The Studio Audience

There's this one book that I read - Little Blue Truck Leads the Way. We're not about raising our little girl on nothing but princesses and butterflies, so we've got a couple Little Blue Truck books and she loves them, absolutely loves them. I usually read her 4 books every night, otherwise known as the best part of the evening, next to bath time (she has so much fun at bath time). I was wondering for a while which book is her favorite, so I started trying something. I started with two books.

I put two books on my lap in front of her. She would look at both books. I tried to watch her eyes to see which one she seemed to stare at, but she was facing away, so it was difficult. She would look and smile. I went with whatever book she seemed to be looking at the longest. I would finish the first book then grab another one, along with the book that she didn't choose for the first round and so on until all four books were read. I would switch the placement of the books too, just to ensure that she wasn't always just choosing the book on the right side or left side. She's improved a bit.

I place all four books out before her and she can, well not so much point, but hit the book that she wants! How ridiculously cool is that?! And again, she's not just picking the one in the middle or right or left. She picks the same one first every time! Genius! She picks Little Blue Truck Leads the Way - it's a feel good story.

I like to sing the Little Blue Truck books - they just have a rhythm, so I started singing them. I tried to work in accents from all the animals or unfriendly New York cars and trucks, but I just couldn't get anything to work, so I did what I do and I started singing the story. At the end of each Little Blue Truck book I would grab her arms to get her to clap her hands. For nine months I've tried to get her to clap her hands.

At first she would keep her fists close. Closed fists turned into opening hands and then grabbing opposite fingers. "Ok, she's working on it", I thought. After a long time of grabbing fingers, she moved on to opening up her hands so I could finally get her to clap. Angie's been working with her for a bit too doing Patty-Cake meanwhile and she's an excellent high-fiver now!

I picked her up from daycare this afternoon. We got home and I put her in her little car-thingie. She is all over the house in that thing. We're facing each other as I start singing as I'm unloading all her bottles and what-nots. I'm singing and clapping to the beat. She starts laughing. Her face gets all scrunchy and she starts clapping!!

We can't get her to stop clapping now. Angie gets home and she starts clapping. Laughing and clapping. We're walking after her dinner and she's laughing and clapping in her stroller (when she's not making faces and holding her little feet up to her face).

Tonight she picked out Little Blue Truck Leads the Way first. I usually try to figure out a new way to sing it every time, so I picked something and went with it. At first she's on my lap then before long she's all over the chair, standing up along insides of the chair, looking outside, and generally not paying attention which is par for the course. I get to the finale, to the part where I usually grab her hands to have her clap and ... she clapped on her own!!

I read the other Little Blue Truck book and the same thing - she clapped at the end! It's like I have a studio audience now, clapping at my terrible jokes and terrible impressions of good singers. It's so amazing to see her grow, so obviously, right before us. She's so incredible. Our Amazing Popster!

Warning: The following clip shows parents displaying potentially embarrassing behaviors. Viewer discretion is advised.