signing
I've tried signing with all of my children, and so far Yossi seems to have taken to it the most. CJ got into it but could only hold onto one sign at a time. Every time I showed him a new one, he'd drop whatever he'd done before, and in the end the only one that really stuck was "all done." OS, IIRC, had little interest. I think that was because she really wanted to talk, and no substitute would do. Yossi, though, is picking the concept up and deliberately using signs to communicate. If he wakes up at night, I can count on him frantically signing "nurse" when I pick him up. If he falls asleep halfway through one of these night-time nursing session, I can count on him to sign "more" if I unlatch. (It's rather cute, actually, to see him bring his hands together when he's bleary-eyed and unsteady from tiredness.) A few days ago, he even signed a sentence of sorts -- "nurse more."
He doesn't know many signs yet, but the ones he knows are pretty useful: nurse, more, eat, all done, Abba. I think he's starting to pick up "diaper" -- not that he uses it to tell me when he needs a new one, but if he's both hungry and wet my SOP is to change him first and then nurse. His usual reaction is to get mad because he wants to fill the hole in his tummy, but I've noticed that he's calmer about it if I sign "diaper" before I change him. It's like it helps him understand what's happening.
Other things going on with him ... He's been going through a major clingy stage, but it shows signs of abating in that he actually gets down voluntarily from my lap when he sees something he wants to check out or play with. And that's considerably better than having him scream or whine every time I try to free up my lap or get up. I still carry him around a lot, though, and it is aggravating my plantar fasciitis something fierce, especially on the left side. He weighs close to 25 lb now, so it's a workout to haul him around. He doesn't look that large given that there are much bigger children running around, but he really is huge for his age. Some of the clothes he wears are things that CJ used to wear when he was 18-24 months old. My King Kong baby ...
He doesn't know many signs yet, but the ones he knows are pretty useful: nurse, more, eat, all done, Abba. I think he's starting to pick up "diaper" -- not that he uses it to tell me when he needs a new one, but if he's both hungry and wet my SOP is to change him first and then nurse. His usual reaction is to get mad because he wants to fill the hole in his tummy, but I've noticed that he's calmer about it if I sign "diaper" before I change him. It's like it helps him understand what's happening.
Other things going on with him ... He's been going through a major clingy stage, but it shows signs of abating in that he actually gets down voluntarily from my lap when he sees something he wants to check out or play with. And that's considerably better than having him scream or whine every time I try to free up my lap or get up. I still carry him around a lot, though, and it is aggravating my plantar fasciitis something fierce, especially on the left side. He weighs close to 25 lb now, so it's a workout to haul him around. He doesn't look that large given that there are much bigger children running around, but he really is huge for his age. Some of the clothes he wears are things that CJ used to wear when he was 18-24 months old. My King Kong baby ...