Clap Your Hands!

I have a lot of books, websites, blogs and newsletters that I read so that I may be a very know-it-all, seen-it-all, read-it-all highly-respected but not entirely-annoying parent. My cup runneth over with opinions, advice, suggestions, ideas, lists, and notes. All to make other parent friends feel like they can come to me with any issue and we will figure it out together because if I haven't experienced it, I know someone that has, or I read about it, or I Googled it. The problem with all this information lies in the milestones; at what age should my infant be doing what? I scared myself last week because the baby is not clapping her hands and one of my emails said she should be. So I assessed my almost ten month old that can stand by herself and has almost six teeth and drinks from a straw and realized that she is doomed. How will we ever play Pat-A-Cake (Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man, I roll it and I roll it in a frying pan, and I stick it, and I stick it, and I stick it, and I stick it, and I throw it away!...thanks, bestie L!), how will she applaud impromptu stage shows the preschooler insists on having on the deck, how will she show her appreciation for live theater, music, plays, how will I know she fully supports my opera/karaoke career if she cannot clap her hands in glee?!
Thankfully, I archived that email and went about my normal (pfft) life and almost immediately forgot about that stupid email that said stupid things about stupid milestones that my daughter hadn't yet reached.
Until today.
Sitting in the restaurant high chair (why are these damn things always so sticky and gross, does no one wipe them?), drinking from her straw cup, feeding herself cornbread, bopping her head and swinging her feet to the music, clapping along with us... Wait. She's clapping. She's clapping! She's clapping and that email that I had totally almost completely not quite but sorta forgot about was right! She's so amazing, so smart, so on track and ohmygawd. Did she just take a step?