Conversations with my Children, Part III

The Girl, first thing in the morning, signing "cracker."

Me:  "No, sweetie, you can't have crackers for breakfast.  How about cereal?"
The girl grabbing her iPad, emphatically pounds, "[WOMAN!] I WANT CRACKERS!"
Just in case I'd misunderstood her.

~~~~~~~~~~ 

The Girl, voluntarily (!) turning off Princess Sofia to switch to Proloquo:  "Snack, I want please."
Me:  "What kind of snack do you want?"
The girl:  "Yogurt, please."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Girl, signing, "Goodnight, Mommy.  Bye-bye."
Me, surprised at the abbreviated process & picking her iPad to recharge it, "Goodnight, sweetheart."
The Girl starts crying, having realized there would be no midnight showing of Frozen:
"Noooooo!  More book, please?  Snuggle?  Lights out!"

~~~~~~~~~~

 The Girl, upon hearing we were having (coffee) cake for breakfast, "Candles?"

~~~~~~~~~~

The Girl, during a thunderstorm, signing:  "Outside? Bikes?"

Me:  "No, it's raining outside."

She grinned and returned a moment later with her rain boots on. 

"Outside? Bikes?"

~~~~~~~~~~

 

This is a terrible picture, but she drew out the "Little monkeys jumping on the bed" song and was able to explain it to her para (who kindly provided captions).  

~~~~~~~~~~

Back in May, at the end-of-kindy IEP, The Girl's school peeps formally announced the goal of communicating her wants and needs through multiple modes across a variety of settings 20x/day over 3 consecutive dates had been met eons ago and needed to be updated.  This may or may not have been followed by a wry look, a chuckle, an eye roll, and a comment about how very glad they are that she was at their school.  Oh, yes.  Yes, indeed.  That goal was a carry over from her preschool.  The school where her principal wondered if she had anything to say. 

Did I mention we were never, ever moving?  

31 for 21: 10 Loaves, 1 Moose, No fish.

This isn't part two yet - this is a cheater because it's already 10:30 and I've been trying to catch up with YOUR posts.  What I wouldn't do to not need sleep!

I've been doing short little social stories for The Girl at school, both so she can show off the signs she knows & - maybe, hopefully, ideally - some of the kids can get used to the AAC concept.  This weekend was... Well, I'll get there tomorrow.  But she helped me make bread so we worked in help, mommy, cook, bread, want, dog, Moose (the photo bombing dog), eggs (she wanted to tweak the recipe), & a few others.  

Almost as important as fostering my child's vocabulary, communication, and social skills, is the fact that after creating 10 or so lovely decorative stones, I FINALLY made some awesome sourdough bread.  Watch out Boudin!  

The School Post

I've been wanting to write this for months but I'm afraid I won't be able to do it justice.  I'm afraid  this wordless feathered thing of mine might fly off and leave just another IEP post in its wake.  This is not just another IEP post.  This is about the closest I can get to giddy.

Early last year I called an IEP meeting to discuss the preschool's shameful inability to communicate with my child.  That was... unsatisfying but they asked at the time if I'd thought about kindergarten yet.  The Girl's birthday is exactly four days before the kindy cut off so, although they stressed seventy kajillion times it was a "team" decision, at least they wanted our input.   This sparked 8 months of ifs, ands, & buts.  If you are one of the lucky three people I didn't force to listen to my tail chasing, these are the pros/cons:

• The preschool was underwhelming - we could get better teachers in kindy.
• They could be worse.
• She's in day care in the afternoon anyway, might as well spend that time in an educational setting.
• Kids learn best thru play - we should let her Play!  Explore!  Un-school! 
• She already knows all her colors & letters - we should build on that!  Neural connections! Learning is fun! 
• She'd be awfully young for kindy anyway, add in a developmental delay and it's akin to putting a three year old in kindergarten.  NO child would succeed in that situation.  We're setting her up to fail & she'll never ever ever end up "mainstreamed".  (*dramatic hand waving*)
• I read this book a while back and it argued for delaying kindy as kids learn best when they're emotionally mature enough to learn.  
• That book was about typical boys.  It might also be total BS.  Zero relevance.  
• With all the money we'd save on day care we could retire buy groceries afford more private therapy.
• Two words:  potty training.
• One (& a half?) more:  non-verbal
• Mah baaayyybeeee!

