Unexpected Milestones

Last week Smiley achieved two developmental milestones I would never have thought of until I saw them.

The first was throwing. When he was younger he did not understand when I used my hackey sack or bounced a ball against a wall: he became excited seeing that the object was all jumpy, and then became disappointed that it immediately grew listless once handed to him.

But this week I tried practicing juggling with my Flying Penguini, and when he was given one he repeatedly threw it in an attempt to mimic me.

The second milestone was using his plastic shape sorter in a new way. Two weeks ago he mastered the circles (but not the squares or triangles). Last week he began putting a circle object halfway into the circle hole, then withdrawing it and trying the other holes. He was learning that each shape fits only one hole, an insight I had overlooked and had been taking for granted.

Today he was given a new toy: a "chunky" shape puzzle. Sure enough, his shape sorter experience transferred. He is able to consistently replace the circle and oval (the first quickly, the latter after some fiddling) but no other shape. He spends most of his time checking what happens when shapes are put into wrong but similar holes (circle-oval, square-rectangle).