Know thyself

Does a baby know its a baby?

When a baby looks in a mirror does it see what it thinks is another baby, or does a baby recognize itself in the mirror? At what age does consciousness of self emerge?

These are just a few of the questions that we've asked ourselves and discussed with friends. But because of decades of great work by developmental psychologists, there are answers. Humans don't generally interact with mirrors (reaching out to touch the reflection, locking in on reflected eyes) until 4 or 5 months of age. They don't typically recognize themselves until 18 months of age. There is some evidence that other apes also are capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors (as opposed to thinking the reflection is just another animal), however most monkeys don't, nor do other animals (except elephants and dolphins...).


Know thyself, is an aphorism traced back to the Greeks. Knowing how it is that we know about ourselves is something that is really worthwhile knowing. An essay titled "Me" in the mirror., by Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University, discusses some of the insights and theory, which i also write about below, that have come out of both developmental and evolutionary studies of our behavior. (You can read Matsuzawa's essay here).

When compared to other primates, humans' cognitive abilities (e.g. face recognition, self recognition) needed for "consciousness" develop much more rapidly inside bodies that still appear immature. There is a fundamental trade-off between an organism's investments in body growth and its investments in brain growth. Biologists generally agree that humans are unique species in the sense that they have undergone heavy selection for "brains" over "guts" and "muscles". Quite possibly the advantages that fire (and cooking), textiles, and stone tools provided allowed reductions in guts and muscles.

Elise impressed me with her cognitive abilities today, which seem rather advanced for her age -- even relative to the average human babies. Elise is now two days short of 3 months, but today, while sitting contently in her sling, I brought her in front of the large mirror we have in our master bath and noticed she was totally entranced by the reflection. I watched her stare at her eye gaze regardless of how i moved her. I then turned her 90 degree to the right to face the other mirror on our medicine cabinet, and, again, she locked in on her eyes and raised her eyebrows - as she often does when something catches her interest. Next, to my complete amazement she reached out and touched the reflection of her finger tip- like when E.T. first makes contact with a human. She continued to touch and feel the "other little baby" which she saw in front of her. This probably lasted for a good 5 minutes before she got bored and didnt want to look or even orient towards the mirror anymore.

I wonder when she'll start using the mirror to interact with herself (which is really one of the first signs of self-recognition)? Will it be relatively early... like soon after 12 months? I'm looking forward to finding out.

Here is a national geographic episode on self-recognition in apes, for anyone who made it through this blog entry and is still kind of curious about self-knowledge and would like to nosce te ipsum.

Shake it, Baby

Life has gotten pretty busy, and there has been little precious time for blogging and picture posting, though we have managed to shoot a couple pix and vids along the way. Elise has been growing a lot recently, and as a result keeping us busy with her constant hunger and loud vocalizations. She is really changing in many exciting ways! She most definitely smiles and makes silly faces more now than before, and also has found out how to max-out the resonant frequencies in our house. Sometimes she produces such a volume that it surprises her.

Here is some video that was put together showing her having a good time - being a baby! In this video, you can see her silly play faces, see her playing, making noise, and splashing around in the tub.

Growth spurts and goofy smiles

Elise had her two month doctor appointment today and her first round of shots. Considering that she got five shots total (3 in one leg and 2 in the other), she did really well. She cried for only a minute or two, then that was it. Her poor little legs are swollen and sore where she got the shots and she's seemed to be more sleepy today than usual, but even so we managed to get a couple pictures of her smiling today. She has a lot to be happy about - she's been growing like crazy! At 2 months old, she now weighs 13 pounds 2 ounces and is 23.5 inches long.

Here's her happy bathtime smile...

And her goofy smile...

Speaking of growing and goofy smiles, Jake has also been growing like crazy lately. We've been keeping track of his height on his door frame, and he's recently gone through a growth spurt. While he grew 3 inches from March 2007 to February 2008, just this past month (from February 2008 to March 2008) he's grown a whole other inch! As you can see, at a little over 5'7", he has definitely outgrown me and is quickly catching up with Eric!

Family and friends

Jake, Elise, and I recently returned from Cincinnati. It was Elise's first big adventure away from home and out of California, and she did really well. I think every time she woke up, she was in a new place -- and, for the most part, she met all the new faces and places with a smile on her face. As typically happens with vacations, time flew by. Although we were there for a week, it didn't quite seem long enough to hang out with family and friends there. I wasn't able to get as many pictures as I would have liked, but I did get a few. Here's a pic of Jake and Elise in her bear pram suit, which definitely came in handy on those few cold, snow flurry days in Cincy...

In addition to introducing Elise to my family back home, we also got to meet Elise's newest cousin -- Brianna Cailin Patrick born on March 19th. Here's Brianna and Nana...

Its amazing how quickly babies change and grow. At birth, Brianna weighed exactly the same as Elise and was just a quarter inch shorter, but look at the difference seven weeks can make...

It was exciting to introduce the two girls to each other. The next time they see each other, they'll probably be chasing each other around. We also got a chance to hang out with some good friends - the Hooks. Here's Cathie and Elise, followed by a pic of Jake, India, and Jacob enjoying each other's company too...

Overall, although bittersweet since we were in town for Grandma's memorial service, it was a great trip. As hard as it was for me to get up and say a few words about what Grandma meant to me, I'm so happy I was able to be there to do it. It also makes me very happy to have been able to introduce Elise to people I love and who are important to me. Now, Jake and I are looking forward to the time when we can take Elise to Cincinnati and introduce her to Skyline Chili!