A long time...

It has been a very long time since I've updated this blog. The main reason is signing is no longer a major part of how we parent Annabelle. Around 15 months Annabelle language skills exploded. By 18 months she was speaking in 2 or 3 sentences and is able to communicate without signing. I have completely lost track of how many words she says. My guess is it is close to 200 words. She repeats almost everything we say (we have to be very very careful of what we say!). She also sings her ABCs and counts to 10! She's amazing. She almost always speaks in two or three word phrases. "More milk!" "Mommy sit" And she is becoming very bossy (like her daddy!). She will say to me, "Mommy get it!" and last night she said "Daddy Sit down!"
Annabelle still uses her signs although we stopped signing to her months ago. She still uses more, milk and please because I think those are the words she probably says the most. She says the words as she signs them too. And I think she uses the sign a lot for emphasize. If we don't get her more of whatever right away you see her little hands signing frantically!
Recently, Annabelle was struggling with an ear infection and pink eye. She was miserable. One night as I was holding her she had her eyes closed and was crying. As she was crying she signed milk (without saying it) and I knew she wanted her milk. I got her her milk and she settled down and was comforted and was able to get some rest. If she hadn't known the sign she may have continued to be miserable.
Another reason why I haven't updated in awhile is because I am expecting our second child in April. We found out recently we are having a baby boy. I am looking forward to all of his firsts and watching him grow up. I have loved watching Annabelle learn and look forward to watching my little boy learn to communicate. I also look forward to seeing their differences and their similarities. Most especially, I look forward to seeing my darling little girl welcome her new baby brother. The thought of which brings tears to my eyes.
I will be going on (another) break from this blog but will continue blogging when we start signing with baby number 2!