Golden Pig Tales

Ezra has created his own sign for milk! It is only used for “mama milk” - Ezra hasn’t yet developed a drinking relationship with cow’s milk and he currently only uses it to wash his hands or squirt on his high chair tray. The first time he did this was last week when Grandma O was here visiting. I had come home from work, and was sitting in the living room with Ezra, Grandma O, and Kalab.   Ezra walked over to the couch and grabbed a pillow - one that I have frequently used to prop him up while he is nursing. I thought maybe he was just going to flop down with it on the floor, but instead, he walked it over to where I was sitting, and practically threw it at me! Then he waved his arms in the way he does when he wants to be picked up. So I thought this was cute and decided that since he had figured out a way to ask me, I would let him nurse. This might have been a mistake. Now every time Ezra wants to nurse (which has been often the last few days because it’s been so hot and he is teething), he picks up a pillow and gives me the sign for milk. And if I refuse him, he gets sort of upset!

Ezra’s sign for “mama milk” is so great I wish I had it on video! Maybe Kalab can help with this.

Yesterday, Ezra, -v-, and I had an hour long sign class to further assist -v- and I to teach Ezra sign language to help communication with Ezra before he can speak. The class was a fun class and was helpful in showing technique and expectations. One of the most important signs learned was the sign for stop, which is holding the left hand open palm up and then bringing the right hand down upon the left hand like the right is copping the left hand.

The stop  sign is an important sign and the one I have used often today.  Often because Ezra’s seems to want to play with power cords. He wants to grab and pull and bite them. This is bad. During the past, it was easy to keep power cords away from Ezra because he was unable to move sans rolling around, which never got him far. But now he can crawl. And though he can’t crawl very far most of the time, he seems to get a lot of motivation to crawl when the crawling is for a power cord. So if -v- and I keep up the sign language, I am sure the sign for stop will be one of the first learned.

I have been showing and talking with Ezra about sign language this past week. It is something that is both educational for me and some way I can interact and bond with Ezra. So far, Ezra just stares at me or laughs or smiles when I make the hand gestures to associate the sign with an object like mom or dad or triangle or square. So far, I don’t think Ezra has all the coordination needed to make the forms to count numbers or form letters of the alphabet or signs for objects. However, I have hope some day (maybe months or years from now) he will able to sign for many things. Or maybe he will lose interest and the signing lessons will stop. That is up to him. For now, I do have some encouragement to continue to do the sign language lessons for he can make the sign for milk, which is the right hand starting in the C-formation and then clenching the hand like milking an utter of a cow. Ezra can do this sign just fine, but I don’t think he has yet made the connection between the sign itself and the object milk.