Clap your hands for some progress

Although the eating and drinking problems are not improving, Simon is making progress in other areas.  I've been trying to teach Simon to clap his hands for the past couple of days, since that was something on the survey at his 12 months appointment that they asked about but he couldn't do.  I wish they would just give us parents a curriculum guide and tell us what we ought to be teaching our kids by certain ages rather than giving us pop quizzes at the appointments.  Simon didn't know how to clap his hands because I hadn't taught him--it didn't seem like he would be attending any plays or concerts for a few more years, so it didn't occur to me that he would need to know how to clap.  We taught him to wave bye-bye because that seems useful on a daily basis, and we practice it every morning when we say goodbye to daddy.  But clapping?  How often do you clap on a daily basis?  (Note that I am defensive and logical on this point; I am not reverting to those hyperbolic and ridiculous phrases such as "I'm a failure as a parent.")

Anyway.  During the time I spend practicing sitting with Simon, one of the things I do is clap and then unfurl his fingers and smack his hands together, while singing a song I make up on the spot about clapping.  He seemed indifferent to these lessons (not seeing a performance to applaud and my singing falling far short of a concert).  But then today, out of the blue, he was sitting in his high chair and it was like it just occurred to him that he could smack his hands together.  I saw him straighten out his fingers, and in wonderment at his own genius, he brought the hands tentatively together.  I applauded his efforts, and then he clapped some more.  It was amazing.

I'm also teaching him to turn on and off light switches.

He also has some new words, although still not as consistent as kitty and ball.  He appears to be saying these words:

• uh-oh
• Yay!
• book
• up
• duck
• cracker
• here (when handing something)
• thank you (when he receives something he's trying to get)

It's so sad that just when things are getting really exciting, he has to go back to daycare.  He'll start on Monday with just two hours, then half a day Tuesday, then a full day Wednesday and onwards.