Dashiell's Favorite Words (and Signs)

He is such a boy! His favorite words are Ball and Car! Everytime we are in the car he says "car" atleast once!
For awhile there, several months actually, he actually stopped saying Mama. I was a little worried about him now I hear it all the time. I love it!
As far as signs he does Please by slapping his hands together.  I think only my husband and I now what he means! He does More a lot too. 
This weekend he started saying, "Yea!" in response to questions.  It's really cute!
The sign I've been teaching him this past week is Flower. I recieved flower from my husband (and my kids!) for my birthday and have been trying to remember to sign that as well.

Back to Signing Again

Dashiell is starting to pick up more signs.  His sign for "More" is more evident and he does it with his finger to palm like most babies do when they are learning. 
He has signed "fish" and "please" as well.  I taught him "please" because he grunts and whines for things and I wanted him to learn "please" early on!
He is also saying more words.  He says "All Done" it sounds like "a da". He also says, "car", "ball" and "bear".
He also says "Dada" a lot! He loves his daddy but now he calls me "Dada" as well.  At first I thought it was cute but now I'm looking forward to hearing "Mama" more again!
Have a great day!

Animals at the Zoo

The zoo is a great place to teach signs.  This is the first time Dashiell was awake the whole time we were at the zoo.  I taught him as many signs as I could.  He did the sign for fish.  He really liked the fish! He was wide-eyed the whole time and love washing the fish swim around!
He also really liked the monkeys.  It was hard to sign monkeys while I was holding him but I moved his arm to do the sign.  He did make the sound monkeys make.  That was really funny!
This morning he did the sign for cat too! He just loves those cats! He was in his high chair and the cat was playing nearby and Dashiell was craning his neck to see him.  I said and signed Cat and he signed it back to me!
I know I haven't posted much lately but I recieved a comment about posting the sign on the blog so my followers can teach the sign as well.  I will be doing that but haven't had the time to work it all out! I hope you'll stay tuned!

Clapping and Pointing

Well, it's not signing but Dashiell has been clapping and pointing.  In this way he is communicating with us.  It is so much fun to see him pointing at the things he sees.  When he points we say the word of the thing we think he is pointing to.  The other night we went for a walk and his little hand was in the air the whole time pointing at trees and houses.  He's so cute!

He loves to clap too! He likes "If You're Happy and You Know It!".  We listen to a CD in the car and there is a clapping song that he always joins in.  I can see him in the mirror in the backseat clapping his chubby little hands. 

This is a great age to start signing because I know he has the ability to use his hands to communicate with us.  He isn't picking them up as quickly as his sister but we haven't been as enthusiastic with signing as we were with him. 

I am committed to signing with him and will try to find ways to incorporate the signs and remind myself to sign with him. 

Kitty and Cup

This week I'll be introducing Kitty or Cat and Cup to Dashiell. These should be easy since they are both objects he comes into contact with fairly frequently.

When he is chasing the cats, I will try to get in his line of vision and sign and say the word, "Kitty." He loves to chase the kitties! And he's fast so sometimes he catches them!

I also have a book I will try to share and sign with him about Kitties. Although reading to Dashiell is always a challenge. I can show him the pictures and sign the word for him. He won't have to be on my lap! He is always trying to dash off (hehe).

He is starting to drink more and more cow's milk and less milk out of his bottles. (Less pumping!) I'll sign cup with him while he is in his high chair with his cup when I give it to him. 

A favorite game he likes to play is when he throws his cup off his high chair and waits for some to pick it up.  Usually he looks at his big sister who loves picking it up for him! I can sign cup when I pick it up. "Where's your cup!" 

This Week's Signs: Bath and Ball

Every week I will be concentrating on two signs to teach Dashiell. I will share with you how I will teach the signs to him and integrate them into our lives.

This week's Signs will be "bath" and "book"

I will sign "bath" when we get in and out of the bath. I will sign the song from "Sign, Sing and Play!" by Monta Z. Briant.

Water, water in the tub
Bathtime, bathtime
Water, water in the tub
Baby's bathtime's here.
Wash the baby's nose
wash the baby's toes
Water, water in the tub
Baby's bathtime's here.

I will sign "book" when Dashiell picks up a book and when I sit down with him to read a book.

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Dashiell's First Real Word

Dashiell said "more" this morning. I am not the least bit surprised that his first sign was "more" and his first real word is "more". This is the sign we do the most while he is eating and the kid loves to eat!

It was clear as day and completely intentional. He looked right at me signed it and said it. He has said dada, mama and various forms of
Annabelle (Ah-nah, Nah-Nah, A-Ba).

