My son has been using his hands more and more. While he’s not entirely capable of grabbing or picking things up on his own he’ll often throw his hand in a direction roughly towards object he wishes to interact with. There is a plush toy that one of his grandmothers bought him that hangs above one of his little swing thing and he’s been punching it lately to get it to rattle and move.
Also hanging above his swing thing is an assortment of rings that his other grandmother bought him. Several of them are linked together and they hang in front of his face and somewhat above each of his hands. He tries to interact with them but has yet to really attempt and succeed to grasp one of the rings on his own. I’ve started to take his little hands and wrap his fingers around the rings so he can feel what it is like to hold on to something and interact with it.
He really enjoys this as he’ll start pulling on his hands. Most recently he’s tried to get these objects into his mouth with little success. The rings simply aren’t long enough to reach. It is very close, he can almost taste success, but inevitably he is unable to get the rings into his mouth. But yesterday something amazing happened: My son got one of the rings into his mouth! How did he accomplish this feat? Magic.
I’ve been interested in magic tricks since I was in second grade and my son performed one of the great tricks. It is known as the “magic rings” as well as the “Chinese linking rings” (and probably others) but involves linking and separating solid rings. While my sons rings are anything but solid he ripped one of these rings from the rest of them with his massive baby strength and put that ring in his mouth. This trick was so magical that even he was surprised. I’ll teach him some new tricks in the future. Perhaps something with cards?