Gifted

Although the doctor tells me Malachi is in the zero-eth (maybe not a word, but if you say it often enough, it becomes palatable) percentile in weight, [very surprising when you consider that he weighs one thousand pounds after he has just eaten and you have to carry him upstairs to bed], we can take comfort from the fact that he is above-average in all of the following:

1. Being interested in things

Ky loves to watch Abe and Seb playing carwash, me cooking, Sam doing pushups, or anyone else doing anything. Sometimes if you walk out of the room and leave him alone, he cries. Then when you come back he gets excited (with all of his limbs). He smiles at anyone who looks at him in church and at the store, and he seems to be just as fascinated with construction equipment as the other boys are. The pictures below show him watching Sam, trying on a life jacket, and looking at a crane (respectively)---all of which seemed to be endlessly interesting experiences for him.

2. Being pleased with himself

Now that he's learning to do more things, Malachi seems highly aware of his own intentionality; that is, he does things on purpose and he's proud after he does them. Many times after he's pushed himself up on his hands or taken a bite of cereal (he has started on a few solids now, and is starting to like them) or scooted across the room to get a toy, he makes a point of looking at me and smiling, like, "Did you see that, Mommy?"

He seems especially pleased when he grasps something he's reaching for, since not too long ago all he could do was bat at things and hope he got lucky. These things he has long wanted, and only recently been able to get, include: any necklace I'm wearing, my lips, my nose, my hair, and my ears (these are all while he's supposed to be nursing), as well as any food on my plate, the pen I'm writing with, and my sunglasses. He's SO happy and proud whenever he gets his grasping little fingers on any of these things!!

3. Biting things

While all babies like to bite, I've never seen such a baby for biting his foot like a hamburger. I often overhear admiring comments about it from passers-by when we're out in public. He also likes to get and bite other things with great ferocity. One favorite target of his ferocious bite is Sam's tie. Another is anyone's finger he happens to be holding, but in a pinch, even apparently unbiteable items (a stomach, a shoulder, the arm of the couch, a newspaper) will do.