Communication

Maisy's desire and ability to communicate surprises and delights us more each day. Of course she expresses herself through her actions, and indicates that she understands us by her responses to what we say. But she also communicates using American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken English. (Alas, my plans to teach her Spanish have fizzled, at least for the time being.) I wish I had done a better job making a record of how and when she began using each particular sign or spoken word, but here's a fun example. Maisy really likes to eat melon. We place a few bite-sized pieces in her bowl, usually saying to her "Here is some melon" and signing melon. At first, when she finished her melon, she did the sign more, and maybe also the sign eat. Then, one day all of the sudden, she said "melonmelonmelonmelon", but with the emphasis on the "o", as in Spanish (melón) (hmm, maybe she is learning Spanish through osmosis?). A few days later, "melonmelonmelon" along with her imperfect but recognizable version of the sign melon. Wow.

Anyway, we're regularly astonished and are on the edges of our seats to see what she'll do next. Here is a list of the signs and words/sounds that Maisy uses, to date:

Signed Communication

All Done

Apple

Baby

Ball

Banana

Bath

Berry (makes the sound that we make with the sign: <smacks lips>)

Book

Bread

Butterfly

Bus

Cheese

Cracker

Daddy

Dog

Eat

Melon

Milk

More

O (O’s are like Cheerios)

Please

Poop

Rain

Sleepy

Tree

Walk

Verbal Communication

Apple

Baby

Ball

Bottle

Bus

Bye-bye

Daddy

Dog

Door

Down

Duck

Eat

Ella (“Lella”)

Eye

Hello (“Lello”)

Hi

Mama

Maisy (“May-May”)

Melon (“Melón”)

Milk (“Miewk”)

Mouth (“Mow”)

Nose (“No”)

O (O’s are like Cheerios)

Pasta (“Papa”)

Please (“Peas”)

Poop

Puppy

Thank You (“Dank Oo”)

Tree (“Tee”)

Up

Walk

Water (“Wadoo”)

Window (___)

Wow

(Sound that we make with the sign for berry) <smacks lips>

(What does a bear say?) <Roar>

(What does a bird say?) (“Teet Teet”)

(What does a lion say?) <Roar>

(What does an owl say?) Hoo Hoo

And because no post is complete without at least one photo:

Maisy in her new car seat.