If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands

William has started to get the hang of this clapping thing. I noticed a couple of days ago that he finally opened up both hands when he brought them together. David and I have started trying to incorporate clapping into our interactions with him, and he studies us when we do it. He doesn't always immediately imitate us, but his clapping does seem to be getting more deliberate.

He's also getting very proficient in waving. He'll wave if you wave at him, but now he initiates a lot of the waving. He gets a big open-mouthed grin on his face if you wave back at him when he waves at you. Lots of waving and smiling. It's very charming. I'll give him an A in waving. Maybe even an A plus, since he has such verve and enthusiasm.

And all of a sudden, he's just started babbling up a storm. He has done a fair amount of "talking" in the past, but the amount just quadrupled a few days ago. It's funny how much his random syllables sound sort of like words. He says "Ha!" a lot when we say, "Hi!" to him, so we are pretending that it's just his version of "Hi!" And all day long, he's been saying, "Da...da....da...da." Needless to say, David loves that.

But the funniest is when he says, "keee...kaaa..." which sounds like, you guessed it, "Kitty Cat." So of course, we think that's what he's trying to say. This evening, he was in the tub, playing with his boats, when Smokey strolled into the bathroom to make sure David wasn't having more fun with William than he does with Smokey. William lunged toward the edge of the tub and said, "keeeee." Honest to God, it sounded like he was trying to say "kitty." We think that the cats are going to be the big impetus that gets him walking, too. The backwards scooting that he's doing right now just makes him mad, but once he figures out how to move forward--forward toward an unsuspecting cat---I think there will be no stopping him.