Signing with the Babes

So Elliot, Henry and I are learning sign language. Babies' receptive language develops significantly earlier then their ability to verbalize their needs. Babies are able to communicate using finger signs much earlier, occasionally around 8 months. I've been signing "milk" with them for the last few months, but not all the time. I sign pretty inconsistently, so it will probably be longer before H+E communicate back. The other day I organized a list of all the signs I know for our signing group and it was a pretty impressive list. It's very nice that most signs are connected visually to their meaning.

Here's a picture of a boy who loves milk, understands the sign and will probably not sign it back for a long while:

Proof!

A Big 24 Hours!

So Elliot's been cranky for the past three weeks. He's whiny and clingy. Upset when I don't get his solids into his mouth fast enough and not wanting to nurse as much. I was pretty sure that he was teething, but there were no teeth developments to be seen. He's also been rocking on his hands and knees for the past two weeks and not getting far.


Well, last night Elliot crawled forward for the first time! This morning he was a little less fussy. I thought that if nothing else, he would be a little more happy not getting stuck under furniture all the time. Well tonight after dinner I stuck my finger in his mouth and felt a teeny tiny tooth! I hope that as the rest cuts through his attitude will get better :)

Disaster

We need to leave the house in half and hour. I'm getting my hair cut and Mike is going to hang out with the boys at the office. Too bad that they are skipping their morning nap. They are going to be hellions...I think I'm going to have to cancel my lunch date with Ada, or move it to chuck e cheese where screaming babies are the norm!

Photos

Here are two pictures to tide you over...

Henry at 6 months, 2 weeks

* is pulling up onto his knees. I thought he was just using my jeans to get closer to me, but it turns out that he is grabbing onto furniture to pull higher. I hope that walking is easier to deal with than crawling!

* can say bababababa. It's only happened a few times, but when I sing Ba Ba Black Sheep back to him he is really interested.

* can turn off him mobile. Last week he watched me press the button to turn it on and proceeded to sloppily hit at the control box. The other day he turned it off a few minutes after I turned it on.

Henry watches what's going on around him. He's a little weary of people, but is eagle eyed. He can find a cord anywhere, and loves to put everything into his mouth. He loves to be tickled (a brand new development) and has a throaty laugh. His huge smile can be slow in developing, but he shows everyone his two bottom teeth when he's ready. He can be a real love bug, and can really scream.

Elliot at 6 months, Two weeks

(super sloppy midnight post)

Is somehow creeping around the room. It's not noticeable until his is no longer where I set him. He can turn in circles, but doesn't seem interested in moving toward toys.

Is picking his tummy off the floor, and when he's in his crib he will strain his neck way up high to try to see over the edge (Henry was doing this about 6 weeks ago before he started getting onto his hands and knees). Elliot is crafty, though, and will pull the bumper down to peer out into the room!

Two days ago he began making a wheezing noise sometimes when he inhales. He's doing it on purpose, and it makes me laugh.

Tonight he ate a huge amount of rice cereal, applesauce, squash and carrot. He's been asleep for FIVE HOURS. I am going to start hosting a nightly baby dinner. First on the agenda: Getting Henry to eat heartily. This is going to be key to me getting fours hours of sleep in a row.

We have a fun week ahead: signing group tomorrow, playgroup in Tuesday, loose plans for playing on Thursday and lots of stuff on Friday. Maybe there should be some house cleaning in there somewhere!

When cribs were waiting for occupants:

What a Week

We've been busy since Christmas and are hoping that things will slow down for the next few days! Last Thursday we all got sick, which was just no fun. Luckily Gavin was in town, which meant that he, Sarah and my mom came to visit (and put the babies to bed while Mike and I put ourselves to bed). Luckily by Monday we were all back in fighting shape to ring in the new year. On Wednesday H&E and I made the three hour drive to Seattle for a visit. Turns out that six month old babies only like to be in the car for TWO hours. I'll spare you the details.

In Seattle we hung out with Aunt Daphne and Uncle Seth. I was really worried about how the boys were going to sleep. They are in their own cribs at home and both move around a lot. For traveling we only have one small portable crib...I wanted to put Elliot in a drawer or a box but sadly none were available. It turns out that they have a very high threshold for being kicked and rolled on (I suppose they have had a lot of time learning that patience in the womb). Daphne and Seth claimed to not be bothered by their crying in the night. Thank goodness H&E are so good-natured during the day. They charmed the pants off Daphne's coworkers and various patrons at Uwajimaya.

I went to Seattle to get out of town (running from the mafia), but also because Teresa's son Steven was visiting with his son (!) and wife (!!). Konrad was delightful and had a good time playing with H&E's toys. H&E loved chewing on his alphabet blocks. While toy sharing was okay, there was to be no interaction between the children themselves. It was great to see everyone - Steven's wife is very nice and they are really great parents! As per usual, I was terrible at documenting the occasion - there are a few pictures but they didn't turn out well. Maybe Daphne and Seth have some good ones.

We also had an opportunity to visit Robin and hang out with Miss Morgan, who is ten months old. She and Henry chased the cat for a bit while Elliot played with her piano. It was crazy to have all three babies hanging out in the livingroom - total chaos! I put Henry to bed in Morgan's crib and Elliot took a hap in his carseat so Morgan had her livingroom to herself again. She just played quietly with her toys and was a nice girl. I hope that Elliot and Henry will be like that in four months!

So we made it home this morning in time to attend our Friday mom's group at the hospital. The babies get kicked out of the group at six months, so today was our last day. It was a great group to attend and I'm glad we had the opportunity to connect with other mamas and babies. Here are a few pictures of our graduation:


So the boys are paying me back for all the adventures with fractured sleep tonight. Morning is looking very far away...