book to see Rain passing teether from hand to hand*). Two weeks ago, I remember thinking, "I wonder when Rain's going to be able to sit up, even if it's just for a few seconds. She's still so shaky." My sister plopped Rain on the floor, and voila! Since that day, she's been able to sit up for minutes at a time. Today I was sitting next to Rain who was in her car seat. I heard a rattling sound and knew it was from the toy hanging from the car seat's handle. Rain had figured out how to pull it and make it rattle. It's hard to pull, and so I've always pulled it for her. She made it rattle again. I was like, "But you've only batted at it one or twice before. How did you--? Hmm."

Tomorrow: Rain gets her driving permit. OK, maybe not yet, but it wouldn't surprise me.