Amid the hand wringing, I chatted with the pre-school principal.  He reminded me The Girl could be eligible for school till she was 21.  That's about 8 years of high school.  Eight years of high school sounds like a special form of hell and pushed me straight into the "delay kindy" camp.

Fast forward to this spring.  We have to have an official "transitional" IEP with the kindy folks. Because I'm always polite (*HA!*), I did not kick them out of the room as superfluous even though Matt & I had already decided against.  I brought cookies so they might as well eat.

The SLP didn't show up.  Awesome.  Because we're clearly not at all concerned about her speech.  Gah.  The pre-school teacher said almost nothing.  We later heard she quit the next day.  The principal, who I'd liked during our call but hadn't attended any other IEPs, revealed himself to be a massive doufus.  He wondered aloud if The Girl's speech might be affected by a structural/palate issue. He pointed to how messy she ate as evidence.  (Dude. We've run thru 2 school SLPs, two private, had an additional outside eval, AND the surgical nurse at Children's knows us.  You think we missed something?  Also?  Thanks, yes, my child is a sloppy eater.  Ass).  He also wondered if she had anything to say.

Read that again.  He wondered if my child had enough cognitive function to, say, ask for "milk".

Meanwhile the elementary school's SpEd teacher, SLP, & company were asking awesome insightful questions, drilling down when she could do what in which setting.  Asking if we'd tried this or that.  They reminded the principal I had already said she was signing in full sentences and clearly had much to say.  They talked about iPads and multi-modalities and the pros and cons of various approaches.

They said, "We can develop an intensive speech program for her".
They described it like 8 hours of speech therapy/day.
They talked about peer modeling and the benefits of inclusion.
They said, without asking, she'd have a 1:1 para and they'd teach the para all the signs she already knows.
They said, "We want her."

Kids, my girl is going to kindergarten.



I'm at Gigi's this week (Hence the post. Shocking!  I know).  I remember playing with this glass bird when I was a kid.  Miracle it wasn't broken.  No feathers, but here's to strength & fragility & hope.

More Talky-talky

Oh, hello there Internet!

[blah, blah, blah - insert various excuses for not writing]

I was going to do one more post on the NDSC conference though a full month has now passed & my memory is for shit so let's call this a segue....

One of the sessions I attended was on speech, including the distinction between communication, language, & speech.  Talking, as it turns out, is an incredibly complex and difficult skill to master.  Awesome!

My daughter communicates her frustration by yelling, her need for attention by holding up her arms for a hug, and her happiness by laughing.  I communicate my love for her with kisses, snuggles, and the occasional fresh produce purchase so as to keep her healthy.  Children cannot live on chicken nuggets alone.

Language includes the concept of naming things (this is a "blog", not a !@#$%^&*  - though there's a joke in there about my foul language - of which there will be much in this post), the form of language (written/verbal, physical (ASL), english/spanish, PECs, etc.), and expressive vs. receptive.

The Girl's primary expressive language is sign - she can use her hands to request various foods & beverages, and to identify a menagerie of animal, activities (biking, swimming, playing), body parts, family members, and dogs.  She knows the little dog's name is Moose, even though he's a dog, AND can still identify an actual moose in book.  I find that quite clever.  I've lost count but we're well over 100 words.

Her receptive language skills are in english and ASL.  She understands a LOT and can pick the words "ice cream" out of a conversation behind closed doors.

She has no verbal expressive skills.  None.  Matt will argue with me about this & I'll concede I have heard her say something that sorta kinda sounds like "Daddy".  Once.  And she said "monkey" one time in speech therapy clear as day.  She had word approximations - "buh" for bread, bath, & ball, "eeee" for eat, and "uhhh" for up.  But she has never said "Mommy".  It requires her full focus & attention to make a "mmm" sound and there's no transition into the "omm".  She just turned 4.

Though she's definitely not silent.  She babbles non-stop with tone & inflection.  She'll tell you long complicated stories in toddler-ese and then laugh at the punchline.  And, yes, we did have her hearing checked with an ABR (auditory brainstem response) - the input is there.

You need the desire to communicate and a language before you can talk.  Then speech becomes a physical activity. You need to coordinate your breathing, move your tongue & lips around and then move them into new positions for different sounds.  You need to be physically able to make these movements and then remember which positions belong to which sounds.

