Asher’s Signs
Asher’s signing is really blooming now. He’s picking up the signs we teach him much faster. He knows and uses these:
- more (used also to mean “I want” with pointing)
- eat
- meat
- milk (used rarely)
- hat
- hot
- cold
- water
- cow
- dog
- bird
- fish
- up (as in, “Pick me up!”)
- eggs
- strawberry (just starting to get this one now)
- apple
- baby
- bye-bye
- flower (not an ASL sign; sniffing with wrinkled nose)
- phone (Asher made this one up early on in his signing career)
- pluggie
- cookie/cracker
- please (used only rarely, but we’re working on it; social lubrication, ya know)
Nowadays, the limiting factor is my ability to stay ahead of him and learn/relearn the signs to teach him. On my list of signs to learn are fork, mouse, rabbit, insect, meerkat, and Steven Colbert. I know a sign for Star Trek already, but I doubt his little hands have the necessary dexterity to sign “live long and prosper” in the traditional Vulcan manner. I guess instead we’ll have to go with the no-neck geek sign to tell Daddy we want to watch all those brightly clad adventurers.
Asher’s also performing these intense, tai chi-like hand and arm movements while staring meaningfully into my face, head cocked to one side, eyebrows furrowed, like he’s trying to beam his message directly into my brain and simultaneously marry his motion with the message. It’s as if he’s saying, “Mom, do you get me? Do you GET ME YET?”
Um, sorry kid. You’re the one with the brain language center exploding with connecting neurons, firing synapses, and “Ah HA!” moments. I just have the rusty old wiring of a 36-year-old sleep-deprived mommy. I’m teaching you the signs, remember? I’m not too sharp when it comes to picking up your meaning when you invent signs. I don’t know what you mean when you use both hands to repeatedly beat on your head.
Wait … maybe you mean “Dammit, woman! Are you dumb?!”
June 13, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Hilarious. You’re the mom — you must know everything.
It shook my little world when I finally got it through my head that my mom didn’t know everything that had ever happened to me or the answer to every question I could think to ask her. There’s just something so all-powerful and all-knowing about moms… I don’t think I ever completely shook that image of my mother.