Madeleine's explorations

This morning Madeleine was sitting on the dining room floor and fussing while Ethan and I ate our breakfast, so I thought maybe she needed a new fun place to explore while we finished eating. I sat her down underneath the table, figuring it would be a new perspective for her and fun to try and pull up on the beam holding the two table feet together. Ethan was clearly the wiser parent and recognized it wasn't a very good idea, as demonstrated by the following exchange:

ETHAN: (Looking at me like I'm crazy.)
ME: What?
ETHAN: Don't you think she's going to whack her head?
MADELEINE: (Leaning forward and bonking her head on the beam.)
ME: Yup.

So I moved her further away from the beam and thought she might like to play with the chair rungs (one of her favorite things to do lately; she can almost pull up to standing on them.) However, she decided Ethan's toes were way more interesting, and proceeded to grab onto his big toes, then lean her whole body forward in order to suck on them. Ew.

Later in the morning, we had a play-date over at Neva's house, and while Julia and Nate happily played, Neva and I put the babies down on the play gym together. Neva's daughter, Anja, is two months younger than Madeleine, and while their close age and our weekly get-togethers will very likely lead to a tight friendship at some point down the line, right now they seem to regard each other as objects to grab at and explore. As they lay side by side on the play gym, Madeleine reached over and pulled the pacifier out of Anja's mouth. She then started grabbing at Anja's face with a look of earnest interest, and in response Anja opened her mouth wide and started mouthing and sucking on Madeleine's hand. As Ethan said, when I recounted the story for him, they must have both been in baby bliss.