A Wakin', A Wavin' and A Clappin'

In the last week Claire has made walking, waving, and clapping a part of her routine. The last two she's been doing for a while, but now they seem to have taken on real meaning in her communication. She claps when she's proud of something she's done or excited about something, and its not uncommon now for her to wave goodbye. Her wave before was actually more of a grabbing gesture because she wanted something, but now she's developed a gentler version to say goodbye with. Of course for the video she made me repeat myself several time even though she'd been waving every time I said good bye all morning, but that seems to be the nature of trying to capture anything cute she does on my camera. Though she did do it right before she took off so it was actually a goodbye.

The walking really just started yesterday, and at first she was only interested in doing it for Papa, and only if you caught her firmly standing of her own free will and called her over. Now she is happy to do it for both of us and will do it over and over again when we stand her next to something she can hold onto. I thought she'd be encouraged to walk because she'd eventually learn it's a better way to get around, but she's too good of a crawler for that. What seems to be getting her to do it is that it's become a game full of praises and giggles.

While I am super excited about the new possibilities Claire walking opens up in terms of activities she can participate in, I'm also aware of the fact that this is a new big step in taking care of her. Keeping up with a fast crawler is work enough, but it won't be long now before she's running from one bit of mischief to the next.