Sign Language

Baby sign language was all the rage when Charlie was born and we lived by it. The kid knew every sign in the book by 11 months and I don't know how we would have survived "Mr. Particular" without it. Besides, it's so darn cute.
But I had forgotten how fascinating it is until the other day. I hadn't been nearly as diligent in signing with Anna, and wasn't really even planning on doing it. That is, until she made up her own signal for being done eating, which entailed clearing her highchair tray with one forceful sweep of her munchkin arm.
In comes the sign for "all done". And apparently, I taught Charlie the wrong sign for this, but the whole point of signing is to be able to communicate, so I taught her the one I knew (the wrong one, of course...perfectionist, I am not.)
So after about a week of diligent signing at the end of each meal, the other night after dinner Anna let out one loud squawk, lifted her arm in the air to swipe at her tray, and then...the light bulb went off. Crazy thing is, I remember this being Charlie's first sign too, and you can actually see it dawn on their precious little faces.
It's like actually witnessing a brain synapse.
Not to mention how amazing it feels to communicate with a non-verbal baby. And I know it must feel amazing to her too. We are both thinking "she gets me!".

So she giddily slaps her fat little hands together and pulls them apart, signing that she is done.

Now the race is on to teach her every sign I can remember.