All Things Haley: Growth #21 - "This is the clappy song..."

I've been singing that song, a bit of my own creation, since the babies first started giving us a hint of their smiles. Ben started the clappy game- he would hold Caleb up on his knees and grab both of his arms, swinging them back and forth to make him do a clapping motion. He would sing "clappy clap clap, clappy clap clap!" as he clapped the little man's hands together. This was the first way we saw either of their smiles- Ben's a rockstar.

So, when I wanted to get in on the game, I made this little song that I would sing as I clapped their hands together to the beat "This is the clappy song, we sing it all day long, we love to clap, clap, clap, clap, clap!" and then of course immediately dive into a round of Jingle Bells sung with "Clap" instead of any words. Obviously.

What I'm getting at is that clapping has been standard protocol in this house since the littles were, well, much littler (except Grace, she's still just about as little...). ;)

So when I saw Caleb perform his amazing feat, I just about lost it. We've actually taught our children something by our own actions! It's happening, we're there. It's so, so amazing.

Little dude was lying on the ottoman staring up at his favorite toy, the ceiling fan, and nodding along with its rotations. He started chit chatting at the fan, or the air, or anyone who was around and then flapping his arms around like a crazy person- all a pretty standard scene. Then his flapping became focused near the center of his body and his arms were hitting each other. And then, his hands started hitting each other....

I was watching the whole thing go down and started really paying attention when he repeatedly smacked his hands together in front of him, sort of slowly and deliberately, focusing on when his hands would meet, then pulling them apart and trying once again. Wait. Wait what is that? Is he...clapping? Is that...the CLAPPY game?

I sort of denied it at first, like I do with most genius things our babies do because I'm trying desperately not to be that mom who thinks her kid said their first words at 2 months old...and it was actually a full sentence about something that was going on around them, "Uh oh, ball fall". I am proud to say that my kids didn't start speaking sentences at 3 months, or even 4 or 5 months. We're still awaiting profound dissertations from our infants, and I think that's ok. When our babies said "Tay Tay Tay" at five months old, I'm fairly certain they weren't looking for our grey cat and trying to build a solid relationship with their first pet. I will say, however, that after much observation over the past few days, my son can clap!

I got super excited as I watched him continue on with the clapping, stopping from time to time to flap around or just focus his attention on a speck of dust or a piece of trash that seemed far too interesting to miss out on. Then, after redirecting his attention to the task at hand and to Mommy eagerly calling his name and clapping frantically in front of him, he'd smile REALLY big, let out some awesome Caleb harmonies, and then start clapping again! I was thrilled.

At this point, I can usually get him to clap with me with a great big smile on his face every time.

I clap, and a few seconds later, he starts clapping. Sometimes he'll just be sitting in my lap and will start clapping. So when I start clapping with him, he gets infinitely more excited about life.

You wanna know why? Cuz he's living in the clappy game. And pretty much everything is better when you live from one clappy game to the next. Especially when it comes equipped with an awesome melody like "This is the clappy song, we sing it all day long..."

Some clapping action shots: