Point and Scoot

For a couple of weeks now, Drew's starting this thing of touching everything with just his index finger. It's usually a very deliberate touch. His hands will be curled into a fist, grabbing his pacifier, or maybe stretched out flat, smacking the coffee table. Then he'll see something he wants to investigate. The fingers curl in except for that pointer finger (and sometimes his thumb will stick out and form an "L" with his hand), and he'll slowly and with great precision reach out with that finger and touch the thing he's curious about. Then he'll repeatedly touch the object with just that finger. It's both very cute and really odd to watch. Tossing Cheerios onto his highchair tray really brings out this behavior, and then he'll push the cereal around and around, eventually grabbing it between his thumb and index finger. Sometimes he'll try to get the Cheerio into his mouth. Usually this doesn't work as his grip morphs from between thumb and index finger to clutching the Cheerio in his fist in the short time it takes to bring his hand to his mouth.

Sometimes he'll combine the point with a scoot. If Andrew's sitting on the floor and sees something not directly in front of him that he wants to investigate, he'll do this strange scooting in order to face the object before he embarks on the Long Crawl to his goal. This scooting is hard to describe, but I'll give it a whirl. His legs are more or less straight out in front of him. He'll move his legs in a scissor-like fashion, swinging one in the direction he wants to face, and swinging the other one to reposition, repeating until he's facing what he wants to face. Then he'll lean forward onto his arms, bring his legs underneath him, and crawl to whatever's grabbed his curiosity. Soon he's bringing that index finger up to investigate.