our moody teenager

Can you go through adolesence at 3 1/2 months? Yesterday Brie was incredibly fussy all day long, and nothing seemed to fix it. The squeaking wasn't so cute when it turned to screaming. She wasn't hungry, she wasn't cold, she wasn't wet, and she wasn't alone. She was just upset.

Today is going better. I've heard that babies can get upset right before they learn something new, because they're frustrated that there's something they can't quite do. In a few weeks, Brigid will be four months old (happy birthday, by the way, to cousin Elisa, who turned three months last week and is getting more winsome all the time!), and at four months she's supposed to learn how to grab and swat at things. I'm wondering if she's upset because she can't do it yet and wants to. Brigid obviously knows there are interesting things in the world now, and stares intently at fans, faces, books, teddy bears - anything in her line of vision. And if we put something in her hands, she plays with it. But she can't see something and then grab it yet.

So today I sat down with Brigid and helped her grab her toys. I took the little stuffed panda bear that Laurel gave her (which goes by the name of Molly Bear-Bear), and put her hands on it for her. She was fascinated; she spent time petting it and not just bringing it immediately to her mouth. Eventually she managed to get her hands on it herself, and seemed much happier.

Not that she's got the grabbing/swatting thing down. I don't think she could do it if I hadn't put the bear on her chest, where her hands automatically go anyway. And she can't do it with smaller things - when I dangled smaller things in front of her, she grabbed at them two-handed, but missed and ended up just grabbing her own hands.

But she seems to enjoy playing with her toys with my help, and I'm glad I found something to calm her down.