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Nebraska, United States
A former full-time teacher living her life-long dream of staying at home. And homeschooling to boot! Comments make my day. Thanks for stopping by! kimlepper at gmail.com

Sunday, March 14, 2010

I Saw the Sign

I know I've been neglecting the blog the past few days- mastitis kind of took my...oomph.

Anyway, I have lots to blog about, but for now I record a baby book story.

As of this morning Samantha could do 7 signs.
Drink
More
All Done
Yea
So Big
Bye-Bye
Nurse

These signs alone have made the whining, squealing, fits and screaming drop to almost nothing. There have been several moments recently where I feel "off" because of the quiet that has coated the apartment. It. Is. Lovely.

And that's not all! Tonight she added two more:

Cheerio- right now it's just an open hand stretched out in the air- but considering she signed it several times when she wanted another, I'm going to count it!

The final one came out of the blue and I got so excited that the bedtime story we were reading was no longer a soothing activity.

We have many books, but only read four of them. Samantha will have nothing to do with cartoons (she only likes books with real pictures in them) and if there are more than 2 words on the page, she's like Max and does everything she can to turn to the next, whether we are done reading or not.

I think the reason she is so intent on reading these four books over and over is because they are her dictionary-- her key to communication. This child has been dying to communicate with us. When I pick them up to read them to her she makes this funny giggly sound and squirms with excitement. And that's before I even open the first page!

A few weeks ago something clicked and suddenly she's picking up signs like a magnet on paperclips. She ate a banana for dinner and was very interested in the banana page tonight, watching very patiently as I showed her how to move her hands to make the sign. Considering I'm a language freak, it is absolutely exhilarating watching her language development.

Ok, I digress- the final sign!
After reading one of the four for the 100th time, I turned to the page with "hat".

AND SHE TOUCHED HER HEAD!!

(Hm...typing that makes it feel less anticlimactic...)

Just to make sure, I went back to the page three more times and she did it instantly each time! I was so proud I'm sure the elderly lady living next door heard me squeal.

I'll do my best to get them all on video for the doubting Thomas' out there. However, this child just senses that I'm going to touch the camera and refuses to do anything but smile and reach for the camera.

4 comments:

Claudya Martinez said...

That's fantastic! How old is she? My daughter does some signing and it really helps control melt downs. She likes to do bird all the time.

Thank you for visiting on my SITs day!

Kelli @ writing the waves said...

Sounds like she is learning so much! Very cool! Hope your mastitis is all cleared up...that is the WORST!!! So sorry.

Melanie said...

Stopping by from SITS. We taught our kiddos basic signs (hungry, more, all done, etc) and it helped SOO much! Great job!!

Melanie
www.tutubugblog.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

I have always wanted to know more about baby sign language. Your baby looks SO precious. What a wonderful thing that you can communicate better with her. I love that : )

Ram Sam Sam

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