The Clap

Nora is now "a clapper". Last night after her last feeding of the day, I set her on the floor to play. She crawled a few feet then turned to face me. Then out of no where she began to clap, correctly, I might add. She has been slapping the back of her hand for a week now, as if to scold herself. She probably got that from all the times a slap her hand throughout the day when she tries to eat carpet fuzz, dog hair, human hair, electrical cords, flip flops, etc. Let's just say her hand gets slapped a LOT. I had actually been working with her all day trying to teach her how to clap, the right way, but she would just look at me like I was some kind of fool. To her credit, I felt ridiculous shouting "YAY!" and clapping at every move or sound she made. I guess it worked though because she started clapping like it was no big deal and seemingly for no reason at all. I started to think about what she felt was worthy of her first applause...

Maybe she was starting to sense that I really needed some encouragement and praise for still nursing her. To be honest, it is getting pretty rough. I won't go into detail, but it's no picnic. My goal is a year, but we are already having to give her an additional bottle or two every day of formula to keep up with her demand. So maybe her clapping was her way of saying, "Thank you mom for building up my immune system and giving me all the wonderful benefits of breast milk. You are to be commended."

Or maybe she was like, "Mmmmm, thanks for topping me off tonight with that delicious bottle of formula. I love it and want it all the time. You can stop nursing me now so that you can lose that final 10lbs that your body won't seem to let go of. I want you to be able to wear your wedding ring again."

It's nice to think she is that intuitive. In reality, I think she was clapping because she took a giant dump and she couldn't wait to see her dad's face when he opened the diaper. It turned out to be a 2 man job though, so she got to see both our faces. YAY!