“With a rebel yell…*

…she cried, ‘mo mo mo!’”

And thus ended our foray into baby sign language. 

Sort of.

Although this is overdue (SHOCKER), I’m writing this now** because Lily’s sign language usage amused me tonight.  Unintentional comedy, to be sure, but tickled my funny bone just the same and reminded me that I hadn’t recorded our sign language experiences thus far.

[Please note that this is a story that I want to record here as part of Lily’s electronic baby book, but not really a story that you readers (who are not first degree relatives) would want to read…it’s just too long!  I’m keeping it picture-free so you’re not missing anything.  Apologies!  Move along folks…nothing to see here.]

To give you some background, I was all excited to teach Lily baby sign language.  It’s obviously not meant to replace teaching babies how to talk, but it’s a great complement to give them a way to communicate until their mouths catch up with their brains. 

So, I was all gung ho.

[Wow – never actually typed that out, so just did a search to verify spelling and learned the origins of the phrase…what…a…dork…I…am. Sheesh.]

Anyway, I was rarin’ to go. 

[I refuse to look that up.]

Ready to start teaching Lily sign language at the ripe old age of 6 months.

Well, you parents have probably guessed how this story ends.  She stared at me and drooled, and I soon abandoned my efforts when they were pretty much ignored.  I had known she really wouldn’t respond at that age, but I had figured that if I started earlier, she would pick them up more easily.  Well, what I didn’t count on was my poor attention span, which was ultimately the downfall of my plan. 

The one sign we did keep up with showing her was a sign for “all done” or “finished” that she could use at mealtimes to let us know when she was all done.  Our baby genius had, all by herself mind you, already devised several very effective communication strategies such as throwing her food on the floor or clamping her lips shut and batting away the spoon while whining.  We were just going for something more subtle.  She started using the “all done” sign…um…looking through her baby calendar where I keep her milestone notes…um…seriously, why did I not research this beforehand…well, it looks like I wrote down on January 26th that “By now, signs ‘all done.’”  What kind of note is that in a baby book?  “By now?”  Seriously?  That was some shoddy record-keeping, but she used her first sign consistently in January (10 months). 

She actually has a cute little system.  Lazily flipping one hand back and forth usually means, “I am done with this particular food item and would prefer something tastier; I would suggest cheese or perhaps yogurt.”  The frantic two-handed flipping back and forth is used to communicate, “I am done with all of this food, and you are well advised to promptly remove it from my presence or I will begin throwing it on the floor and laughing at you if you attempt to scold me!” 

Nevertheless, I was encouraged and returned my efforts to getting her to sign “more.”  She did this a couple of times, but I again admit to flagging enthusiasm as she just didn’t do it often and I have a terrible attention span.

On February 27th (See?  I can be precise here because I took better notes!), I started working on the sign for “more” again at mealtime, saying, “more?  more?  do you want more?” and signing “more” for her.

And you know what happened?  The little rascal just looked at me, then looked at the food, pointed at it, and said, “mo mo mo!”

Well then.

To make a short story long (my specialty!), she just SAID “mo” for more from there on out, and that pretty much killed my interest in seriously teaching her sign language.  She’s just a verbal kid, and tries to say so many words.  To my last list, I’d add that she now consistently says, “fff” for fruit and flower (yes, you need context to determine if she’d like to eat some fruit or is pointing to a flower in the yard or on her straw cup), “sh” for shoes, “wa wa” for water, “fuh” for phone, “ah” for up, “ch” for cheese, and “dah” for down.  So, yes…to the outside world a lot of it still sounds like gibberish, but we’re getting there!  :-)

[Hahaha…she’s now saying, “Mama” over the monitor which is pretty funny because she usually says “Dada” over the monitor.  I think “Dada” and “bye bye” are her favorite words to say.  Today in Walgreens, she said, “bye bye,” to the photo counter lady and then said it again to the checkout lady as we were leaving.  This was before any of the adults had said it, thus shaming all of us into being polite in front of a baby who had better manners!]

[Good grief.  This post has more offshoots than…than…ack…analogies are my Achilles heel.  Little help here?]

And so we reach the part where I reveal the actual point of the post.  So what happened that tickled my funny bone?  I did end up teaching Lily a modified baby sign for “help” (the real sign is just too tough, so she just has to tap her chest with both hands).  She picked it up right away, and as of last week will sign for “help” spontaneously.  So stinkin’ cute.  If her baby stroller tips over and she can’t pick it back up herself, she’ll sign “help.”  I’ll see her in the backseat drop one of her toys, and then sign “help” for me to pick it up for her.  I love it!  I really find that just that little bit of communication really does keep her from getting frustrated about needing help because she stays calm and I can usually figure out what she needs picked up/fixed/retrieved/etc.  So tonight (which is SOOOOOO not that funny after having written an essay on it), Lily proceeded to throw all of her bathtub toys out of her bathtub, and then looked at me and signed “help” to indicate that I should retrieve them for her.  Then, when I was rocking her after the lights were out (she gets a song or two and then she goes to bed while still awake), she kept throwing her lovey on the floor and signing “help” in the dark to again indicate that I should retrieve it.  Once she stopped throwing the kitty, I decided to be generous and go for three songs, and it was at that point that she looked up at me and signed “all done” right in my face.

Well then.

I guess you are, little girl.  So off to bed she went!

__________________________________________________

*Alternative post title: “I saw the sign”  :-)  Did I make the right choice?

**I actually wrote this last night, but didn’t quite finish until tonight.  As if you really care!  :-)