Expanding Our Sign Vocabulary

I've been signing to him since he was 6 months old and the only real signs he picked up and used were all done (which he never uses anymore) and milk for nurse. But since E has become more verbal he has also started using and picking up a LOT more signs. A few of his newest signs are Whale and Please. He's also starting to try and sign thank you by just placing his hand over his mouth :)

I'm excited to see him start to sign more and it's fascinating to watch. He usually will sign and say the word he's signing instead of just signing it. It's almost as if he has to know how to say the word in order to try to sign it. Much different than I was expecting but he's learning non-the-less. I think that signing songs to him is what really helped him. We go to a Signing Story Time class every month hosted by Joann at Sign4Baby and she has taught us some wonderful signs to use when reading books as well as when singing our favorite Hullabaloo songs! So when we're in the car (and stopped... sometimes) I'll sign along with the song so E sees that the words in the song correspond with the signs I'm doing.

I can't wait to teach him the alphabet and more complex signs as he gets older!

E Signing More


E's version


ASL version

E Signing Whale


E's Version


ASL Version

E Signing Please


E's Version


ASL Version

Potty Training

Let me preface this by saying I am not trying to potty train my 18 month old.

A lot of talk around me is about potty training these days. I have a few friends who have started this journey with their older toddlers. Some with success and others who'll try again in a few months. There are lots of different methods. No diaper, no underwear, no pants/shorts for two full weeks at home with lots of plastic on the floors, Pull ups or trainers to start, only big boy/girl undies, etc.

And I'm trying to prepare myself. To watch the signs that E is showing us as he is becoming more and more aware of his body and the things he can control. He knows the words "poop" and "pee" and is learning the word "penis". Currently he just says "pee-pee" or "pee-nee" when he points down or grabs his penis.

Lately though he's been saying "poop" when he poops and wants to be changed. It's not always frequent but if he's not too distracted he will let us know when he needs to be changed. I think it's pretty convenient and it beats trying to peer in to see if he has pooped. But yesterday he did something different... He said "poop" before there was poop...

E was nursing after his nap and stopped, pulled off and said, "poop." Now usually this means he went poop (as I said before) so I took him to get changed. No poop. I asked him if he had to go poop. And he started grabbing down and repeating poop. I asked if he wanted to go on the potty and he immediately perked up.

I put him up on the toilet seat and... nothing. So we got down and I asked if he was ready to get his diaper on. He said poop again and tooted so I scooped him up and put him on the potty not expecting anything.

Boy was I wrong! He pooped in the potty! And what was the one thing I thought of first? Man, I'm glad I didn't have to clean that one up :)

So while I'm not quite ready to fully start potty training I am very excited that E is starting to communicate more with us and is actively excited about pooping on the toilet. And I'm definitely going to get a toddler seat for the toilet. He may not be fully ready now but when he asks to go I'm not going to stop him!

No, no, no...

Apparently my son now knows how to say the word no. My husband tells me that he started to copy Grandma Ann this Thursday when she told him "No, no, no!". He'd say it back and than giggle. Well today I asked him if he wanted watermelon after he ate his sunflower butter & jelly sandwich (shaped like a dino, of course) and he ran to the fridge yelling, "No, no, no!" Guess what he meant? YES!

Haha... he's also very good at telling you what a cat says, what a dog says and what a duck says. We're working on cow and sheep but he isn't quite there yet. And he still refuses to point out anything but his eye, belly button and tongue when we work on body parts. But he knows other body parts exist :)

Learning New Words

I had a "meet & greet" yesterday with an OB in order to be an established patient with him just in case I'm not able to give birth at the birthing center I'm going to. While we were there I had to pee in a cup.

Ethan always wants to be with me when I'm in the bathroom (what kid doesn't?) and kept asking what I was doing. I said I was going pee-pee. I peed in the cup, put it on the counter and Ethan pointed to it and said "juice?". I said "no, that's mommy's pee-pee". He repeated "pee-pee!".

We washed our hands (whenever I was my hands he wants to wash his) and than walked out. As soon as he saw the nurse he yelled (well within hearing range of the waiting room) "mommy pee-pee!!" and started to giggle.

Now I am not quite sure if he actually knows what pee is even though we tell him when he does it (along with poo) but I just had to stop, pick him up, smile and quickly walk into the exam room. What else is he going to say next?

Communication is Key

In any relationship communication really is necessary. This also goes for the relationships we have with our children. And E is starting to get MUCH better at communicating. He has a long list of words he now says. A few of the new ones are trash can, keys and banana. Sooo cute to hear him say these!

But now he's starting to sign back to me as well! Over the past few days he went from only signing All Done after dinner and waving bye to go outside to signing milk to nurse, signing bird when he sees a bird flying, and signing light when I turn on the light. I'm going to start reading the sign books to him at bed time once we master his body parts and hopefully he'll learn a lot more.

Tonight E wasn't feeling too hot and was ready for bed a bit early. Wanna know how I knew? He came up to me with tired eyes and signed All Done! Like... he's all done with the day. I thought he was confusing all done with milk. So I asked him "Are you all done or do you want to nurse?" And he signed all done. So I grabbed him and told J that we were going to do our bedtime routine a bit earlier.

We changed his diaper, put on his pajamas and crawled into bed. E signed all done again and I asked him if he wanted to nurse. He ignored me and crawled over me to get off the bed. I was starting to get confused until he reached for a book and handed it to me (it was on the night stand and he could only reach it from the ground, not the bed). So I picked him up and gave the book to J to read.

After two books E turned to me and signed milk to nurse. We nursed as J read the last book and than J turned off the lights and turned on the white noise. E was out in 5 minutes!

I am swelling with pride!!! My baby is just so darn smart!

Another word!

E's new word is "Uh-Oh"! Sometimes it doesn't sound the same.. O-O or Oh-o... either way it's cuter than heck :) Except when he purposely drops his sippy so he can say it.. little stinker!

Language boom!

So a few weeks ago E started saying dog (dogah) and Jetta (do-dah, one of our dog's name). Since then he says hi, out & up on top of mom and dada! I am amazed!

Today we were at a Valentine's Day party with our playgroup. one of my girlfriends was playing with her 6 month old. E came up and stood by her and pointed to the baby and said Hi Baby! She turned around and said, "Um, Danielle, I think E just said 'Hi, Baby!' and pointed to Luke." I couldn't believe it. Now I don't know if this was a fluke or not but whenever we go by pictures of E as a baby I always say 'hi baby'!

It's just so cute! I've been a little worried (and haven't confessed yet) about him not walking yet since he's been crawling since 6 months, pulling up since 9 months and standing up since 10 months but he was just working on his language skills instead!