Spin Doctor

Ryan has always been fond of spinning things, but even more so now that he’s getting more deft with his hands. When he bounces in his bouncy chair, he often looks away from his hands as he spins the attached toys as if to say, “Yeah, I’m so cool I don’t even have to watch what I’m doing.” He spins the propeller back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, now slow, now fast, now in the same direction a bunch of times, and now back and forth again. When he gets tired of that, he uses his other hand to spin the plastic kangaroos on the other side. Back and forth and back and forth, over and over.

He has another toy with a wooden base and a series of intertwined wires with wooden beads on them. He spins the beads over and over, back and forth, now this stack and now that stack. Sometimes he watches them spin, and sometimes he casually looks the other way while he hands work their magic.

His Bammy and Pappy got a little bouncy car for him to play with at their house, and his favorite toy of the many that it has is a little play GPS with a spinning compass arrow. The first thing he discovered in that car was how to spin the arrow!

His newest spinning toy was a gift from Grammy: a little dump truck with its bright red wheels.

When he first got it, naturally he had to turn it over and over and carefully examine each part. But once he discovered it had wheels that he could spin, he was in his glory!

As you can see if you look closely at the picture above, Ryan has a new tooth. And although you can’t see it, he’s getting another one as well. Which means he’s been cranky and distraught for the past couple of days. But he often soothes himself by spinning a toy, even while he’s quietly whimpering or whining. When he gets upset and is obviously in pain, I’ll usually pick him up and snuggle him, and his usual reaction is to snuggle into my neck like a little koala bear, with one hand in his mouth – and the other reaching out to spin whatever toy is close at hand. In fact, he’ll often stretch out that free hand and flick his fingers in the air as if he’s imagining spinning something (or hinting that he’d like to be spinning something). So of course I, being a good mom (read: old softie) get him a toy he can spin to comfort himself. It gives a whole new meaning to the expression “Spin Doctor”, doesn’t it?