More clapping

Eight months is an exciting age. We’re finally getting to milestones that are concrete – not as much wondering, “Is that a laugh or a cough? She can sit! No wait… she can’t. Is it a new tooth or a cold?” Finally Eva has coordination with some intelligence behind it, and we’re starting to see actions. Several months ago Eva waved for the first time (to a very happy Grandpa Steve), last week she signed, and today she clapped.

I’ve been signing to Eva since she was three months old, and I increased the practice when we received the Baby Signing Time series for Christmas. I’d like to say we learned our signs through books, but it turns out that someone (that would be me) needed to learn through visuals and songs. Now that we have the songs, we’re signing much more consistently.

As I was feeding Eva breakfast last Thursday and signing and singing “More, more, more,” I noticed she bumped her fists together. I turned to Matt and said, “Do you see this?” We weren’t sure she was really signing until she did the same thing at lunch, and then at dinner… and only during mealtimes. Now she also signs when we watch signing videos. A song about bugs? No problem, Eva can sign “more” the whole time.

This morning Eva and I were playing quietly when she started clapping out of the blue. Well, by out of the blue I mean that I was not clapping first. In actuality she’s spent a few weeks trying to figure out how to (1) open her hands and (2) keep them open all while (3) getting her palms to make contact. It’s hard to be a baby, people.

I thought for sure her signing would suffer, since I wasn’t sure she understood the difference between “more” and clapping – they look awfully similar when done by baby hands. But I underestimated the eight month old brain – she understands the difference perfectly. She sat around clapping with open hands all day, but when I was not spooning banana fast enough, closed fists bumped furiously.

Matt and I caught the signing on video over the weekend. It’s a two minute long video, so we cut it to 30 seconds for the blog. If you’re so inclined, visit my YouTube page to see the full-length HD version. And if you like some baby-cheer in your life, feel free to subscribe – we post videos semi-regularly for Eva’s suffering West Coast fan base.