This morning started with one of the most magical moments of my life.
We have been teaching Otter how to say “milk” in sign language, and over the past few days he has started to use the sign a little while nursing.
This morning, as I slept peacefully in bed, Otter patted me on the shoulder. When I opened my eyes to take in his smiling face, he grinned, said “Mi”, and made the sign for milk. Very slowly and deliberately.
I responded with “you want some milk?”
He clapped his hands, and once again made the sign for milk and said “Mi”. He was obviously delighted that he could communicate so clearly with me.
We celebrated his new found communication skills with a good long nurse, interrupted by many “Mi”‘s and hand signs. He has asked for milk repeatedly today, always using the hand sign and the word “Mi”. He is really excited about being able to talk to us.
I am going to move on to other hand signs as well, since he clearly enjoys using them and being so easily understood. Monkey never really took to sign language, but it’s looking like Otter is thrilled to have an additional way to communicate with us.
That is so cool! Give that baby a big hug from Namz. (Yours is in the mail.)
Love to all.
I love baby signs, whether those in the book or improvised. Anything that helps the non-speaking be less frustrated I am a FAN.
Just don’t teach him the hand sign that so many driver’s use.
I am a HUGE believer in baby signs. Chloe loved it, and I honestly think it helped us a lot with the transition between her knowing what she wanted and being able to ask for it. I have a couple of good books to suggest if you’re interested. And, Gymboree does a baby sign class if you want to move it to that level. (I couldn’t take that out in NJ, I was consistently the only on who signed up for the class.)
Awesome! We’re working on the twins since it worked so well with Caitlin.
That’s wonderful! We’ve been signing a few select things for Violet, and she’s picked up “all done” and “more,” though she’s not really consistent about either. I’ve tried to show her a sign for “nurse,” but she just gets upset that I’m making her wait. She has her own sign for that anyway – reaching inside my shirt or just trying to get her whole head inside. It’s not very subtle.
I am planning to teach my little one sign language but right now I just want him to nurse from me so I can forget washing those bottles!