Founding a Family in Clutter

Baby Signing

Well, I am getting a little tired of defending why I teach my son, the Dao, baby sign language: aka ASL.

"But is he deaf?" "How will he learn to speak?" "Doesn't it stop him from making an effort to talk?" "I don't understand why you would do it." "In my day we just spoke clearly to children and got them to repeat after us."

Is it so little known? I had no idea.

I knew a woman maybe 8 years ago who was an ASL translator, and she had little twin boys, and of course she taught them sign. How wonderful to see these tiny little kids, hardly more than babies, able to communicate their wants and needs clearly. To see their mom able to ask them if they wanted a juice, or were tired or cold, or why they were crying, in a meeting of adults, silently. Without any whining, raising her voice, interrupting the flow of verbal conversation.

So I guess I was predisposed to considering sign language for small children even before being a mom was seriously on the horizon for me.

I forget where I saw "Baby Signing Time" for the first time, but I ordered the dvds before I adopted, and watched them through. Again, how wonderful to see older babies and small toddlers, incapable of pronouncing more than the simplest of baby talk, able to communicate what they wanted or how they felt with body gestures, albeit more clumsily than adults.

But really, what a wonderful thing. I of course speak clearly when talking to the Dao, enunciating and having him watch my face. I repeat a word over and over clearly while signing it. Sometimes he makes an effort to pronounce. Sometimes I can almost recognize what he is trying to say, like "aaahhhkooo" for "thankyou".

But the other night: "Meat!" "ma!" Meat!" "ma!" Meeeeeeeet" "Ma!" "Dao, say eeeeeee" "Ma" "MEEEEt" "MA!"

hmmm. Ma! is also how he says Marc, bus, mitten, milk, ....

But a little effort and within three minutes he was making the sign for "meat" in sign language (together with saying "MA!")...

He can now use the signs for: please, thankyou, cat, dog, bird (chicken), banana, apple, pear, meat, cheese, milk, water, cereal, cold, hot, hat, coat, pyjamas, shoes, socks, cracker, egg, toast, butter, soap, diaper, car, hungry, finished (all done), bear. Working on soup, spoon, fork, bus, airplane.

And he has gone from saying "mamama" along with signing "banana" to saying "nana" along with the sign... much closer and more intelligible. So I don't think signing is holding him back. Rather making it less frustrating for me and him to communicate.

And in the end, I think it is pretty cool for him (and me) to have a base in ASL, to communicate with the hard of hearing and deaf. (or just eachother across a loud crowded room). And I've purchased three other of their videos (Everyday Signs, Time to Eat and My Day), and he loves them. There are all sorts of books out there too, so I don't seem to be the only one doing this, despite the attitude of my neighbors.

What do you think of using sign language with small hearing children?

Books Books Books!

Thanks to everyone who said my kid is cute (and the dogs too! :D) And thanks, I will try the glucosamine, and the castor oil, eucalyptus oil rub... I appreciate the suggestions. And yes, the dog could pull the sled. In fact it is in my plans. But 1) she is only 10 months old herself, and not so reliable on a leash.. it is bad enough having her lunge off when I am holding the leash... disastrous if she is pulling the kiddo! And 2) the snow is all piled up crazy, and I think she wouldn't be so very good as I am at calculating where to pass so the sled doesn't slant, dumping the kiddo overboard sideways. With me in the middle, I control both the dog and the sled. And really... the sled weighs nothing, and I step into the rope, so it is around my hips and I just walk forward. It was carrying the kid for an hour slogging through snow that did me in!

Anyways, I DO have a harness for the dog (from a previous dog) but must rig something up so that the sled isn't on a flexible rope, but rather something stiff so that it doesn't slide into the dog's back legs everytime she slows down or is on a downward slant... it will happen, and maybe by then she'll be a wee bit older and wiser! (and the kid better at hanging on!)

OK, the new topic is BOOKS!!

