Signs of Progress

As I've already mentioned, Peeper is using the sign for "more" quite often now, although she seems to use it to mean pretty much anything she wants.

I've read that babies tend to do that at first, before they catch on that different signs mean different things, but I'm not totally sure how to handle it.

I feel bad when she's so emphatically signing it, and I have no idea what she wants "more" of.

So, I ask her, "What do you want more of?" (Italics indicate signed words.)

I can often figure out what it is that she actually wants, from context, so I will say, "Do you mean you're all done?" or "Do you want goody?" or "Do you want Mama to help you?" and then do or give her the thing I just said.

I'm hoping she'll figure out that the signs I'm making are the ones she needs to be making for that particular thing that she wants.

A couple of days ago, in the car, I'm almost certain that she signed "goody."

(We've sort of modified the "milk" sign - which is opening and closing the fist, as though milking a cow- by putting it on the chin, where you would sign "mother" to make it "Mama's milk." I don't always actually sign it there though, and I figure she can't sign it there while she's nursing (you know, if she just wants to chat about it, or pay a compliment to the chef) so I'll be happy to take any sort of open-close fist looking movement.)

And, just a few minutes ago, she definitely signed "eat" / "food."

I've often wondered if she's signing that, and then she puts her thumb in her mouth, so maybe she was just doing that, but this was very clear, and when I put her down and told her to "show me," she took me right to the highchair, and held onto it. No doubt about that one.

I've got high hopes of her getting "cat" and "dog" before too long - and soon I'll write more about why I say that.

Oooo, the suspense!