Baby Signs

Maiya explains her aversion to pink polka dots in so many words

This picture doesn't have to do with anything. It's just a funny photo of a crying girl wearing pink polka dots on a polka dot blanket. My news for today, is that Maiya did her first "baby sign" at dinner last night! Tony was feeding Maiya carrots and pear slices and doing the sign for "more" which is making a fist and putting his knuckles together. Then she started doing it too! Tony yelled for me to look, and sure enough, she did it some more! (We've been doing milk, drink, food, and more for the last few months.)

Then tonight at dinner, Maiya was eating tofu. She was pointing and babbling as usual. But she seemed more pointed in her pointing, so I looked and noticed she seemed to be pointing at my glass, and saying "wa wa wa wa wa." What? Did she say water? Does she want some water? Who knows if she did or not, but Tony went and got her sippy cup and filled it with water. She grabbed it, smiled and started drinking. The other exciting thing is that for weeks, if not months, she drinks, but really needs us to lift the cup high enough so she can get to the water. Last few nights, I've been lifting the cup, explaining what I'm doing and telling her to lift it up. So tonight, when she took the water, she tilted her head sideways and back, and was getting the water. Click. Success!

We're so excited. We're happy that Maiya is learning to communicate. We really want for her to learn baby sign language, not just so she can communicate with us for water and more food before she learns to talk, but more importantly so she can learn to communicate with her cousin Kevin, who was born with profound hearing loss. Kevin is a happy, active one year old, and just keeps getting cuter every time I see him. Kevin is having surgery next week that will hopefully help him to hear... so please keep Kevin and his family in your thoughts and best wishes!!