What David can do:

Suck on his rattle, the toys dangling from the stim gym, my thumb. . .

This involves a great deal of dexterity and coordination. First he has to bring his hand to the object, then grab it and actually bring the object back to his mouth. Sometimes he shortcuts the process and just plummets with his mouth. I love holding hands with him and suddenly find my thumb knuckle being vigorously sucked.

Roll over

I have not actually witnessed this. Grandma was doing tummy time with him. She said he reached for a toy and over he went. I guess this will encourage me to do tummy time, or tummy torture, as we like to think of it.

Grab the toys on his saucer and move them

The coordination and dexterity are all very cool, but I'm really fascinated by the curiosity and the will. He sees the red ball on the wire. What is it? What does it feel like? What can it do? He wants to touch it, and he does.

On that note, we have friend who told us the first time her baby learned to crawl, he went straight for the cat food dish. It was like he'd been waiting 6 months to find out what that was.

What Rose can do:

Zip up her jacket

Rose was exceedingly proud of this accomplishment and well she should be. You know it involves hooking those little pieces together, then pulling down while pulling up.

Do the first half of a bow

For a long time whenever she wanted to do her own bows (pink dresses with swirly skirts, of which Rose is inordinately fond, often have long pink bows to tie up in back), she would just twist the two ends together. So, of course, when she let go, they just came undone. With some combination of observation and direct instruction (me coaching "now put that end all the way onto your nose. Ok, now go down behind the other end) she figured it out. I always feel like I'm a half step behind. Like I had accepted the fact that Rose didn't tie things and now I have to realize that she does.

Recite her phone number

One day, out of the blue, Rose rattled off a series of numbers. John and I listened and realized it was our phone number. Huh? We had never taught it to her. When we asked, she said that's what I always said when I ordered food. Really, we don't order take out that much. But, when the basement flooded, when I wanted to set up a massage, when I tried to set up a play date for Rose, I left my call back number very slowly and clearly.

Yesterday, she said to me, "What's Early Learning and Development Center?" That's her school, which we always refer to as ELDC. She had been listening to the teachers answer the phone. What I find fascinating is how well she can hear the sounds and repeat them.