Learning signs

We have been doing several signs with Alex since he started eating food. We'll do signs for "more", "all done", "eat" and "thirsty/drink" as appropriate, and also move his hands to do the signs as we say the words to help him learn.

Last week, I thought he put his hands together in a sort of "more" sign while I was feeding him dinner, but I wasn't quite sure how intentional it was. However, today he definitely did two signs intentionally. It is amazing what babies can learn at this age!! (He is 8.5 months now...how did that happen??)

First, this morning he put his hand up and waved it back and forth when I asked him if he was all done after sitting on the potty. I don't think he was really answering me saying, "Yes, mom, I'm all done going to the bathroom." However, I do think he's heard me say "all done" enough with the sign that he knew that what he was doing with his hand went with the words that I was saying. Pretty cool!!

Then, tonight he'd already eaten dinner and gone to sleep for a bit and then he woke up while we were eating. He was wide awake so I brought him out and was holding him as I ate my dinner. Alex was facing away from me, but toward Rajeev's mom, and she said, "Look! He just signed 'more'!" I was really surprised! I turned him around and asked him if he wanted some more and he did the sign again. I gave him a bite of a cracker and after he ate that, I asked if he wanted more. He did the sign probably 10 more times like this, laughing like crazy every time we would see him do it and then give him a bite of cracker.

I can't remember how old Arya was when she started learning signs, but it is so amazing to see babies figuring out that they can communicate even before they can talk. We may not know tons of signs, but it was definitely worth it to try signing some common words/needs when Arya was a baby, and I think it is going to be good to try these with Alex as well!