Moses' Skills - 11 Months Old

There's no doubt about it--Moses has got great skills! While he may not have nunchuck, bow hunting, or computer hacking skills, he does seem to be somewhat advanced in certain areas. But it's likely that we are just biased, so we'll let you be the judge. Here's a brief run-down of the kinds of things Moses has been doing that have impressed us:

• Moses can hold a pen and scribble. He enjoys drawing on the Magna Doodle.


• Moses likes to play "catch" and is quite good at throwing and catching a ball.


• Moses is very talkative, and unlike his brothers, who even to this day will speak nonsense in their own "twin language", Moses speaks a few real words that actually make sense. For example, he can say and accurately identify his "Papa," and he says "ow!" when he hits something hard.


• Moses can feed himself with a fork or spoon. For example, the other evening during dinner, he grabbed Joe's spoon and helped himself to soup. This morning, he used a fork to eat pancakes (putting to shame his 4-year-old brothers who were eating their pancakes with their hands). Moses is adamant that he should be the one maneuvering the utensil, and will forcefully yank it away from you if you don't surrender to his grasp right away.


• Forget sippy cups. Moses prefers to drink water out of a glass that he is holding without anyone else's assistance.


• Moses is very inquisitive and regularly uses his index finger to point to objects of interest and asks what they are by saying "deh?"


• Moses can crawl up the stairs, walk up the stairs while holding the railing, and he can scoot down the stairs on his tummy. We don't have stairs at our house, but he has picked this up during the few hours a week when we're visiting Mimi and Papa.


• Moses will eat just about anything. Some of his recent favorites have been chili, spaghetti, cantaloupe, honeydew, french fries, carrots, bananas, fried eggs, yogurt, and oranges. And don't bother pureeing any of these delicacies for Moses--he wants to sink his eight teeth into big solid chunks.


• Moses pays close attention to detail. For example, the other day he removed the stem from a cherry, then carefully tried to put it back in the "hole" from where it came. Similarly, he removed a drinking straw from a Chick-fil-a cup, then diligently tried to re-insert it through the "X" in the lid.

This last point is particularly noteworthy because Mimi likes to tell the story of my first birthday nearly 29 years ago, when I tried to re-insert a birthday candle into the tiny hole where it had pierced the cake. Legend has it that my Great Aunt Sinnie was so impressed that a 12-month-old would be captivated by such a subtle detail. Considering Moses' interest in the proper placement of cherry stems and drinking straws, Mimi is convinced that Moses will take after his Mommy in more ways than just physical appearance, heavy birth weight, being a good sleeper, and having a calm disposition. She predicts he'll also be scooping himself grapefruit with a spoon at 18 months... we'll just have to wait and see!