Things an 8.5-month-old can do

I realized after the previous post that I'd left off a couple of Sean's new tricks which had been part of the inspiration for the previous post in the first place. Thus, without further ado, some things an 8.5-month-old can do (some of which, granted, he could do a couple weeks ago, or earlier).

- He can flip his tongue upside down. We've surmised this must be a recessive gene, since neither of us can do it (at least presently), though we can each curl our tongues (into a "U").

- He can throw things farther than his parents expect. This probably goes with the "he can really whack things" principle from before. Things in his hand may stay there for a while, or they may be released mid-swing... in which case they may sail around the room.

- He can pull the cord on the bus - hard enough to trigger the "Stop Requested" automated voice and sign. There was a bright yellow cord that came down near our seat on the bus today, and the silver fastener at the bottom helped catch his eye once we sat down, so I thought I could let him play with it a little. Not too much, you know, but there's some wiggle room there. So I kept an eye on his hand and the cord, with a finger nearby to keep him from tugging it firmly enough to request a stop, and distracted him a few times, but once we got within a couple blocks of our destination, I figured I'd see what he could do. I'm not sure how long we have before he figures out that it's his tugging on the cord that makes the sign light up; I'm sure that'll increase the temptation: "Wait, I can pull the cord, and it also makes the sign light up and it also makes the bus say something? I'm going to do this again, and again, and again!" Can't wait until he discovers elevators...

- He can shake his head. Sometimes he goes from one or two slow shakes to a very vigorous motion, like he was on the fence about something and then decided he didn't want to, then decided he really didn't want to do whatever it was. We think he's just learning to shake his head, rather than signaling dismay.

- He can squinch up his face like he's very unhappy. Similarly, this doesn't seem to correlate with substantial angst; it's more like a party trick.

- He's also starting to pick up patterns - if you do something a few times (make a noise, or a motion, or do something physical involving him), he'll look for it again sometimes. And when he notices it the subsequent times, sometimes he laughs, and then laughs harder after each time.

(and, having said all that, I still can't shake the feeling I've forgotten at least one of the things that had originally inspired me to list what he's doing and learning to do...)