Baby Signs

We started teaching our baby, Abby, sign language around nine months of age. She was a little too young for this, which I didn't realize at the time, so I gave up and thought she was just too stubborn. When she was around twelve months, I saw an 18 month old doing the sign for please before he was given food. After seeing this, I thought to myself, "hmm, maybe I should try and teach Abby again." I started out teaching her please before she could have her animal crackers or other snacks. At first, she wasn't too happy about it and made her emotions evident by throwing a mini tantrum every time I made her sign. Once she mastered "please", we moved on to the words "food" and "more". I thought the essentials would be best to start out with.

Abby began picking up sign language fairly quickly and uses the words she knows on a regular basis. As a parent, it makes communicating so much easier for me and her. She is now up to 11 words, at 15 months of age, including, "please", "thank you", "more", "food", "pacifier", "up", "taste", "milk", "hi", "hot", and "come", with a few more on the way. We are in the process of teaching her "water", "juice", "mommy", and "daddy". The only words she is verbally able to say clearly are "Mama" and "Dada". Signing gave her the chance to communicate where she would have otherwise not been able to.

I have found that she learns best when I focus on one word at a time and use the word as much as possible until she masters it. Of course, when she learns a word we get really excited and tell her what a good job she's doing. There are many sources to help out in teaching a baby sign language. I prefer looking the word up online, where it is free and easily accessible. Once I have a new word in mind that I would like to teach her, I go to the American Sign Language Pro (ASLPro) website and teach myself how to say the word in sign language. I then begin to use the sign language whenever I am giving Abby that object or doing the action. I will also take her hand and show her how to do it. Babies signs look different than when adults sign, so I'm always watching for Abby trying to sign. Now, whenever she wants her pacifier, I have her say "pacifier" before I will give it to her. She is now to the point where she comes up to me and does the sign for "food" if she's hungry, "all done" when she's finished eating, "up" when she wants to be held, etc.

I would encourage any parent wanting to more easily communicate with their baby to give sign language a try. It has made our life easier and has definitely been worth it.

Have any questions? Leave us a comment, or even if you don't have questions, we love getting comments :)

New Shoes

We're still on our church hunt, and ready to find a home! We went to another new church today, but it is still not one to call our own. Abby had a wonderful time playing in the nursery, and they were even kind enough to change the poopy diaper that she had when we dropped her off, te he he. Or, maybe it was that they couldn't stand the smell...hmmm.

I feel like I haven't seen my baby all day. After church she went immediately down for a nap, actually she fell asleep on the way home and slept until two. Once awake, we swept her immediately away to Aunt Jolynn's and Uncle Randy's house for an evening of dirt, dishes, and dinner. Meanwhile, in the phelps family vehicle, daddy and mommy were off to Chesapeake for a little Best Buy, Babies R Us, and bread sticks. I know it's pathetic, we went to Babies R Us on our date, but it's not everyday that we're close enough to pop in, plus we had a gift card.

Abby at the Harrell House

While at Babies R Us we bought Abby two new pairs of shoes, because hers are getting too small and we wanted to keep her little tootsies warm. After bringing the baby back home from Giant Aunt Randy and Aunt Jolynn's house, she went exploring in the shopping bag and pulled out her new shoes. She was so excited about the new shoes, and couldn't decide which to wear, so she ended up with one fuzzy pink boot on her left foot and one dusty pink Converse like tennis shoe on the right.

The New Fuzzy Boot

Favorite Pastime

Lately, Abby has been enjoying eating crayons. At some point she was coloring and sneakily hid a blue crayon somewhere where mommy and daddy couldn't find it. She's a little like a dog hiding it's bones, but I don't think she remembers where she puts things, she just happens upon them every so often, such as the case with the blue crayon. I thought she was to the point where she enjoyed coloring with the crayons more than eating them, but apparently she enjoys them equally. All this to say, I found her today with bits of blue around her mouth, pursed lips, and a refusal to open her mouth. When I was finally able to pry open her mouth, out popped the crayon, and down went Abby into a helpless heap on the floor.