That seems to be the part we're hung up on.  I've heard a wide range of estimates on the average age kids with Ds start talking - we're on the far side of most of them.  One lady in the speech session at the conference said her pediatrician recommended her two year old be evaluated for apraxia because she only had 20 words.  TWO.  TWENTY.  BWAHAHAHAHahahahahahaha(whimper).

After The Girl's ABR, the audiologist suggested the next step was an apraxia evaluation and I had a bunch of conversations with her private SLP, the school's SLP, and anyone else who was unfortunate enough to be within earshot.  Both SLPs (gently) said they though her speech delay was cognitive and developmental and they were more/less really already working with her as if she had apraxia.  I dropped it.  What's the point of slapping another label on her?

Except her four year check up is coming up & I was thinking it might not hurt to ask for a referral.  I queried facebook, wondering if anything magical happens after we get a diagnosis (surprisingly, no).  I selfishly thought about the fees and copays, and taking ANOTHER day off work to sit in a neurologist's waiting room.  I wondered if the school would use that label to argue against inclusion in a year or two when she goes to kindergarten.  No crushing immediate need to make a decision though.

And then, today.  We were stuck in Denver airport (different post!) and missed The Girl's back to school night last week.  Matt drove her in the first day but today was the first chance I was able to meet her teacher.  She's...young.  She knows NO signs.  None.  So when my girl correctly signs horse or signs purple instead of red, she will get ZERO reinforcement or correction.  Excuse me, but then WHATISTHEFUCKINGPOINT?

I cornered the SLP in the hallway and expressed my, um, concerns as to how her school days are going since my girl is now effectively mute.  The SLP, who does have a background in sign, asked if we had considered an iPad or PECs system, "since most people don't sign".  Well, fuckity-fuck-fuck.  We have been doing in wrong.  I left the building nearly in tears.

I don't know what to do.  The Girl loves her Signing Time DVDs and is picking it up faster than I am.  I think the physical movements involved is a terrific mnemonic to build language.  It's easy, free, & mobile.  At the grocery store today, for example, she spontaneously signed 'pasta'.  We talked about the red, green, & purple grapes.  I have a signing app on my phone and looked up tomato, since I couldn't remember...  when I signed tomato later at dinner she got it, right away.

The downside:  her fine motor skills are not great (upside:  what greater way to work on them?).  A lot of her ASL has to be taken in context.  And, as the SLP noted, a lot of people don't sign.  Including her entire extended family.

An ipad/PECs/proloquo could fix that.  It might build on her pointing/selecting skills.  I'm assuming there are words to go with the pictures so it could help her learn to sight read.  It might also be enormously frustrating for her to make those choices and to transition to a new system when all she wants is a goddamn glass of milk.  I don't really see us hauling an ipad around a grocery store or the park, & certainly not at dinner near the aforementioned dangerously spill-able milk.  iPads are REALLY expensive and she's going thru a lovely phase where she throws things.

I certainly don't think the ipad is a lesser choice but the ASL is working for us - working for her - and I'm pissed the school isn't supporting it.  I can request an IEP meeting but I'm not sure what to ask for yet.  New teacher?  An ASL para?  (this is pre-school - it's 12 hrs/week).  Ipad support?  If we are going to request modifications I feel like we should pursue the apraxia diagnosis as leverage.

Then again, this is pre-school and it's only 12 hours a week.  Her primary in day care, where she spends another 30 hours/week, signs beautifully.  A few people on FB said their kids' speech really took off between 4-6 so we might not be at crisis point yet - exceptionally long post notwithstanding.  I just don't know and don't want to screw it up.  This is HARD sometimes.

10/31 for 21 A Supernova of Sunshine

I don't think it'll be a surprise to anyone reading that I have morose streak.  Nothing requiring medication, just a dark side that I occasionally have to sate with my DVR, chocolate, carbs, and red wine.  Running helps, but that's not as fun as chocolate (though it does allow for more chocolate).  So when I call myself a little ray of sunshine, which I'll admit I am wont to do, it is with a massive sense of irony.  There is no irony in tonite's title. 

TODAY WAS AN AWESOME DAY.

I haven't pulled together all my thoughts about the school post that I've been wanting to write.  Too many issues playing into it - our schedule, my girl's health issues, her signing, my signing, our absurd parental lapses, etc, etc, etc.  It was going to be a lot of logistics & not much fun to read.  So, instead of presenting this in a logical format, I think I'll dribble it out of a couple days.  After all, today is only Day #10.  There are 21 more days to go! 

