in addition to creating and retaining complex spatial memory maps of his environment and mastering his oral/motor skills, odin continues to show evidence of that his little neurons are doing their neuronal development thing and giving him the ability to accomplish what was previously unimaginable; just this week he discovered that he could push the buttons on his developmental mobile that’s attached to his changing table right next to his BIg Boy Bed and remotely turn it on and off!

of course, we now know when he’s awaken from a slumber because we can hear the musical mobile sounds starting and stoppping via his baby monitor, which he thinks it’s all sorts of fun.

maybe i’m just giving away my background in cognitive neuroscience but it seems to me that this opportunity to learn that one can control things from a distance so early is quite a new phenomenon. i mean, before the advent of remote controls it was impossible unless you possessed some sort of psychokinetic ability. someone, somewhere surely must have a ph.d dissertation in the works on the effects of the learning action at a distance on a developing brain.

in any case, you can see several of his other favorite playthings that he likes to have around when he wakes up; his bedside clock, and a stuffed toy malamute that’s been by his side since the nicu and, of course, the gloworm.