Church

We've been looking for a church since we moved, and still haven't found one that we feel like God is telling us to make our home church. So far, we've been to five, three Baptist, one Assembly of God, and one non-denominational. For the most part, the churches have all been very traditional. It has been difficult being away from our Brookside Family, please pray that we find a church soon.

**Quick commercial break: Garfield just snuggled up to Squirt and they're sleeping together on the couch. Sooo Cute!**

My aunt and I were shopping on Saturday and when we checked out, they asked for my phone number. Of course, I started with the area code, 909, and she almost wet her pants, because she was from Rancho Cucamonga, and moved back east to start a church. The location of the church is about 40 mins. away from our house, but we're still going to check it out. We've also been invited several times to join a Sunday school class at a local church for a 40 day program. We may go to that, not sure yet though.

Abby Antics

During dinner tonight, our little Abigail began waving at the fruit fly that was buzzing around her high chair. I didn't even notice the fly, but I always have to remember that everything is still new to her. After dinner I was using the restroom and when I came out, I found the baby girl standing on the dining room table, in the dark, because she had climbed up there to flip the light switch off, her new favorite activity. I even had all of the chairs pushed in, so she had to pull the chair out before climbing up. What are we going to do with our little acrobat? I was reading "Where the Sidewalk Ends" to Abby, while she was having her bedtime snack, and I was reading a poem that went through various animals on a farm, as soon as the word, "dog" left my lips she was up and barking. She's a very good little barker, and an almost better meower.

Dress up

Abby has decided that her new favorite game is to play dress up...with Squirt, our dog. She loves him so much, and he really doesn't like her much at all :( Poor Abby. When she decides it's dress up time, she'll follow him around until she catches up to him, then try and put various articles of clothing on him, such as her feet pajamas on his head, needless to say, he hates it. Abby has also discovered mommy's undergarment drawer, which is low enough for her to dig around in, and has a fun time trying to fit as many articles of clothing over her head as possible.

Busy Day

Abby and I had a fun and eventful day today. It was a nice switch from the usual, semi-boring routine. We started the day off by meeting two other women, and their children at Mug Shotz, a local coffee shop. Abby played with Peter, who calls her "Applegail" and tried to sit on the toy piano several times.

Next, we headed to the office for about 30 minutes, then went to the preschool age program at the library. The kids learned how to stop, drop, and roll, got to try on firefighting gear, climb around in the firetruck, see the lights, hear the siren, and make their own mini-fireman (Abby's looked more like a mini mess with a head). She was super cute, and kept walking up to all the adults to give hugs during the program.

After picking out a few new library books for Daddy to read to Abby at night, we went back to the office to pick up daddy, who took over Abby duty, while I took over my role as Athletic Business Manager. Abby and daddy had lunch and a nap. Everything else was the usual, until dinner, when Abby and I went to the 1st Baptist Church for dinner. Abby ate a wonderful meal, ran around with more kids, and, her favorite part, played in the curtains. We were even introduced in front of everyone as first time visitors :)

Sylvan Heights

Abby and I were able to spend the whole day with Mat yesterday, which we were really excited about, so we took a day trip to Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park. They have the largest collection of waterfowl in one place in the world, and Abby loved all the birds.


Baby Chicks who just hatched!

Abby on the playground

To see more pictures click here

Bathroom Sink

Our little Miss Abigail is quite the climber, she can now climb onto the couches, into her stroller, onto the dining room chairs, into the tub, and into her high chair. This morning we even found her sitting inside the bathroom sink, eating soap. Needless to say, this was a bit alarming, because SHE COULD FALL!!!! AHHHH!!! Okay, just calm down. So, we take her down and she's up there a few minutes later. Now, we have to keep the bathroom door closed which aided in all the things that upset Abby this morning and caused her to throw her little body down onto her bedroom carpet floor in a tantrum. Poor little baby. By the time she finally calmed down, she fell right to sleep in daddy's arms wrapped in her blankie fresh out of the dryer. Needless to say, it was easy to put her down for her nap today :)