Slippery Bananas and Head Concussions

As I write this, Lexi is sitting in her high chair trying to eat slices of banana that I placed on her tray. If you know anything about babies and bananas, you will already know that the odds of her getting a piece of banana into her mouth are pretty much slim to none. First she chases the slice around and around on the tray as it slips and slides continuously out of reach. Then, the moment her clumsy fingers finally wrap themselves around the banana slice, she brings her hand to her mouth and POP! Out pops the banana back onto the tray, onto the floor, or onto her bib where she just can't reach it. In an attempt to prevent too much frustration, I end up putting the banana in her mouth after she tries and re-tries again and again to no avail. (You would think they would make bananas with grips on them by now...) And so it goes until the entire 2 inches of banana are gone. Keep in mind that this takes no fewer than about 20 minutes, not including clean up. Talk about determination! This is no lazy baby!

It amazes me how much determination babies have this young. I guess if they didn't have it, they would never learn to wiggle, lift up their heads and look around, smile, laugh, play with toys, sit up, eat, pee during every diaper change, crawl, and walk (among many MANY other things) all in their first year of life.

And that, I suppose, is a perfect explanation as to why Lexi absolutely REFUSES to stop doing dangerous things... such as using the furniture to pull herself up into a standing position and then letting go, which always results in falling backwards and smacking the back of her head on the wood floor every single time. And yet she keeps doing it again and again and again. Either she is determined to walk before understanding her own center of gravity or she is going to suffer a major concussion. It's one or the other. I can't say that I am much looking forward to either, although if she could walk, then she could come find me faster whenever I leave the room and she is suddenly consumed with the completely irrational fear that I am never coming back. Silly baby with underdeveloped frontal brain lobes! Mama will always come back!