pooh and piglet have been around since the very beginning and tigger joined the fun a bit later, so we’ve always known that he probably visually recognizes them and finds their scents familiar, but recently little odin has started to play with them! showing the ability to recognize, seek out and interact with objects in his environment is a Really Big Deal since it’s an important developmental milestone and occasionally one finds that micropreemies reach it a little slower than other babies.

in recent weeks, we’ve noticed that he’s visually tracking his mobile a lot more than in the past, but this is one of the first times that we’ve seen a flash of recognition pass over his face when he saw pooh, followed by him repeatedly reaching out and interacting with his long time buddies.

of course, at this stage of the game, if you’re pooh or piglet playing with little odin means you just get pushed over a lot and we have to keep setting them back upright as he gets increasingly excited at the prospect of pushing them over. i do believe that tigger might be egging him on.

they’re good sports about it and don’t seem to take it too personally.

this is the longest period of play time that we’ve seen yet, so perhaps you’ll excuse me while i indulge a bit and take a few too many pictures of him having fun with his toys 🙂

we were very pleasantly surprised to find two new books on our doorstep today!

my aunt linda and uncle jim sent little odin, “On the Day You Were Born” and “The Twelve Gifts of Birth”, which we’ll have fun reading to him for years to come.

what better way is there to wind down after playing with pooh, piglet and tigger than reading a new book? there is none, i think.

so kris reads “On the Day You Were Born” to him and after a while i hear her yelling from the other room to come quickly. apparently odin likes the book quite a bit because he’s smiling and giggling. but alas, by the time i get the camera turned on, i’m only able to capture him sharing a special moment with mama sans the smiles.

in addition to the new play behavior, odin has been enjoying demonstrating another developmental milestone by engaging in copious amounts of “social smiling”. but apparently he enjoys making it difficult for me, because try as i might, all this week i haven’t been able to “catch” him smiling on camera.

i’ve tried cajoling him into cooperating and he’s willing to oblige, of course, until i run to get the camera.