Problem Solving

Today Shell was crawling around with a toy, and came up to her bouncer seat, which she never uses anymore (since she’s too busy to sit still and bounce). She tried to use it to pull herself up, but she ran into a problem - she wanted to hold the toy and also stand up, but she couldn’t pull herself up with just one hand. She tried a few times and then gave up, or so I thought. She left the bouncer and crawled a few feet away to a pile of toys. She sat down in the middle of the toys and examined each one, picking it up, shaking it, putting it in her mouth, banging it against other toys around her. After a few minutes she found the right one, and took it back to the bouncer. This one was much smaller. She tested it again by hitting it against the bouncer, putting it in her mouth, passing it back and forth between her hands, and then finally trying again to pull into a standing position. She tried and tried, holding the toy in a different hand, thinking about how she could position herself differently, and didn’t give up. Well, eventually she did. She never quite managed to succeed, but I was very impressed with how long she tried, before moving on to something else. I can see the wheels turning and she’s working hard to figure things out, and this is a great time, when everything is brand new and interesting.