Signing away!

Thank you for all the prayers and words of encouragement! Please keep them coming! I am on strict directions to sleep as much as I can today -- not only to make up for no sleep last night but also because these major contraction bouts seem to take place in the evening. If we get another bout tonight, I want to be as rested as possible. I am taking a quick nap break to exercise the dog before returning to bed. But, I wanted to share some other fun news during the wait . . .

Wednesday night, Isaac clapped for the first time. Clapped and clapped back when we started doing it. Way fun. My mom wants it on video. It's hard to capture these tiny moments on camera, but I'll see what I can work out.

But even more fun than the clapping was that last night, Isaac did his first sign! We've been doing some basic sign language with him since he was four months old. If you aren't familiar with this, it basically works its way back to the fact that children of deaf parents are able to communicate long before the children of speaking children. I still remember being at my friend Beth B's house in Minnesota, and her daughter signed "please" when we were eating pie. Instead of throwing a fit because she wanted something and no one knew what it was, she was able to tell us, "I want that" or "please." At that moment I knew this was something I wanted to do with my child. Many people worry that it effects the language development of children, but there has been no research to show that to be the case.

The biggest sign I have been doing is "milk". I do this every time I give him a bottle in hopes that he can tell me he is hungry. Well last night, he started fussing. JB asked him if he wanted milk and gave him the sign. Isaac did it back! Way cool! The author of the book said that his son did his first sign at eight months old. Isaac is eight and a half months so not too far behind! This morning, Isaac proved it was not a fluke when he did it again! Go Chubba Chubba!

We are working on a few other signs including "eat" and "finished", "bath" and "more", "please" and "thank you" but I haven't introduced many more yet mainly because I wanted to see if this could work and also because I have trouble remembering too many signs myself. (This may go with my pregnancy Dory brain. The other day I mailed JB's medical board letter without the letter in it. It had a stamp. Had a return address label. But it didn't have the letter inside. Oh well. Resend.)

Anyways, the fact that Isaac might be able to tell me he is hungry way before he can talk is exhilarating! it's nearly as exciting as the moment that Scrubs connected ringing a bell with being let out to use the bathroom. Who needs words or barks in our house!? Yippeee!