One of the the things - actually THE THING - is that my daughter is non-verbal.  Still non-verbal. She has never called me mom.  She signs a LOT.  And she is picking up new signs faster and faster.  Faster, in fact, than I am.  I should take an ASL class.  I haven't.  Squeezing that in would be hard - not impossible, but not dropping-by-the-store-on-the-way-home easy.  Cue guilt.  Matt, much as I adore him (12 year anniversary this week!), is a glass half full kinda guy and thinks it will all magically work itself out.  Proof that opposites attract.  He has not been as enthusiastic about ASL as I've been (massive understatement).   Cue... something. 

And, in full disclosure, even I don't think she'll remain non-verbal.  She babbles, constantly.  She'll be completely quiet in her room but if I come in she lights up and starts telling me all her fantastic stories, in baby-speak.  She'll repeat sounds back -  she says "eeeee" when it's time to eat, or when I ask where her ear is, something approximating "zzzzz" when zipping up her PJs and I think her receptive language is oookkaaayy, but it's all at a very basic level. 

I saw a post today, courtesy of the 31 for 21 challenge (sorry, don't remember where), with a standard Ds developmental chart.  I'm long over comparing to typical kids, if I ever did, but we are now on the far end of speech for the *Ds* chart.  She only got 90 minutes a week of speech in her IEP.  We're clearly not doing enough at home, and I think she needs more at school.  I don't think the last year of speech therapy was effective (our first SLP was focused on the talking part and not so much ASL, feeding into Matt's aversion - I think the vocabulary needed to come first, the understanding that things have names and using them results in fun things like milk, dinner, and kisses).  Also, she's starting to get frustrated when we don't understand what she wants and I don't want her verbal skills to impact her behavior - but I'll save that for another night.

Anyway, seeing that chart snapped me to attention. I've been moping about, idly wondering how we're going to cover extra speech in near-Eeyore like fashion.  No.  WE ARE GOING TO FIX THIS RIGHT NOW.  So I called our health insurance provider, wondering what sorts of sadness merit speech therapy and who I'd have to bribe to get a "better" diagnosis.  (I won't share what I was prepared to do so you don't judge).  I was under the impression they wouldn't pay for it, because it's covered by the school, not a traumatic injury, some other reason dredged up from the murky depths of my half empty soul, but instead.... (sorry for all the caps) OH MY, HOLY $%^&*(%!!!! 

60 visits a year.  $20 copay.  No referral needed.  SIXTY VISITS A YEAR.  How many weeks in a year? Oh, that's right, LESS than 60!  That's 1.15 sessions/week.  We have been paying for the premium coverage but still felt dragged under by the bottomless annual family deductible(s).  This makes it all ok.  I'm not ashamed to tell you that after getting off the phone, there were great stomach-heaving silent sobs.  Luckily my office space is pretty private.  What a tremendous, tremendous relief. 

Also?  How much time did I just waste with my asinine assumptions?  A year.  Maybe a year and a half.  One third of her life.  !#$%^&*()%^  Guilt doesn't even begin to cover that. 

[Just to temper my giddiness, this won't be in home.  It won't even be within 20 miles of home.  We might even spend more in gas then we would have on private in home therapy, but a giant PFFFFTTTT to all that tonight.  Tonite? We dance!]

Little Monkey

Last week my girl and I were singing when she very clearly signed 'tree' and then 'leaf'.  Mother of the year, I had no idea what she wanted & couldn't think of any tree songs she might've picked up at school.  She kept signing them over & over and got increasingly pouty when my guesses fell short.  I'll admit I was wondering a bit - other than in Signing Times, landscaping items don't come up too often in our daily conversations (as anyone can see from my backyard).  What else could she be signing?  On Friday her teachers ran through a couple options and suggested the monkey song.  She looked SO relieved and happy when I asked if that was the tree song.  Jeez, mom, try to keep up!

My monkeys were always jumping on the bed but I guess this is the school of realpolitik:
5 little monkeys, swinging in the tree
Teasing Mr. Crocodile, "Can't catch me!"
Along comes Mr. Crocodile, quiet as can be, and
Snatches! that monkey right out of that tree!
4 little monkeys...

