Bug Signs!

When K-bug was about 5 and 1/2 months I started showing her some signs for things we do every day. She would smile at me when I did them and then move on with whatever activity we were doing. In the last month, I've really stepped up my game. Showing her the sign before, during and after whatever it was we were doing. Just into the first week of August she started signing "All Done".
I was shocked, she was using it in the right context, she was eating lunch and didn't want any more! In the next few weeks she would do it all the time for lots of different situations. She would be playing on the floor and start to get sleepy and would look up at me to sign that she was "all done" playing, then would crawl over to me and snuggle.

I was so excited about her signing that I started slacking on showing her other ones. So last week, Monday, I got her attention before we settled in for our nursing session and I showed her the sign for milk. She gave me a big grin and latched on to eat merrily. When she was done and I went to switch sides, she looked me right in the eyes and signed "milk"! S and I started laughing hysterically, of course it would take her no time flat to learn the sign for her favorite thing!

Jump forward to this morning. I was on the floor with her changing her diaper after she woke up and I had to open a new pack of wipes. Which means pulling out that little plastic piece that keeps them fresh. We got done and I got up to throw away the dirty diaper, but forgot to take the plastic piece with me. I walked back into the room and she was holding it out to me. I took it and signed "thank you" as I said the words. The little stinker did it right back at me! She's such a smart cookie, guess we'll be adding this one to our arsenal!

Want to see some of the signs we've been working on? I've been using this site to learn all the signs. I even printed them out, laminated them and keep them in a binder so we can refer back to them. I'm thinking about buying a cheap little photo album to keep them in the diaper bag so anyone who babysits knows what she's trying to tell them!


All Done:

Milk:

Eat: On this site there is no sign for eat. So we used our own. I hold my hand like I'm going to make a shadow puppet duck (come on, you know you've all made shadow puppets on the wall), then I bring it to my mouth like I'm putting food in there.

No: This is a word that has become a staple in our vocab since Bug has become mobile and oh so curious of how the DVD player and TV work! Ughh!

Drink: We just started this one, since Bug has only had breastmilk from me up until recently. It hasn't had much impact yet since she's still not a huge fan of the sippy cup.

I'm going to start adding more signs as she masters these. I don't want to introduce too many at once, but since she's picking up on things so easily right now I want to take advantage of this quick learning! Next up is going to be diaper, tired/sleepy, mommy, daddy, dog, cat, I love you/love, happy, yes, please, bath and water. Not all in that order and not all at once of course!