Babyhood is a fascinating, enlightening, and mystifying stage of human life.  While there’s tremendous growth and lots of learning going on, there are also a good number of moments that make you wonder what in the world is happening inside your little one’s head.  Let me show you, as best I can, what I mean.

Any milestone chart will tell you that a baby rolling onto his or her side is developmentally right on target for four months of age.  Like this:

Or this:

What none of these charts mention is whether it’s “normal” for your baby to do this in your arms, twisting and contorting himself from the right-side-up position you started with into a c-shape that makes you think he might be able to touch his toes to his forehead, like a ballerina. Our very, very strong baby has gotten very, very wiggly, and it seems the little guy thinks the world looks better upside down.

Forgive me, I can’t figure out how to get a photo of this.  He’s tough enough to hold onto with both hands, never mind one!  Alas.

I wrote a few weeks ago about the magnificent moment when Jacob figured out how to put his thumb—just his thumb, not his whole fist—into his mouth.  Since then, we’ve learned that not only is he an ambidextrous thumb-sucker, but he’s a creative one, too.

Sometimes he links both hands together, like a golfer gripping a club, to hold one thumb or the other in his mouth. Yesterday he did this and managed to get both thumbs in there.  Wow, that seemed cool until I wrote it down.  Now it seems kind of lame. . . . but that’s the proud mama I am, so, so be it, I say.

The one that really baffles me—and the instance I felt most compelled to share—is when he wiggles his thumb into his mouth while he’s nursing.  He doesn’t stop eating for this, either.  This isn’t the kind of multitasking I was hoping for. . . . should I be concerned?