Did anyone else notice there are no LEAVES in this song?  I don't know if they covered this at school, but that is a huge leap, understanding that leaves & trees are part of the same thing. 

Her signing is taking off... she's recently picked up pig, frog (which admittedly looks a lot like 'pig'), bear, mouse, bird, hot, cracker (the last just now because we hardly ever had any in the house-but she learned immediately & with great enthusiasm once given a graham cracker the opportunity), socks, ape (but, oddly, not monkey), and she's pointing to a whole bunch of new body parts.  I still haven't figured out a name sign for her brother though.  I know there is a lot of protocol & sensitivity around the name sign issue but I've exhausted my available resources - Google, Julia, and Matt's one cousin who I've met twice and who hopefully just didn't know who I was so ignored me, or who I heartily offended with my presumptive demanding email.  But she needs to call her brother something and is nowhere near finger spelling yet.  We've been playing around with it a bit but nothing's clicked - in case anyone asks, however, it will be an "adaptive sign" (only).  Tricky business.

Pictures from our singing signing session Tuesday morning:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

MORE songs!

Bonus Mommy Love Picture

Frog?  Pig?  Frig?  Prog?
Old MacDonald, as a Mad Scientist

Bear, adapted.
Or:  Old MacDonald's Farm expands into zoo animals.

Keeping time! 
(Actually I have no idea, but it looks snappy!) 

Of Bears and Badgers and Bananas, Oh My!

So my panic yesterday was partly triggered by the fact that I worked late and both kids were asleep when I got home.  Worst Mom Ever.  Also, mostly, because when we were trying to find an overdue library book for the boy I found missy's flash cards on the desk and could not remember the last time we used them.  But if we're going to play fair, my girl did spontaneously sign banana at the store over the weekend as I was muttering about where the heck they were (fyi, non-parent-store-owners, everyone else keeps them front & center) - something I wasn't totally convinced she had the finger isolation skills to do.  And tonight, as I was putting her to sleep, she asked for milk.  She also signed food but she was clearly not signing sleepy baby or goodnight, as she is otherwise wont to do.  And she said thank you after I got it for her.

So there's that.

Not a total non sequitur:  she is VERY particular about her books.  Her two favorites, by far, are Bear Snores On and Big Red Barn.  Anything else may or may not acceptable on any given night.  She'll grab my arm and pull it in if she deigns to listen, but will either push away or, best, take the book and toss it if deemed unworthy.  I'm not trying to encourage this but... funny.  She's also quite particular about sitting square on my lap - I'm wondering how to sign and read at the same time as I hold the book, and her?  Not that I could even remotely translate, but I could probably hit a few of the major nouns:  Bear. Sheep. Cow. Mouse.  Moon.  I've been signing 'cat' for eons but she thinks it's a finger wave, because she won't turn around to look at me whilst the books are open, so I end up signing it in front of her. 

Also, the Bear book involves a badger and a mole - when else will those signs come in handy?  How do you explain the difference between rodents to a 2 year old?  And?  There's a slight chance she thinks the Bear is a dog.  Huh.

Complete non sequitur:   Genes Day was approved!  Though with any luck I will be drinking mimosas with my family on 3/21 instead of working (spring break).  The coward in me is a little relieved I'll miss the fuss - or, to be precise, the sure-to-be emotional turmoil of wondering why various people were too cheap forgetful to participate when it is so very very important to me and the sure-to-be-painful overheard comments near the coffee machine. 

Who are we raising money for again?
For the.... 

The chances of anyone answering this in even a remotely politically correct/people first way are microscopic.  I do have some fabulous one liners ready but they are so devastating in nature I'd surely be immediately terminated for gross insubordination (Kidding!  Mostly.).  But still - a step forward.  Cheers!

Panicky Blog. Not fun. Fair warning.

I used to think of my job as the lottery job.  You know - the one you'd keep doing even after?  But then came the kids and while most of the time I still love it, I do end up whining about splitting up my precious minutes.  At my free random-vendor lunch last week someone was worried about their dad, who'd retired, and what was he going to do all day?  I don't think I'd have any problem filling my day.  Mostly the usual stuff - gym, books, little volunteerism, definitely more TV (I jest!).  I also have a love/hate relationship with craftiness, but it's mostly born of jealousy.  Would love to know how to hem a skirt (or, heck, sew on a button), or do frou-frou things in my girl's bedroom. 

