Enjoying the journey...

Today was an exciting day. During our "Baby Signs" class at Gymboree, the "teaching moment" was for us mommies to remember to celebrate not only the moments when our children can communicate to us, but to celebrate the moments that our children understand a concept before they can communicate to us. Point in case... Each parent has that special moment with their child when they hear them say their first word. But how often, do we praise our children for understanding before they can speak? When they hear a command and follow directions. When they understand that this object goes inside another object, and repeats the motions. So that was our teachable moment, and I tried to take it and really apply it to our day. I was pleasantly surprised at the results that I got.

While playing today, I decided to introduce a new sign to Finnegan (one we haven't even gone over in class yet). It was the sign for "in". Finnegan enjoys the ball popper and we play with it frequently. I'll encourage him to pick up the balls and put them in the tube, and he never really understands. But today, I said, "Finnegan, pick up the balls and put them in the tube." While I did the sign. He watched me, picked up the ball and put it into the tube and it shot up into the air as the toy does. It was so exciting!! I praised him and clapped and cheered. And he had such pride on his face. He knew that he'd understood me, whether it was the sign that did it or just his comprehension of the situation, it was very exciting.

His signs are becoming more and more frequent. Although some signs still are not used at the right time (ie the sign for more, means that he wants to eat...) today she showed me a few signs. Which is exciting in and of itself. We were sitting down on the floor playing and he looked up at the ceiling fan and did the sign for "light". Oh, my heart was so happy. He knew that the light was on. What an exciting moment!! Now if we can only get the simple signs we've done from the beginning to be used on a daily basis, we won't have any more tears over "eat" and "drink" :)

Also, slightly smaller in comparison, but I taught Finnegan how to give me 5 today. It was great. He learned really fast and we did it the rest of the day. I then tried to teach him to "give me some love" and fist bump me, but he didn't get that as quickly. Perhaps tomorrow!! :)