Baby Signing Update

It is so awesome to have your hard work finally pay off. I have been working so hard at teaching my itty bitty to sign. Several weeks ago when she woke up from a nap she was signing "eat" for me. I was so excited that we were finally there. I took her downstairs for lunch and she signed "eat" the whole time. I was so impressed and very proud of her. Well then she decided it was a one day thing only. I tried and tried to get her to do it again and she was so very stubborn. I was happy we were on the right track and I knew she was understanding me so I figured I would take what I could get. A couple of days ago I was feeding her and I asked her if she wanted more. Out of the blue she started signing "more" for me. Still thrilled I just figured she would do it for that meal and then stop again. It has been a couple of days now and every time you ask her to say "more" she will sign it. I am so excited and ready to move on to much more stuff. One thing I remember with my oldest is that once she started it was followed by a flood of communication. I think we are so close to that so I am ready to take it to the next level. It is truly such an amazing feeling to know that you and your infant can actually communicate. I cannot wait for more.

Stumble It!

Signing Time with Rachel Coleman

I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Rachel Coleman the co-creator of the Signing Time series for Mommytalk.com and you can check it out here.

I used Signing Time with my oldest and now using it with my youngest who it so close. She was actually signing "eat" to me the other day which was awesome. It is progress but we are not quite full communication yet. It will not be long though and it is nice to know my hard work is paying off.

Rachel is a wonderful person and is very devoted to her family. It was a pleasure to talk to her and great to hear her recommendations first hand. She definitely knows her stuff and gave me some really great tips to pass along. I really appreciate her taking the time to talk to me and share some of her stories.

Go check out the article and the wonderful community over at MommyTalk. I have met some great friends over there and they are always happy to help. They offer great parenting advice and awesome parenting articles. I really want to thank them for giving me this opportunity and for helping me along the way.

Olivia Baby Signing Update

I have been working really hard with Olivia on communicating using Baby Sign Language. She is 7 months and is not yet able to do the signs herself but I know we are making progress. When I sign "eat" or "milk" the expression on her face completely changes. She gets a huge smile on her face and starts bouncing around with excitement. It just tells me that we are on the right track and that she understands 100% what I am saying to her. Right now I am also teaching her "more" and "all done". From there we will branch out well beyond the basics and see how it all goes. Progress is awesome!

Izzy's First Lesson - Baby Sign Language

I am a huge fan of baby sign language. I taught this to Victoria and it was a huge success. It made communicating with her so much easier before she could actually talk. I started with Victoria when she was about 7 months old and she picked it up at about 9-10 months. It is time for Izzy to learn too. I start with the basics and once she picks it up I will move on from there. Basicially what I am doing is constantly showing her the signs for eat, milk, drink, and more when we are doing each of those activities. I am eager to see at what age she will pick it up. I remember the first time Victoria did it. When she woke up in the morning I always took her into the bed to play with me and daddy for a bit. One morning I set her on the bed and she started tapping her fingers against her mouth just like the sign for eat. I was so excited. I scooped her up and took her for breakfast. From that point on it was so easy. She did stop using them once she started talking. I told her the other day we needed to start teaching Izzy. The cool thing is she was right there with me at the highchair the other day showing her sister how it is done. If you have a little one and are not sure if it is worth it let me tell you it definitely is. There is a lot of frustrations that comes with not being able to fully communicate what your child needs. This is such a great tool to alleviate a lot of that frustration. I will post my updates along the way and even any tips I can find.

I actually purchased a DVD that we used to watch. It was okay but I know there are better ones out there than the one I have. I have heard really good things about "Signing Time" but I have not used it myself. My mother gave me an awesome little stand up guide titled "Baby Signing". When I lived out west there was even a program that came on PBS every Saturday that was dedicated to kid sign language. It was awesome but not available where I am now. If you are looking for a place to get started and do not want to buy a DVD or book you can go to http://www.lifeprint.com/. It is basically a dictionary of American Sign Language (ASL). You click on the word and it will show you the sign. I used it a lot with Victoria and will use it with Izzy too.

More to come on this.