Or cook.  Love to do the big meals - Thanksgiving, et al - and the ever more rare social dinner but cooking for young kids is...painful.  My boy actually requests cereal & eggs. Not yummy stovetop scrambled eggs with cheese and tomatoes and butter...eggs in the microwave, cooked till rubbery.  [Yes, I'm sure this is a comment on my cooking. Thanks for making that leap.]  I'm a firm believer in the wholesome family dinner, veggies 'n all... but darn it if cereal isn't a lot faster.  And look!  The kids are occupied - I'll just take a peek over at this one site.  This, and the amount of TV they watch, count among the many hypocrisies in my life.  Also, SOMEONE, who shall remain nameless, seems to have developed some inconvenient taste buds lately.  I did, actually, make her carrots last night.  She screwed up her face and pushed the plate away.  I offered her the rejected orange I'd lovingly cut up at lunch - she tried to cover it back up with the plastic wrap.  That cracked me up.  Not only did she not want the orange, she was going to re-wrap it for me.  Stinker.

But mostly, I fret about her language skills.  We need to be doing SO MUCH MORE.  I should have taken a signing class and be narrating her day away.  We need to be going thru her flashcards daily and working on her letter sounds.  We should be doing more OT stuff, so that she has the fine motor skills to actually sign back.  I had brief passing moments like this when she was on the verge of crawling, and then walking, but I was never concerned she wouldn't get there.  --This-- is constricting my breathing.

I don't think this is one of those things that will come naturally, even if a bit delayed. We don't even have "mom" yet.  This is all on us and I feel like we're failing her.  She's going to be 3 in five months.  Even if we end up mostly signing, we need to be working on her vocabulary constantly.  And nevermind communicating with her extended family.... 
GAH.

So?  We do more.  (much MUCH more).  Just do it.
And that is my sloganized pep talk of the day to myself.

Late Sunday Afternoon

I should have gone into work this morning but Matt deterred me with a late night movie (Salt - awesoommme!) and the promise of more snow this morning.  I'm easy like that. And though I've been going non-stop since 7 (it's now 4:15), there has been -no- appreciable progress on the state of chaos that is our home.  Is 4:15 too early for a glass of wine?  I did spend a couple hours sorting through and boxing up my books... What I kept and what I'm giving away merits its own post (though it is suggestive of schizophrenia).  I finally turned on Signing Time for the girl on the main floor (LOVE Rachel) and something mind numbing for the boy in the basement, just so I could sit down for a second.  This is mortifying, but I am now "of an age" where being on my feet for 9+ hours make my feet achey. 

But I've no wish to bore you lamenting my domestic duties.  Photos from our snow day on Thursday. 

My snow angel

He had high hopes of a snow fort or, at a minimum, a snowman, but it was parched-dry powder. 

 So instead, he decided to dump it on me.

 100 years ago he would be trudging towards the pole on some Antarctic adventure.

Daddy's shoes

More photos of the kids in their PJs!

 What?  Are you just now noticing how ridiculously cute I am?

And if we're going to get all technical & braggy, the pretend play is exponentially increasing.  Though is using shoes and the phone appropriately really pretending?  Dunno.  Doesn't matter - LOOKIT THE INDEX FINGER!  (and?  dressed)

Also on the braggy spectrum - As part of the book cleanse, I gathered up all the Christmas books.  My girl (naturally) knocked them all off the table and then brought me one to read.  Story about the animals in the nativity/manger (? - sorry, my lack of religious training shines through).  Anyway, there was a cow.  (In the book. I don't know about the frequency of domesticated cattle in the middle east 2000 odd years ago.)  A real-ish looking brown cow with horns. Which looked nothing like the cartoonish black and white cow in Moo Baa Lalala.  I asked her where the cow was though and she pointed.  Wheee!  I remember her brother was late to talk (with the fun associated melt downs when he couldn't communicate) - then he suddenly just got it.  And it was exponential. 

[Would I be negative nancy if I acknowledged this is all receptive and/or signing and not verbal?   Dunno.  I still find it just .... marvelous.  I mean it's not like we have a lot of cows around us for her to be otherwise familiar with them. My baby sister's impressions of the midwest notwithstanding]

Signing Update

First list:
Mom, Dog, Book, Love, Sunshine, Shoes, Eat, Milk, Gentle (my version), Ears (their location, not the ASL sign thereof).

