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Friday, April 27, 2007
Well, we've hit some more milestones this week, and the blog has been a little "heavy" so I thought I'd lighten the mood with an update on what's going on in the lactivist household.
Emmitt can now sit up on his own! He's been working on it all week, but he couldn't quite make that final push into a sit. Instead, he'd end up mostly sitting up, but leaning over with his weight supported by his hand. He sort of looked like one of those posing reclining models, lol. But last night shortly after Greg came home, he pushed himself up and "poof" there he was in a full sit, all on his own. He looked as surprised as we were.
He's still not crawling in the traditional mode, but the kid can "army crawl" like nobody's business. In fact, he goes faster that way than Elnora ever did on all fours. I'll have to see if I can get it on video to upload...it sort of looks like he's swimming across the room.
Now on to Elnora. We're down to one "accident" every few days. I've told her that when she goes a full week with no accidents, we'll move her to training pants. We're on day three right now, so hopefully she'll make it.
Even better is the sign language. A box from Amazon.com arrived yesterday with the first six Signing Time videos. That means we no longer have to worry about waiting for them from the library and then getting them returned in time. They're ours for keeps!
She's doing a great job of integrating the signs into every day activity, especially when it comes to asking for things. It's pretty common now for her to come in and sign FISH and CRACKER to tell me that she wants Goldfish. (Ok, so they're Annie's Rabbits, but whatever...) She also comes into our room first thing each morning signing "drink" because she's woken up thirsty, lol.
On the other hand, it works against her. When I was home a few weeks ago my mom put her to bed and Nora kept yelling that she had to go potty. Mom would get her, take her to the potty and nothing would happen. The second time, Nora signed to my mom NO SLEEP.LOL. Busted! Mom told her she didn't have to sleep, but she had to stay in bed. Sure enough, Nora was out like a light not long after.
I think the biggest benefit by far is the context that the signs allow. While she's working very hard on words and has added quite a few recently (car, bath, home, cracker, banana) she still has a lot of word/sounds that mean multiple things. Using the sign on conjunction with the word allows us to know what she means and then to repeat the proper word and encourage her to try it again. Less frustration for both of us and good learning opportunities being presented.
In fact, here is the list of signs that she currently knows and uses...
Eat - Milk - Thirsty - Hungry - Drink - Water - Apple - Cereal - Cookie - Banana - Bread - Cheese - Cracker - Ice Cream - Candy - More - Help - Day - Sun - Sleep - Bed - Happy - Sad - Cry - Boy - Girl - Ball - Doll - Cat - Dog - Fish - Car - Shoes - Socks - Mom - Dad - Grandpa - Grandma - Baby - Book - No - Wash Hands - Brush Teeth
That's 43 signs. We're working on:
Potty - Please - Thank You - Stop - Share - Friend - Sorry - Wait - What - Doll
At the rate she's picking them up, she'll know them by the end of May.
Now, for the really big news...
Emmitt made his first sign!!
No joking. He'll be seven months old tomorrow and quite honestly, I thought it was a fluke.
Last night while we were eating dinner, he was sitting on the floor in the doorway of the kitchen playing. I said to Greg "I wonder why he's waving his arm around in the air like that..." Then I looked again...he opened and closed his fist.
Noo.... Then he did it again.
I pointed it out to Greg and we decided that it could be a fluke but we'd keep watching and see if he kept doing it.
So today, I was putting him down for his nap. I nursed him and he fell asleep, so I popped him off and put him in the pack n play. A few minutes later, I heard him. I peeked in, he was wide awake.
Wanna guess what he was doing?
Sure enough, he was looking at his hand and opening and closing his fist. I went in and talked to him and said MILK while I did the same thing. He got this huge grin on his face and I swear to you, the kid crawled a lap around the pack n play. It was like those cartoons where the guy runs around the room on the wall.
So I picked him up and laid him on the bed and lay down next to him to let him nurse. As I did, he held his arm up in the air and opened and closed his fist. I said to him "Milk? Milk? I see you telling me," and he got this HUGE grin again. Then he kept doing it.
WOO HOO!
Labels: All About the Kids, Baby Sign Language
That is SO AWESOME!!!
As I was reading this, I was just thinking about how my son seems to hit milestones about a two weeks or so after yours...and how that meant he would actually be sitting up soon.
Well, then my cell rang, and it was his daddy calling to tell me that the baby had sat up for the first time--you know, really sat up, not leaning on his arms!
Guess I should teach him to sign "milk" now, huh? :)
LOL!
You better get cracking Nevanna!
(It's not that hard...I just sign milk about every other time I nurse him and say "milk...milk...you like milk....yum...milk" as I make the milk sign.)
By the way, YAY! :) They're so much easier once they can sit up...they do a better job of entertaining themselves...
Oh they are such happier lil guys once they can sit! Now if my lil guy can go to a sit from his belly, we'd be in business. Lol
WTG Elnora! I think it is wonderful she is picking up signs to make her life less stressful.
My DS, who is 7mos 3 weeks, has been opening and closing his hand lately but I haven't taught him any signs. Maybe he's trying to tell me something?? Lol I'll have to borrow one of the signing videos fromt he library. Is it the one here in Dellyware?
Never been to the Delaware library...I got them from the Westerville library. (And then forgot to return them and they were a week late...oops.)
Anyway, she just got up from bed to go to teh bathroom (victory!) and while she was in there, we had a conversation.
First she told me her shirt was dirty. (it was, there was food on it...) Then she told me that I needed to give it a bath. (I explained this morning that clothes get baths in the washing machine to get clean.)
Then she told me that she had 2 grandpas, 2 grandmas, 1 dad and 2 moms. When I reminded her that it was just one mom, she sidetracked and wanted to talk about when my car got a bath. (car wash)
It was pretty darn cool.
And we can add "clean" and "dirty" to the mix, so she's at 45 signs. :)
Uh oh, Jennifer, who's her other mom? ;)
We just got the new Baby Signing Time DVDs and they are as wonderful as the regular ones. Milk was all my kids' first sign. It's so exciting when you realize they are doing it for real and not just accidentally! I had a very similar back-and-forth to the one you had with Emmitt when my little guy started signing milk. Hurray!
Your kids are absolutely adorable!
Awww! Thanks!
No sense growing them ugly, right? Same amount of work either way...
;)
Not at all on topic to your post, but I just had to say "No sense growing them ugly, right? Same amount of work either way..." is a fabulous response!!! I never no what to say when people tell me my daughter is so cute (as though I'd done something to make her that way). I warn you, I'm stealing this line.
I started teaching Natalie signs when she was about 6-7 months old. The cue is when they start waving "bye-bye", because it shows they have made a language connection. Natalie picked them up really quickly, too. Keep going with the baby; my evidence is purely ancedotal, but my second (Ethan) started using words, and complete, correct sentences really early (he's only 2.5 now), and I attribute that to our signing with him from day 1. Either that, or he's just a natural genius. Which, of course, he is (as every mother thinks). :-)
YAY! I love the Signing Time videos. I recommend them to people all the time. Any chance you would like to come to KY and talk about signing and breastfeeding? (haha just kidding) Really not only does it help oral vocabulary, it's a great way to communcate while your baby is having dinner.
brought tears to my eyes to think of your little guy asking for milk. so sweet!
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