Learning Sign Language

December has a Baby Einstein movie called "First Signs." It's where sign language is taught for words in a baby's world, like Mommy, Daddy, milk, blanket, sleep, etc. December has had this dvd for a few months now, but last night she started mimicking alot of the signs! Here she is doing the sign for "baby."

To sign "baby," you hold your arms in a cradle-like position and rock your arms back and forth -- in this picture December is rocking her baby.

Here December is signing "Daddy." You're supposed to hold your hand out like you're showing the number 5, then touch your thumb to your forehead. December's version is pretty close!

December is signing "kiss." The real sign for kiss looks very little like this, but December is blowing a kiss, and that's close enough... :)

The sign for "eat."

She is signing "drink." You're supposed to wrap your hand around an invisible cup and lift it to your mouth, tipping the "cup" as you do. Here December is tipping her head instead of the pretend cup, but she's got the idea!

Sign language for babies is usually meant to help babies that aren't able to talk express themselves better. It's kind of funny that December is learning these signs now because she can say just about all of the things she's signing. But that's okay...it shows she's learning new things, and that's good!

Naomi and 13-month old baby Noah (the English family) invited December and I to go to a community gym today. On Wednesdays they have a toddler gym time where they put out all sorts of fun blocks, balls, trampolines, parachutes, tumbling mats, etc. for the kids to play with. It was fun! There were about 15 kids there, and as soon as Noah's feet touched the gym floor, he was off and running to play with the toys. He couldn't get there fast enough! I set December down, and for the first 30 minutes, she stayed within a 5-foot radius of my legs, just watching all of the other kids. I think it was a bit intimidating for her at first. She often does that when there are many children around...she just watches them. It takes her a while to get into the action, and she sticks pretty close. That's quite the turn-about for her, because in any other situation, she'll go exploring without a care to how far away Brad or I are or what kind of danger she's in. But when there's a few kids around, she just stares at them. I think she had fun, though!

It was amusing to watch these 15 children all doing what they call "parallel play." Kids in the toddler years don't really play with each other; they all just do their own thing beside one another. None of those kids cared what any other child in the gym was doing (unless he was trying to steal a coveted toy away). Each child was in their own world, playing by himself. What a funny thing to see so many kids in one place, each one playing by himself! December was no different -- she got in there with the best of them and played all alone.