If You're Happy and You Know It, Don't Come to Our House

J Frog has developed a nasty habit of gagging himself when sitting in his high chair. He likes the attention and giggles when we grab his hands to prevent him from throwing up the few small bites of food he manages to swallow. (We've got Early Intervention coming out for the first time this week, so hopefully that will change soon.) So, to keep from acknowledging the game and encouraging him to gag himself, I started singing, "If you're happy and you know it" to get him to clap his hands. He just picked up the skill a few weeks ago while we were in Florida and likes to show it off. The trick works for the most part as long as I catch him early.

To make it more fun for everyone at the table, I like to include the other kids in the song. So the other night I sang, "If you're J Frog and you know it, clap your hands!" That's to get his attention first. Then when I'm sure he's clapping and not gagging, I move on to Missy. "If you're Missy and your know it, clap your hands!" LR always helps me sing, so the next verse is for him. "If you're LR and you know it, stomp your feet." The other night, L-"Spontaneous"-R took the next verse. "If you're Mommy and you know it, say, 'darn it!'" Ah... the mirror that is my oldest child. Thanks, LR. Feeling pretty good about my Mommy skills now. Guess it was a good thing it was just "darn it."