The power of sign language

Some of you may have read in my monthly update that Leighton is starting to sign. This is something I always wanted to do with my child from the beginning, but like everything it sounded good in theory but actually carrying it out was a whole other thing. I hit and missed with it since she was about 6 months, but then I read this post from New Mama's Corner and it inspired me to get more consistent.
I started out with "more" and "all done" because she was always screaming at the dinner table. After maybe 3 weeks she was doing it. So I have since added "eat" and "milk", which she now knows after only showing her a few times. I use other sign language (play, sleep, yes, no, thank-you, hungry, and good) but she only seems to care about the eating ones...hmmm. I am less consistent on those, so that is probably the problem...yes, I am sure that is the problem. :)

My point, it has cut down on lots of tears and frustration, for both of us really and it is easy to learn. I googled baby sign language to learn some of them, but most of them I knew from somewhere. I think once upon a time I was big into learning sign language.

Here is a clip of Lo in action. I apologize that it is hard to see, poor lighting and a baby who didn't want to be a performing monkey :)

Please note: "More"--putting both hands together in touching motion.
"Milk"--is an open and close of one hand like you are milking a cow.
"All done" is a waving of both of your hands.
My descriptions here are stellar, I know, I am more of a show you girl than an explain it girl. So I beg you to go to the listed websites to really get a good idea.

Here are some sites I found useful if you are interested:
Baby Sign Language
ASL

Bottom line, it is never too late to start with your baby. I am truly amazed at how fast Leighton is picking up on all of this daily. She understands what I am saying to her and I am about 97% sure she is happy she can tell me what she wants!