Gross vs Fine Motor Skills

So I know I've been saying this a lot lately, but my little boy is growing up so fast! He is growing into a little boy right before my eyes. This month and past week have specifically been full of big changes in terms of his gross motor skills.

Ryan is now crawling. He's still perfecting it. Sometimes he switches back and forth from his knees to his feet, like he's not sure if he wants to crawl or stand up. When he's not crawling or climbing, Ryan is standing up. And he's becoming fearless! He likes to pull himself up to standing, and then let go. The longest he has stood without holding on to anything is somewhere around 10 seconds. He was so proud of himself afterwards.


So I think it's obvious Ryan is mastering his gross motor skills. But now I think it's important for him to start working on more fine motor skills, like using his fingers. I recently bought him these:

I thought they would be good for Ryan because he can learn how to pick them up with his fingers. They are pretty small and supposedly melt in your mouth, so they are not a choking hazard. Ryan has a hard time grasping them between 2 fingers....so far he just grabs them with his fist. The only problem is that he gags whenever he gets a tiny piece in his mouth. I know it isn't choking him but it still scares me, so I may wait a little longer to give him these.

I already mentioned it on here, but I think it's worth repeating. Ryan now has 5 teeth, and it working on cutting his 6th tooth. Wow! I feel like he's so young to have that many teeth. He likes crunching the little puffs with his front teeth.

So what do you think? Is it normal for a baby to learn the "big" gross motor skills first? Or maybe it's just a boy thing?