When Toodle accomplishes a task, DH and I both tend to say yay and clap. It's not a conscious reinforcing behaviors thing, just that we get excited when he learns a new skill. Except we do it so much that I've noticed Toodle now does it on his own! The other day he was "counting" (he can sort of count to 5, usually if he's counting along with us, but when I ask him to count, it's pretty hit or miss if he does it correctly). I asked him how many horses he had. He pointed to each of his 3 horse toys and said (in a counting type voice) "horse, horse, horse....YAY!!!!" and clapped. LOL. Apparently incorrectly completed tasks now get cheers too as far as he's concerned, he just thinks that's part of the sequence...
Re: I think we praise this kid too much. ;)
Maybe he will be a Male cheerleader when he grows up?!?
Yep, us too. I'm pretty sure Elizabeth thinks "yay" is the number that comes after 10!
She also says "yay" after I do things. She'll ask me to sing a song ("Itsy, mama?" "Star, mama?") and when I get to the end, she'll clap and say "yay."
It's actually kind of nice -- it's usually the only praise I get all day!
TTC since 11/05...ectopic pg 4/08...early m/c 6/09...BFP 10/5/09!

Nora B...June 15, 2010...8lbs, 8oz...Med-free birth!
TTC #2 since 7/11...cycle #3 of Clomid + IUI = BFP

Malcolm...September 21, 2012...8lbs, 6oz...Another med-free birth!
That is so funny!
Its is the same here. She says "yay" at the end of everything, as if it naturally goes there. Example, "one, two, three, yay." I say, "what color is your shirt, Paige?" She says, "pink, yay."
Reed praises me for things I do now because of that! "Yay Mom! You stopped the car! Yay Mom! You cleaned the mess! I am so proud of you!!"
Toodle is getting so big!
My DS does this too. My DH was moving the lawn one day, and when he was finished, DS looked out the window at the lawn and said - Daddy mow lawn. Good Job Daddy! It was so cute!
Everyone's stories are so cute! Ivy claps for herself, and expects us to clap along with her, when she places her sippy cup in the high chair cup holder rather than throwing it on the floor. She has also clapped when watching a video of herself.
This morning, after a long conversation about toothpaste and why he can't have the fancy kind the dentist gave him, he decided he wanted to brush his teeth with his new brush and toothpaste and promised to practice spitting it out (since it has flouride in it).
Anyway, he brushes (yay!), he swishes, (great!) then spit (YAY!). And then he did it again and he said, "Okay this time, say Yay louder!" Repeat until he was asking me to yell "Yay!" It was so funny. It's totally what his music teacher does at preschool, "okay this time, say it LOUD!"
That is too cute and funny!
James does that all the time, too. He loves to cheer for himself.
I remember when he was 1 he went through a stage where we had to cheer for every bite of food he ate.