Tag Archives: Toddler Speaking

Newsletter-October 2011

Hello Lactating Girl Family,

It’s been a busy and happy month for us. Of course, school is in full swing at the moment, which makes our days pretty full within themselves. We’ve taken more than a few days (where Mama doesn’t have class) off from preschool to hang out at home though. I need to remember to keep myself motivated for the last month of the semester. I’m just so excited to be home with the two of you next semester (and beyond), so it’s hard to keep myself in the school-mindset.

Peanut, I am amazed at how you are developing. Your memory is astounding! When I ask if you want to go to the library, you tell me that you do want to go to the one with the blocks, but not the one with the bear. Obviously, you’re not too hot on bears. This particular library has a big bear that’s sitting in a rocking chair right by the front door. It’s the main library so we’ve gone there a couple of times to get a wider selection or to pick up a book we didn’t want to wait to be transferred to our library. Even with those couple of times of being there, you remember that you don’t want to go back because of the bear.

You’re also speaking in full sentences all of the time now. Honestly, you have been for a while, but I guess I just forgot to mention it in the newsletters. Just in the time I’ve typed this, you’ve said “I see my dog down there. Hi!” and “You want some of my cookie?” Of course, you don’t always have perfect grammar, but it’s still amazing how well your language is developing.

Twig, you are just growing right along! You’ll be born in 10 weeks give-or-take and you have a strong kick! You’re already taking my breath away when you get my ribs just right. The midwife says you’re posterior, just like big sis, which isn’t a big deal at this point, but I will do everything in my power to make you flip around.

You’re incredibly active now. Sometimes so much so that I can’t sleep. As I typed the last sentence, you kicked me twice. It seems like me laying on my side is a good enough reason for you to kick me simultaneously on both sides. It’s pretty amusing. You must be doing the splits or something.

Peanut is pretty excited about you coming. We talk about all of the things that are going to happen before you come (e.g. Thanksgiving, school ending) much like we do a list of errands to run. She always feels my belly and tells me she feels you moving, but I don’t think she actually does most of the time. It’s still cute though. She also loves whispering secrets to you.

Here’s a photo of the 3 4 of us dressed up for Halloween. My blog readers will have already seen it, but I still want to post it here because it’s kind of like our first family photo of all of us.

Love you both,

Mama

Baby Sign Language Update

I realize it hasn’t been that long since I did my original baby sign language post, but Peanut’s signing has exploded so I figured I’d do another post.

My favorite sign that she started doing is “I love you”. She mostly does it when people are saying bye to her and it makes me almost cry. It doesn’t look like the traditional “I love you” sign, but rather more like an L. I don’t think she has the pinky strength to hold it up on it’s own yet.

She also started signing cat and bird. Also Mommy and Daddy.

A lot of her signs are just mimicking me nowadays. If I do a sign and ask her to sign it, she’ll likely do something with her hands. That doesn’t mean that she’ll necessarily know what it means, do anything like it, or ever repeat it without me specifically asking. It’s still pretty cool though!

She probably has 15-20 signing words (I wish I kept better track) and she has 6 speaking words (Mama, Dada, Cat, Dog, Mum Mum, and Ya!). I think we’re finally seeing this more spoken words because of signing thing. I was concerned in my last post that Peanut spoke less because she didn’t have to speak. Now she has twice as many words as other kids her age.

If you want to sign with your kids, I definitely recommend taking a signing class together. We did Sign 2 Me because they use real sign language. It was at this class that I learned that Peanut really started signing at about 9-10 months, but I didn’t recognize it. We also made friends and were able to ask questions about signing. We saw a big difference in her interest in signing once we started the classes too. She instantly started signing more and paying more attention to the signs we were doing. I think it was helpful for her to see other people besides Mama and Dada signing. I also think that all the grandparents took it more seriously because we were taking the class. I honestly wanted to keep coming back, but we had completed the series and didn’t have money to take it again.

Do you have any questions about signing that I may be able to help you with? I want these posts to be more than updates, I want to have information that’s helpful for parents who want to sign with their kids.