ASL - Teach your children well.

Piglet signs "all done."

Piglet signs "fan."

Piglet signs "please."  Just look at his earnest expression!

I'll admit, I was a skeptic about ASL (American Sign Language) and babies.  A couple of years ago when my bestfriend Jess would put her infant daughter's chubby little hands together to teach her the sign for "more" I was like "dude, you are crazy." She'd say "maybe, but I want to try" and we'd have a little laugh over it. Lo and behold a few months later our families were out to dinner and when Miss A wanted more of her mom's pasta, can you guess what she did? She tapped her fists together asking for more. Seriously. I was chagrined. So when it was my turn on the mom merry-go-round, I read tons of material on sign language and the great benefits of teaching it to your child at a very early age. And I mean EARLY. As in starting at two or three months. I have to say, I didn't see the point in "teaching" Piglet anything at that age, I mean, REALLY. The kid was just starting to poop consistently for Pete's sake. Did I really think he was going to tap his hand on his chin saying "momma?" COME ON PEOPLE. Be realistic! Still, I did see the benefits of being able to communicate effectively with Piglet before he could/would verbalize things to me.

So dh and I set on a course to teach our little spawn a little sign language. At first, he was much more diligent at it than I was, but then one day around eight months old, Piglet slapped his hand on his thigh when the dog mosied by. The next day he did the same thing when he saw a picture of a dog on the Cottonelle package.  It was amazing to me. Piglet not only knew the sign for dog, but remembered it. He wasn't just copying us, but signing of his own accord. He GOT IT. And I got it too.  So THAT was what all the fuss was about!

From then on he's been an unstoppable signing machine...from milk, to help, to book, to please, Piglet is quite the savvy little signer. The other day he signed "sleep" and "milk after his bath, so he's starting to put signs together and form very basic sentences. I am thrilled! Though we're not launching into any debates about the economic stimulus plan, Piglet can effectively communicate his needs to us and we can do our best to accommodate him and avoid most meltdowns.

We use this book and this book and we think they're great.

Piglet signs "book"

Piglet signs "car."

Piglet signs "dada."