Dashiell & More

Last night I came home from work and Dashiell was in his high chair. Annabelle and I were catching up. I was trying to listen to her tell me about her day. Brian was in the kitchen finishing up dinner. He brought Dashiell's food in and set in on the table in front of him. He was fussing but I was distracted. When I looked over at him he was frantically signing more and looking at me pleadingly. Poor kid was hungry!

Dashiell's First Sign

Dashiell starting eating solid foods at 4 months and we started to sign "More" and "All Done" and occasionally "Eat". He took to solids very quickly and is soon going to be eating us out of house and home. The boy eats a ton and was 23 pounds the last time I had him weighed. The past couple weeks I have seen him do "More". He puts his hands together whenever I sit down with food for him. I think within the next couple of weeks he will start to sign more so I am going to start signing more with him.

Solid Foods

Dashiell recently began eating solid foods. We gave him his first tastes of rice cereal a week ago and the big guy gobbled it all right up. He is quite the eater! I took the opportunity to begin signing with him. I have been showing him the signs for "more" and "all done". I also began showing him the sign for "milk" when I nurse him. This is mostly for me to get into the habit of signing with him while feed him. I think with the second it is going to be harder to start signing because our lives our twice as busy but I have also seen the benefits of signing first hand so I am fully committed to signing with my son.
The fun part of signing with my second child is how my first child is getting excited about it. It seems like only yesterday Annabelle was signing "more" like crazy! Since we stopped signing with her awhile back she has forgotten most of her signs so its like we are teaching them both the signs. She ran to him the other day and signed "more" and "milk" while he sat in his bouncy seat. I think she is going to be happy she can communicate with him as well.

Dashiell William born May 3rd

Dashiell William was born May 3rd! He is now about 3 months but I haven't started signing yet. I think it is time! I read once that a baby produced his first sign at 4 months! I will start with MILK and when we begin solids I will begin teaching him EAT and MORE. It will be fun to sign again!

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!

Teaching Baby Manners

Annabelle has been hitting me on occasion. I think one time she wacked me and I said Ow! and she has been doing it ever since. I think she thinks its funny. She'll come up to me and whack me and then say, "Ow!" Or she picked it up at daycare. I tell her to tell me she is sorry and she will sign sorry! I say you hurt mommy and you have to say your sorry so hopefully she is getting the message. I also tell her that we say we love each other with hugs and kisses.
She also signs Thank you. She has done it when I say, "thank you" or when I prompt her to say it to someone else but now lately she has been doing it appropriately. I gave her her teether the other night and she signed Thank you! Then the other morning I took her to the library for a storytime and she was playing with a little boy. The little boy handed her a puppet and she signed Thank you to him! Such a polite young lady! Except for the hitting!

Help, Hurt and Medicine

Annabelle is teething. She got two new teeth last week and is working on some more. We have been showing her the sign for medicine for awhile but there have been thankfully few opportunities to show her this sign. While she has been teething she has been signing medicine more regulary. Sometimes she just wants us to know that she sees the medicine sitting there. She started doing this one day when she was really fussing and I knew something was wrong. I knew she was trying to tell me something but just couldn't communicate it to me. Crying, she pointed upstairs so I took her upstairs then she pointed to her nursery. I took her into her room and I tried to give her her blanket thinking she wanted that for comfort. I got a big "NO!" with a shake of her head. I told her that I knew she wanted something and when we found it I would teach her the sign so next time she would have it. She then pointed to her dresser where here tylenol and orajel were. I said, "Oh, you want medicine!" I showed her the sign and she did it back to me. I show her the sign for hur to and said, "Your mouth hurts you want medicine." I gave her the tylenol and a little bit of orajel and she was much much happier.
Annabelle also got confused the other day when I showed her a picture of a family friend's daughter, Madison. I said, "there is baby Madison" and Annabelle signed medicine. I guess Madison sounds a lot like medicine!
It wasn't until this week that I saw her sign hurt. She pointed to her mouth on our way to drop her off at daycare and then signed medicine. She did this a couple of times so I knew she was trying to tell me her mouth hurt and she wanted medicine. Unfortunately I had none in the car. She made it through the day okay though.
Help has also become a wonderful sign for Annabelle. Everytime she was trying to do something and was having trouble with it I would sign Help to here and say, "do you want me to help you?" Now she does it all the time and she says the word. Which is the whole point of signing right? Sometimes she signs Help when she is trying to do something I don't want her doing. Like I'm going to help her climb up onto a high part in the house or close the bathroom door on me!
Happy Signing!