That's My Boy!

I've heard that boys tend to develop their motor skills later than girls, so I haven't had very high expectiations for Joe. Maybe that's why I am so impressed by the things he is learning to do.

Joe can blow bubbles. It took Finley quite a bit longer to direct her breath into the bubble wand and not blow too hard (or enough). I even noticed yesterday that he apparently was slowing his blowing down to try to make bigger bubbles, but that might have been just an accident on his part.

He has figured out how to pedal his tricycle. His legs have just recently grown long enough to reach, and when he realized they would, he would spend at least an hour at a time trying to pedal. At first, when he would turn the handlebars, his foot would slip off, and he would get pretty frustrated, but after two or three weeks of his self-imposed training, he's riding like an old pro.

Joe also has taught himself how to throw a frisbee. After Joe hit me in the head with an under-hand, indoor attempt, I tried to hide the frisbee in the garage. He found it, and as long as he threw it outside at a safe distance from my head, I was happy to let him entertain himself with it. After a few days, I was shocked to see that he was using the traditional form, and the frisbee would glide up to 20 feet on a good attempt.

I guess a lot of this can be attributed to his personality. The combination of a decent attention span (at 18 months, he amazed my mom by spending over a half an hour playing with her just stamping shapes on a Doodle-Pad), good observation skills, and determination allows him to learn things pretty quickly.

Here's Joe on his 'bike':