Jiu Jitsu? I'm Going to Learn Jiu Jitsu?

For the most part, babies learn incrementally, picking up new skills bit by bit through trial and error.  For example, Grace has seemed to be on the verge of crawling for months, and is now at the point where she's got everything down except for actually moving forward.

Once in a while though, Grace seems to learn new things in giant leaps, as if they were downloaded directly into her brain like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix but if Keanu was a better actor.  Last Monday was one of those days.  From the moment Grace woke up, it was like she was a totally different person.

The day started with a diaper change, a solid, sweet potato fueled 8 worthy of its own post.  I got her changed as usual, but when it came time to get her dressed, Grace grabbed her pants from the changing table rail and handed them to me instead of trying to eat them as she normally would.  A cute fluke I figured, but then, for the first time, she straightened her legs and helped me get her pants on.

Immediately after that, I put Grace on the floor for some playtime, which was just as much a break from the norm as her changing changes.  She started off with some rapid-fire back-to-belly-to-back rolls, something she was able to do before but never approached with such vigor.  Then, she grabbed for her Piglet toy, but instead of trying to eat it as per usual, she was only interested in how it felt.  This went on for an hour.  Grace would pick up a toy, handle it for a bit, then put it down to test out something else.  Much later in the day, Grace did the same thing with my hand.  In a gross experiment, she would feel one of my fingers while dry then lick it and feel it again while slimy, then move on to the next finger and repeat.

While those changes are somewhat subtle, the final new skill she unveiled was pretty spectacular.  My parents came over for a visit, and after letting them in I took a seat on the couch with Grace sitting on my lap.  Instantaneously, she decided that it was time to try the whole standing up thing.  She put her feet on the couch and pushed herself up then down and up again for the next two minutes with me holding her sides in support.  Unfortunately we were all too stunned to document the moment, so here's a clip from the next day of Grace doing the same thing.