Spring has been contemplating its
arrival for several weeks now. The weather will be beautiful and sunny - in the 60s, 70s, and even 80s - for a few days... and then it'll pour and be freezing for the next week or so. On the nicer days, I've been taking Jacob for walks in the Radio Flyer wagon that we got him for his birthday. (Until recently, we'd been pulling him around inside the house... and he loved it!) He's absolutely fascinated with the outdoors and points at everything wanting me to talk about the trees, squirrels, birds, the colors of flowers, cars, and so on. I recently started pointing out stop signs and being dramatic about it.ME: Look, Jacob! STOP!
I abruptly stop the wagon in front of the sign and perform the ASL sign for "stop".
Jacob smiles with a huge grin. By the third stop sign, he's vocalizing (grunting) and attempting to make the ASL sign himself.
Now we can't go past a stop sign without him making a noise and signing "stop". :)
A lot of the more recently learned signs are Jacob's own approximations of the sign. He's only fifteen months old and still has a lot to figure out when it comes to coordination and imitation, but the important things are that he's trying and that at least *we* can understand him. With that said, Jakey's doubled his ASL "vocabulary" since March. :) Here's a list of Jacob's current signs (bold words are the new ones since March)...
bath * bird * binky/pacifier * book * ceiling fan (fan) * dog * done/finished * eat * hat * help * hurt * milk * more * orange * please * stop * thank you * water * work * yes * yogurt (soy yogurt, of course)
<----- signing "bird"If we're not outside, Jacob loves to sit or stand by the front door and watch the squirrels hop and skitter around nibbling at the helicopters from our maple tree (or whatever it is that they nibble at out there) or chase each other around the yard, across the street, and up and down the trees. I recently learned the ASL sign for "squirrel" from one of my co-workers at school and have been using it along with making a munching-squirrel sound whenever Jakey and I are watching them. He's been making the sound for a while and today, for the first time, took hold of my hands wanting me to make the sign. (He's done this for other words, too, but it's been a while since the last time that he was so interested in knowing.) It's kind of a complicated sign for a little guy, so I'm not counting on him picking it up for a little while yet. He could surprise us, though.
As far as actual speech, he's up to five words now. A few weeks ago, he started saying "nana" for banana and then a few days later - after a visit from Dave's dad (and one day before MY dad arrived to stay for the summer) - he started saying "Papa". Over the past few days, he's started trying to say "dah" or "ah dah" when he's finished eating... but mainly with our prompting. He's in looove with bananas, though, and will say "nana" anytime he sees one. Lately, he's been tuning in more to my speech and trying to say the first letter sound for "b" and "d" words. So cute.
He was so happy and proud of himself for saying it the first time... and got pretty bored and disinterested by the end. I was so happy to hear him say it that I just wanted to hear it again and again. :P
