Bear, Fish and Duck

Annabelle has been using a lot of signs lately to communicate. The first time my husband and I saw her sign bear was rather fittingly at the zoo looking at a bear. One of her favorite stories is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and we have been signing the animals as we read it. When we saw the brown bear at the zoo she looked right at it and signed BEAR and tried to say bear too! My husband was holding her so I didn't see or hear it the first time but he was so impressed and excited.
She has been using the sign for FISH often because she loves looking at the aquariums at the pet store. She also has signed FISH when we've looked at books and she has a toy fish she likes too. When we went to the grocery store the other day we were walking down the cracker aisle. All of a sudden she started to sign FISH. I said, "Do you see a fish!" I walked back down the aisle to find the fish she was looking at. Sure enough she pointed to the packages of goldfish crackers. Those were the fish she saw and wanted. I gave her the package and she carried them around the store until we checked them out. It was great knowing what she was trying to communicate. I'm sure not knowing what she was trying to say would have resulted in a big tantrum but she could express her wants to me and I was able to understand. Signing is great!
The other night when I put Annabelle to bed we were reading a book and she signed DUCK and made her quacking sound. I said, "Do you see a duck?" and she pointed to the picture in the book. I had never noticed a duck in the picture before but she sure did and let me know!