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December 21, 2004
Have you ever seen a baby sign 'SOCKS'?
Heart-melting.
I'm sorry, but seeing Gus sign socks is the cutest damn thing I've EVER seen. Hands down.
For those of you wondering what's so special about the sign for socks... take the pointy fingers from both hands. With both fingers facing in a downward direction, take your right pointy finger and act like you're sawing off the left pointy finger at the knuckle. That's the sign for socks. Now look at how big your hands are. Think about how cute and pudgy and tiny a one-year old's hands are. Imagine those two-inch fingers doing this sign. Imagine Gus hearing me open his dresser drawer over the monitor, then looking at John and signing 'SOCKS'. Imagine us sitting in the car tonight, me in the back with Gus, him emphatically signing ZEPPO (where the hell is Zeppo, already???? Home, Gus. Home. We need to teach the sign for home...). Imagine him then signing MILK (I must mention that all of this is spontaneous, it's not John nor I saying these words and then having him sign them). I said, yes, I know you want milk. He whined. (!) Then imagine him signing SOCKS.
Socks.
Upfront, I must admit that I always balked a little bit inside when I heard so many people going on and on about how great it was to teach babies sign language. I was a baby signer, I grew up bilingual, it was part of my life. I balked inside because it made me mad that my Mom, who is deaf, was often discouraged from signing for fear it would prevent her from speaking or learning English. Yet, today, we want all the hearing babies to learn sign.
Sorry, I'm just 60+ years bitter.
Things have changed, a lot. You see ASL being taught everywhere, the babies are learning it... I just hope that that all translates to us teaching our deaf babies sign, too, and not reverting back to the old fears that signing will prevent English proficiency.
My main goal in teaching Gus to sign is so that he can communicate with Grandma Shirley...the fact that he can communicate with us is an amazing bonus.
I mean, look what signing can do... I already know that Gus loves ZEPPO to infinity and beyond, loves him some MILK (and MORE of it) and man, SOCKS rock.
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Soon to come... tales from the harrowing haircut hoobala. Part 1 was on last Saturday, where we (yes we) trimmed the sides and back of Gustav's hair. Part 2, for someday, is the bangs. I'd take pictures, but my camera is in the car freezing its butt off with a dead battery. Just imagine...after we trimmed the sides, for about five minutes he had the best mullet ever.
Posted by janna at December 21, 2004 12:05 AM
Comments
Dear Gus,
I remember your cousin Kersten learning to sign and how fun it was to watch her grown by leaps and bounds. I remember writing down every cute thing she signed. You, know, she looked a little like you, chubby, blonde, and of course, extremely adorable! It was like majic being able to communicate with her so quickly. Although she is deaf and it was obviously a necessity, it was a wonderful opportunity to watch her grow in her vocabulary and communication skills. There were not many other toddlers with a vocab. of over 500 words...we were so proud.
Having said all of that, my favorite sign story is Alex. When Alex came to us, I had made up my mind that I wanted him to learn sign language so that he would grow up to know his Aunt Shirley and see what a fantastic person she was. (I would soon learn that a lack of sign language would not prevent that because she wouldn't let anything stand in the way of getting to know him) Anyway, I had been working with him on simple sign and some of his first signs were milk, mom, dad, dog, cookie and "pop." that is right, pop. One day when he was about 16 months old he was toddling around the kitchen and tugging on my leg, signing, repeatedly, "pop." I kept repeating POP? you see, I had never seen him sign anything like it and I was sure he was signing something entirely different that just looked like "pop" because for heavens sake, 16 month olds know nothing of "pop," right? finally, after my asking for the tenth time, "pop?" he signed pop and said "PEPSI" plain as day! I of course walked directly to the phone and dialed Alex's grandma Ann and said, "Mom, Alex has something he wants to tell you," Then, I held the phone over and said, "Tell Grandma Ann what you want." "Pepsi!" loud and clear. Although she swore she only let him taste it, she was so busted. He settled for "juice" which his Aunt Shirley or cousin Janna had taught him and all was well... just thought you should know.
Posted by: Aunt Deb at December 21, 2004 06:43 AM
Wow - that's hilarious. I love that the kid busted Grandma.
My sister taught my niece some words in ASL and she was really happy to sign and never talk. In fact, she only recently started talking - but it wasn't words. It was sentences.
I love it!
Posted by: alyssa at December 21, 2004 01:09 PM