New accomplishments (& a few I forgot to include last time):

Hi/Bye

All done

Bedtime

Stars

Toothbrush

Dad

Sleepy

Bath

Ball?  (iffy)

I also think she signed Jacket tonight. Pending confirmation. 

Also pending further use of Car.

She also does the motions for wheels on the bus, patty cake, etc but if I'm being brutally honest, she is doing them en masse, i.e. not necessarily (read: at all) on cue with the lyrics, so they might be closer to awesome dance moves, & not so much word association.

"More" was one of her first signs but we were almost exclusively using it for food, which we thought might be confusing, so we started using "eat".  My little gourmand nailed that but "more" seems to have dropped off the radar.  After realizing this I started using "more book" for books no.2 & 3 but I'm just not sure she's ready for a two word construct.  "More" is such an abstract concept - if she's in the bath & isn't ready to get out is she going to sign more or bath?  Bath.  (actually she just pouts and scoots away).  I need to ask her speech EI but that gal doesn't seem to be as interested in signing as getting my girl to talk.  And she's coming along - she'll do almost all the age appropriate sounds on demand ("on demand" with any toddler being, of course, relative) but she's 2 1/2 years old still hasn't said "mom" yet.  (Which... well..... yeah.)  I don't doubt she'll talk eventually given the constant stream of jabber and the letter sounds.  I just haven't the faintest idea what eventually means.  I think her receptive language is fine.  If I say we're going upstairs or it's time to eat, she heads over to the stairs/table.  Also, she'll make those eve-of-talking sounds:  something close to zzzz(ip) when we're zipping up PJs, 'da-da' when we say 'thank you', etc.   So in the meantime, we sign [SOME OF US *COUGH* MORE THAN OTHERS] because A/ it'd be nice to communicate with her "now" (however long "now" lasts)  and B/everything I've read and heard says signing reinforces language development. 

Things that she would know except which require exceedingly excessive fine motor skills:
banana, hair, her brother's name, socks, toast, juice, water

Things that are confusing and/or which require far too much spatial precision:
milk/orange/eat.  snuggle/blanket.  baby/love.  grandma/grandpa (as compared to mom/dad).  wash hands/soap. brother.

Things she could give a flying you-know-what about, but with repeat play of Signing Time, she'll probably eventually pick up:  boat, train, bus, plane (sorry daddy), potty, any and all non-canine animal signs. 

Hopefully we'll get a couple more Signing Time videos for Christmas.  I looked for some ASL classes but they are geographically undesirable and I haven't the faintest frickin' idea when I'd actually attend.  I also found this site:  Signing Savvy, which offers little 1-2 second videos of each sign.  Except they occasionally vary wildly from our DVDs and/or our baby-signing books WHICH IS ANNOYING.  Are these dialects?  Is baby ASL distinct from grown up ASL?  Southern ASL vs west coast?  Shall we whip out the blue & red bandannas?  (Sorry, that's such a SoCal reference).  Seriously.

Signs.

No photos today. Need new camera batteries again. Next camera will be rechargeable, I don’t care what the pixels are doing. (I can’t discuss pixels without thinking of pixies flying around.  'Cause we clearly have those around here, causing mischief & using up all my battery juice).

So instead I thought I’d document the girl’s signs to date, for posterity.
Mom
Dog
Book
Love
Sunshine
Shoes
Eat
Milk
Gentle
Ears (their location, not the ASL sign thereof)
She’ll also sign along as I sing Wheels on the Bus and Doors Open and Close (the latter of which is the same sign as when the spider is washed OUT of the waterspout.  She's very emphatic when signing OUT.  Poor spider).

Things we are working on, or should be. Shortly.
Bedtime
Toothbrush
Diaper
Clothes (maybe just jammies. They’re in a drawer she can reach & then we won’t need to distinguish between the finer points of girls’ fashion)
Hair - or Head? Head & ears might get mixed up then.  Or feet?  Need to settle on body part #2 but nose/toes sound alike, and she’s already patting her tummy (instead of her thigh) in the sign for dogs, so that might be confusing.
Considering specific foods? 
Chair
Fork
Slide
Some sign for her brother – no way she’s spelling out his name yet & I can’t even remember the ASL sign for brother.

Other idea?