Henry and my Anne Sullivan moment

I am getting my morning manna coffee and I hear a squishy squishy sound.  Henry, sitting on my hip, has taken his hand out of his (teething drooling) mouth.  It is drippy wet. Squish squish.  His little fist is pumping.  Thumb up in the air.  Squish squish. 

“Henry” He looks at me, smiley toothy grin.  I make the same fist pumping motion back up him. 

He erupts in monkey noises.  Ooo-eee-hehehe.   Bouncing on my hip.  Okay.  The coffee can wait (not really, I'll just bring it with me).  

What just happened?  Henry is hungry.  And for the first time in 7 months is asking for me to feed him.

  

Baby sign language. 

He is a caveman.  Ugh, what is this magical flame I have just found.  Lo, I have made fire. I am so clever.

I am Anne Sullivan:  Yes Yes Henry. It is water.  Waaaa-ttteer.  Water.  (No.  Yep.  I know that it’s water.  I’ve been trying to tell you that for months now.)

Breakthrough. 

We did baby signs on our 1^st lap through parenting (with Elliot).  Not terribly purposeful before solid foods (“cookie” sign is a hard sell to a 3 month old baby)  BUT we loved that she could communicate with us more easily when she was first learning how to talk.  It was a way of supplementing her early and pre-linga skills.  Maybe we averted some toddler frustration because of it.  I don’t know.  Elliot was just so chill that not much rattled her with or without sign language.   

We liked signs because she could talk when her mouth was full.  Because I could prompt her to say thank you from across the room without anyone noticing (or without me yelling).  It was a nice tool in our parenting batman belts. 

(I also think that it aided her language acquisition.  But I will let others write articles about research in that area.  My population sample size (of 1) is not sufficient to comment)

AND.  That brings us to this morning.  Henry finally got it.  And by the time I sat down to type this post – He had asked to nurse 3 TIMES in 20 minutes.  Because he can.  Because he is like a caveman and invented fire and wants to keep lighting fires.  And I keep feeding him because I am Anne Sullivan – sign language teacher to babies (well.  Really.  Sign language teacher to my  babies…and only about 15-20 signs.  But still - I’m cool.)