we have communication!

I was a little skeptical when a friend lent me a Signing Time DVD, as I'm very anti-TV watching. (Like, we have no TV!) However, I am now a HUGE fan of signing time and using sign language in general. (Note: this doesn't mean you have to watch a movie to sign. We really only watched each lesson a couple of times, and then I knew the signs well enough to just show them to Carson. Although since he's had a couple of nasty colds and was allowed to watch more Signing Time while he was sick, he's picked up on a lot more signs!!)

Carson can sign about 20 words!! When he's sitting in his high chair and runs out of cheese, I LOOOOVE that he just looks at me with big eyes and signs "more" instead of screaming or doing anything else unpleasant to tell me he wants more cheese. Another favorite sign is "dog" (you pat your leg). When we're on a walk, if he sees or hears a dog, that hand goes flying down to his leg to pat, pat, pat. The other day, he was bundled up super tight with lots of blankets during the walk. I heard a dog bark, and sure enough, you could see some movement under all those blankets... a little hand going pat, pat, pat. And as we walk through Costco, he just has to see the sample cart for him to start signing "hot!" For the record, his list of signs includes: more, food, thank you, hot, fish, dog, cat, car, airplane, shoes, hat, milk... and that's all I can think of right now.

Carson also verbally says "moo" for cow and "baa" for sheep, along with the usual dada and (finally!) mama. His most frequently said word is "ball;" he is definitely his father's son and LOVES balls. He also says "cracker," (just "ka" really), and recently "book," which sounds pretty much the same as "ball," but I know what he means.

During the past year, I've frequently said to Rick, "I can't wait until Carson can just talk to us!!" We're on our way!