Baby Signs

When Raina was in the 8 - 12 months stage, she chose some interesting ways to communicate. When she was lonely, she'd lift her arms. When she was hungry, she'd crawl over to the high chair and rock it back and forth. And when she was done eating, she'd throw the remainder of food onto the floor. Plus, she cried.

At a certain point, we tried baby sign language, expecting it would take multiple weeks for her to learn the basic concepts we wanted: "more" and "all done." She had those mastered in two days, and the entire family was happier as a result.

Lola is now 6 months and, while it's a little earlier than we began with Raina, we decided to start teaching her the word "more."

I tickle her, ask if she wants more, and give the hand sign. Eric chomps on her belly, she squeals with glee, he asks if she wants more, and gives the hand sign. In this situation, when Lola sees the hand sign, she immediately smiles, stretches out her arms, and arches her back, thereby offering up her belly for further abuse.

Unfortunately she does the exact same thing when we ask her if she wants more cereal, or more bananas, or more milk. And she looks very disappointed that a spoon of bananas is coming her way, instead of a big round of giggles. Clearly, Lola has learned the "more" hand sign, but she thinks it means "tickles."

We're going to have to do a better job in the future.

Comments

Hands2Talk.com said…
Lol! Too cute! Maybe the "more" sign can now mean "tickles" for you and you can use something else as a sign for "more"?? :-) Love this story!
Emelye said…
We've been trying to sign with Atticus, but he just grins as we wiggle our fingers at him, and continues with flinging his whole body at whatever has his attention.

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