Baby Sign Language

We decided early on to do Baby Sign Language with our children. We weren't going to obsess about it, but we were hoping that they would pick up a few signs and be able to communicate better with us and others. We have been teaching MacKenzie a few signs here and there and she watches Signing Time once a day (this is the only t.v. she gets). I highly recommend Signing Time, MacKenzie loves it and she seems to genuinely be paying attention to the signs.

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So that being said, we were ecstatic to see that MacKenzie picked up her first real sign last week "all done". She very clearly communicated this to us at lunch and dinner time (we apparently never provide enough food at breakfast even though the child eats cereal and an entire banana by herself). Today she has picked up another sign, the sign for milk. She signed it to me earlier today and I got her milk in her sippy cup and she was very pleased for herself. This evening after dinner I was sitting with her and visiting with Matt when she began to enthusiastically sign milk again and again. She then began attacking my chest area as she signed milk. She definitely understands that the chest area is where her evening milk comes from! I wasn't sure whether to be proud of her intelligence or scared of her aggressiveness!

In any case we are happy she is learning how to communicate with us. On the speaking front we have ma-ma and da-da down pat and are working on "puh" (puppy) and "ba" (ball).