the whoozit into which we ascend

Istra's brain seems to have been suddenly kicked into overdrive by the appearance of a fat-pink-lipped, floppy-rosy-nosed, starry-rattled-antennaed, hanging-hoop-hoofed, squeaky-heart-handed, target-backed, appendage-hemorrhaging new little friend. The whoozit has it.

My mom got this "whoozit gym to go" for Istra (a joint gift from her and my sister), and crazy as it seems, Istra goes nuts on it. We can't say she's yet purposefully reaching and grabbing things, but she's sure doing something! We've never seen her react to something quite like this before. She waves her hands. She randomly smashes and clutches dangling things, when in reach. She coos (sometimes she gets frustrated and screams). She gets weird looks on her face. She just lies there and stares and stares. See for yourself. (The pictures aren't great quality, as we'd just gotten home and the light was bad... had to flash.)

God only knows what she sees in that conglomeration of freaky dangling weirdness... but clearly it connects on some bizarre baby level even I have a hard time imagining...

My mom also picked up at a used toy store a few other whoozit items. One is a pad for the side of a crib. We set it up along our new bed rail (thanks, Alicia & family). The problem is, if Istra sees it, it grabs her attention and she won't go to sleep! So we try to flip it up out of the way, with only semi-success... she still sees apparently irresistible dangling shapes...