Well, isn't that a new sensation !?!

Whenever Lily picks up a new skill, be it spit bubbles or rolling over from back to front, I find myself amazed at her problem solving skills. Not just her's, of course, but babies in generally (really, mostly her's). I am not sure about the the rest of humanity, but when I think to myself, I do it in English, with words, that have meaning. I would assume that the rest of humanity does the same, except in their own native tongues.

But, babies don't have tongues. I mean they have tongues, but not mental tongues...linguistic tongues. When they encounter a problem, such as a backwards facing pacifier, how do they problem solve? How do they itemize their steps? Or when a family member is singing the somewhat graphic words of Rocky Racoon, how do they decide that they like it? (BTW, 5 points awarded to whoever can name provide the name of the girl of his fancy.).

This question reminds me of a very specific piece of text from Douglas Adams Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. I've pasted the substance of the passage below, but in order for it to make sense you'll need a little background.

-WARNING-this is some really nerdy stuff!

Basically, a spaceship was being targeted by 2 missiles. This spaceship was, however equipped with an "improbability drive", which, when activated, put the ship into the most improbable situation, basically as an escape mechanism. In the story, the drive was activated and the missiles turned into a bowl of petunias, and a sperm whale. Enjoy! (For those of you who really want to wear their geek-pants today, I highly recommend this description.)

Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability a sperm whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet.

And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this poor innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to come to terms with not being a whale any more.

This is a complete record of its thoughts from the moment it began its life till the moment it ended it.

Ah ... ! What's happening? it thought.

Er, excuse me, who am I?

Hello?

Why am I here? What's my purpose in life?

What do I mean by who am I?

Calm down, get a grip now ... oh! this is an interesting sensation, what is it? It's a sort of ... yawning, tingling sensation in my ... my ... well I suppose I'd better start finding names for things if I want to make any headway in what for the sake of what I shall call an argument I shall call the world, so let's call it my stomach.

Good. Ooooh, it's getting quite strong. And hey, what's about this whistling roaring sound going past what I'm suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that ... wind! Is that a good name? It'll do ... perhaps I can find a better name for it later when I've found out what it's for. It must be something very important because there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot of it. Hey! What's this thing? This ... let's call it a tail — yeah, tail. Hey! I can can really thrash it about pretty good can't I? Wow! Wow! That feels great! Doesn't seem to achieve very much but I'll probably find out what it's for later on. Now - have I built up any coherent picture of things yet?

No.

Never mind, hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, I'm quite dizzy with anticipation ...

Or is it the wind?

There really is a lot of that now isn't it?

And wow! Hey! What's this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like ... ow ... ound ... round ... ground! That's it! That's a good name — ground!

I wonder if it will be friends with me?

And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.

Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.

I wonder if this is the sort of thing that goes through Lily's head when I start immitating a howler monkey for her, or she puts a new toy in her mouth, or a new food for that matter? Without the benefit of language to help her comprehend the world around her, she just reacts viscerally, with pure feeling, to every experience, old and new. I guess, I am trying to say that my daughter is a raging ball of uncontrolled emotion...but in a good way.

Here are some new pics, as well as some good new video.