Eat. More. Bird.

I've been signing with Gusi since he was born with stretches of not doing so because I just didn't see it going anywhere. Today was a real breakthrough though and I'm glad I've stuck with it. He was having his morning snack of crackers and raisins. I asked him if he wanted more crackers and he didn't really respond either way. I thought it was a set back from the "finished" sign he had already learned and was getting discouraged. I decided to put some raisins in his bowl to see if he'd fish any out. He ate all of them happily and began grunting. I asked and signed "more" pointing to the box of crackers; "finished" he signed back. I thought, ok, he hasn't forgotten, but he kept grunting. I asked "more" and pointed to the raisins on the counter top and he signed "more". I was ecstatic. I praised him for being such a wonderful little boy and promptly put some more raisins in his bowl. He hummed as he ate them, but eat them he did. Then when the last one was gone he signed again "more"--without me even asking him! So I gave him a few more and when those were done he signed "more". I couldn't believe it. First of all he's getting this signing thing and second of all, boy oh boy does this kid like raisins! He signed "more" once more, ate a few raisins and then signed "finished". I was so thrilled and he could see that he had done something to please his mother so he was happy too. Later in the evening I realized that so many raisins going in means lots of poop coming out, but that's another story.

As the day went on we played inside mostly since it looked like it would rain, but we could hear lots of birds chirping from his room. At one point he stopped playing with his toys, looked up at me and signed "bird". I looked around and couldn't find a bird, but he stared out the window and signed "bird" again. He was telling me that there was a bird singing outside! I whistled and made the sign for "bird" and he signed back to me. Is this kid brilliant or what?

And as if two signs in one day weren't enough he surprised me with a third. My mom stopped by to see Gusi and at one point he wanted her to carry him. Looking back on it, I realize that it's my mom who often gives him his dinner since it coincides with her visit (plus it gives me time to do things like check emails). So, she picked him up and he kept grunting. We both asked him what he wanted and he finally signed "eat" and "more". He was using two signs together! We were so taken aback.

This parenting thing is starting to move to a new dimension of cool. Gusi is really getting into communicating and that makes me happier than I ever imagined. I've now bookmarked several American Sign Language websites as well as dog-eared my Baby Sign Language book. It should be very interesting to see what interests him the most in this big, new world.