I know, I know, I should go out and buy a Baby Signs book or something and teach him ASL or something. But knowing that Justin doesn't have the fine motor control for some of those signs, it's been easier (and more fun) to make up our own signs.
"Flower" was easy. Closed hand with the fingers touching to make a "pua" like in hula. He's even starting to say "fa" which I can't tell if he's trying to say "flower" or "fa" which is flower in Chinese.
Then I needed a sign for "music", since now he asks me to play his children's music CD in the car. I wussed out and could only think of patting my ear.
And now Justin is into trucks, cars, buses...anything big and with wheels. How do you make signs to differentiate all of that?? Whew. Suggestions are most welcome!
And here's one to file under "Kids pay more attention and remember more than you think" and also "Can I brag for a momemt?" - Justin brought over a rubber duckie to me on Sunday and I said without thinking much, "Oh thank you. What is it?" And Justin looks at me, puts his hand next to his mouth like a beak, opens and closes his hand, and says "Qua Qua" Crazy for two reasons: (1) That's actually the real sign for "duck" and (2) No one knows where he learned it! Neither Jay nor I did, nor did his babystitter or my mom. Weird. We're thinking that he might have learned it at one of the street fairs we went to about a month ago, where there was a vendor who teaches baby sign and they briefly showed Justin the sign for "duck". It's been a bit of a mind trip for me and Jay. Just one of those moments where you realize your baby is actually a little boy and can understand a lot more than you think!
Okay, but to balance out the bragging, at the same time, Justin is not as smart as we think ;) For the longest time, we've had trouble getting Justin to take naps at home. He would scream and scream and then maybe only sleep for 40 minutes, whereas at his babysitter's and my mom's house, he goes down without a fight and sleeps for an hour and a half to two hours. I was polling my babysitter and my mom about exactly what they were doing, trying to recreate the exact environment and routine at home...
Finally one day my mom says, maybe I should try putting Justin down for a nap in his pack and play instead of his crib since that's what he sleeps in during the week. Well, sure enough, we've tried it two weekends in a row now and Justin has taken a two hour nap each time! Little stinker. I guess he thought we were trying to put him down for the night in the middle of the day and didn't want any part of it. So now I've gotten a chunk of my day back...ahhhh!
We also went to the Acura dealership to look at cars this weekend and boy! Justin was in heaven! He was running all over the parking lot with Jay chasing after him, wanting to get into all the cars and press all the buttons and pretend to drive. I was standing there, trying to have a serious conversation with the salesguy, and all I can see is my son sprinting past, screaming in excitement. Hehe. Luckily the salesguy didn't seem to mind ;)
Ooo, I just remembered I do have some pics to share. Kevin took these:
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