Well, mama cannot be happier... ok maybe a BIT happier... Taotao has fallen in love with books. As mama has a big book habit (too many books, not enough time), Taotao has decided to follow. He is usually up for about ten minutes (during which we send him to the potty, put on his slippers and he cuddles with Gretchen) before he comes running with a huge armful of books! This continues throughout the day... whether mama is on the phone, trying to chop up veggies for dinner, make his breakfast, trying to put him in a snowsuit, brushing her teeth, on the toilet... (you can see mama might be a BIT happier if it happened at more opportune times), including when he sits on the potty. ----------- "Nini dit Non!" is no longer THE book of choice. The new one is Good Night Gorilla, a delightful book with full spread pictures and very few words, about a zookeeper saying goodnight to all the animals, but the gorilla has stolen his keys and lets them all out one by one, and they follow the zookeeper home to bed. There are lots of little details to keep wee ones enthralled: Taotao loves the gorilla yawning, the big googly eyes of the zookeeper's wife in the dark, the gorilla and mouse crawling in under the covers at the foot of the bed: mama pretends her hand is the gorilla climbing in under Taotao's shirt, and now he can be seen doing the same to himself as he looks at that page of the book on his own. --------------- He still loves Goodnight Moon, pointing out the kitties, and signing 'cat", pointing out the mittens and the little bunny going to bed. ------------- A new fave is the board version of Dr. Seuss's "Hop on Pop"... he esp likes where the ball on the wall playing beasts fall off (he says "oh oh!!"), where Pat sat on a Cat (mommy makes cat meowling sounds, so he does too), "No Pat No! Don't sit on THAT!" where Pat is going to sit on a prickly cactus and mommy pokes his butt with a pokey cactus spine finger (ouch! ouch!) and best of all... he'll come running to me with the page open and stick out his finger for me to munch and go "gnawgnahgnahgnah!"... the page where "He is after me." (beast bites the guy's toe!) and "Jim is after him" (Jim bites the beast's tail!)... Personally, I grew up with the hardcover paperpage version so I miss Pup is Up. Brown is Down, Pup is Down, Where is Brown? Mr Brown is out of Town! etc... but this version is great for 2 yr olds. -------------------- A real fave these days is "Messy: A very first picture book". Now, Taotao can relate! Pictures of kids messing themselves with their lunch, breakfast cereal on the floor, pouring their drink out of their sippycup onto the table, squishing paint with their toes, fingerpainting, making sand castles and squooshing them down again... a toddler's dream in photos! ---------------- The final book that comes out nearly every day, if not multiple times a day is Splash! which has different animals sweltering under the sun until the baby elephant leads them down to the water to cool off. The images of the animals are lovely, very painterly. Repeating "hot, Hot HOT!" for each animal, Taotao does the sign language for "hot", and then when the animals go into the water (to drink, to play, to splash), he signs "water" and "drink" etc. A very simple but fun book. There, that is Taotao's favorite daily reading list right now!

Aching

Well, you know that no one is reading your blog when not only does no one comment on your product reviews, but also not a soul comments on the first actual photo you've ever posted of your kid and dog. Ah well! It's ok, baby Dao! you are CUTE!! And what a great stroller!!

No one told me, or I didn't listen, how much everything would ache when I became a mom. Is it because I'm 44? I dunno. I think I am getting bad tendinitis in every finger attach point at my elbows. If I rub my eyes it hurts near my elbow/forearm. If I cut pizza with my fork. If I squeeze my hand shut or shovel snow. Even if I just BEND my arm towards my face to scratch my nose. It hurts when I push down with any finger. When I wring out washcloths and dishcloths (which I do a billion times a day). And when I brush the dog. And when I pick up the kid and hold him. Egads.

And now today my hip started hurting from pulling the sled through snow drifts yesterday. And I was silly and tonight when the bus wasn't there at the subway stop, I carried the kid all the way home, about 40 minutes walk through snow and slushiness, in the Mei Tai. My neck hurts, my back hurts, my shoulders hurt, my knees, my hip is worse, my arms... oh dear. You'd think I was ninety!!

But I am haunted by a fear of just "giving out": before my arms only hurt when I rubbed my face, not when I picked up the kid. And what if my back goes out? Who will help me? The reason I am having these "overuse" injuries is that I am doing this singlehandedly. So who will do it if I can't carry him, or am limping too much to walk the dog in the snow and drag the kid around? It really is worrisome. egads.

And what is the cure?? We all know! STOP doing what I am doing! Do it less often! Give my body a chance to heal. It is like working out 7 days a week, for the past three months. And it is just the start. The start of the mamahood. The start of winter snow. oh dear.

Anyone have any great tips for tendinitis in your elbow?? or saving your back?
And hey, say the kid and the dog (the St. Bernard is mine eh!) are cute!!! ;D

gnite.
me
cluttergirl