Friday, April 23, 2010

What did you say???

Yes, it has begun... The start of her communicating and the introduction to endless chatter. We "think" we are ready for it...if ever I need a break I will come back to this spot here and remember the feeling of wonder as Olivia begins communicating with us.

A few months ago (around the 5 month mark) I started signing to Olivia. Now admittedly I did a mediocre job of it but I have learned around 25 words that we refer to often...
- diaper
- dirty
- change (you can see a pattern here)
- hungry
- beautiful
- milk
- more
- finished
- jump
- walk
- no
- stop
- bath

As you can see, its words that we would use often and its our way of hopefully giving her the ability to tell us what she wants rather then the other way around.

So 2 days ago (Wednesday) Livy wasn't feeling well. Slight fever and cranky like I've never seen her. She would cry in my arms and wouldn't let me stop pacing let alone sit, put her down or heaven forbid I leave the room. I decided to give her just a little bit of ice cream more hoping that the cool spoon would feel good on her top teeth (that are currently bulging to come through). After having a taste she started crawling to the bowl for more. I, as usual made the symbol for 'more', put her two hands together in the best motion possible that you can do with an 8 month old, and gave her a bit more. We did this again and again. On the 5th or 6th taste I she did it on her own (amazing how ice cream is a great motivator).

Thus, she now tells us if she wants more. She won't make the gesture if/when she's done. We're working on 'finished' but its a bit more subtle although she does tend to smile when I gesture and say finished if she's indeed finished.

Here's today's video clip of Olivia asking for more (breakfast, toast with jam).


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