Like Father, Like Son - my baby… growing up.

This last week Luke has discovered the backyard toys.  He will spend hours a day out there, getting in, getting out, getting on, sliding down.  His favorites are the toddler slide and the police car.  I have padlocked both gates to the backyard and they stay closed and locked so that he can go out there by himself without me worrying about him going into the street.  I love my fenced yard!

   

   

He also discovered a few weeks ago that the chickens were out there.  He will grab a finger or two and drag us to the back door…. he will point and then sign ‘shoes?’ ‘chickens?’ (which I taught him the sign for ‘bird’).  He giggles when we go get his shoes and he excitedly drags us by the finger all the way out to the chicken coop. 

 

Logan and Luke have been my children that have benefited most from sign language.  Alex and Cyan were earlier talkers, but Luke is still stumbling over “Mama” and “Cookie” so the signs at this age are an absolute lifesaver!  (They were for Logan, too.)  So far he has quite a few.  Cookie, shoes, chicken/bird, finished/all done, more, nurse, kitty/cat, dog, hot, food, owie/hurt, pretty and please.  Those are the ones I can recognize regularly and he uses most often.   It has saved us tons of frustration for him to be able to communicate well with us and for us to have him understand things like ‘owie’ and ‘hot’ has been essential!  I would highly encourage any mama to learn these few signs and teach them to their baby super early.  I start when they can first sit up to eat and always start with ‘food’ and ‘more’.  For some reason that sense is the easiest to connect well with their brain.  Probably because the mouth is so closely involved in all that!   

He now puts himself to sleep in his own room, in his own bed.  We have a routine down that is working well, and now after his bath and nighttime nurse/cuddle I lay him down in his bed and sit down on the floor and read my book or stretch.  9 times out of 10 he is asleep in 10 minutes or less.  No crying, no fuss.  My sweet baby is getting big so fast!