Spoiler Alert!

 

    We've put a big emphasis on communication for a long time with Liam.  We reward him for communicating calmly and effectively by giving him what he wants when he asks for it.  This has led to at least two things: Liam's ability to communicate very well, and Liam's expectation that he gets whatever he wants! Recently, we've begun to feel that he's started to get a bit bossy :)  The other night, he asked for his dog pajamas by doing the sign for dog and saying 'woof woof' while we were changing him.  Usually, we would comply, but the recent cold weather doesn't fit well with a t-shirt for bed time, so we wanted to put him in warmer pjs.  This was not acceptable to his highness, who definitely let us know.  After much protest, we got him into his warm pjs and then put his dog pajamas on top :)

    Sometimes, Liam doesn't even have to try.  We just loved this wooden train set our neighbors have, so we got it (for Liam, not Daddy ;). 

Signing and Saying

Liam can now sign about 45 words and say about 24 (depending on what you count as a word and assuming I'm remembering everything). His signs are focused on animals, objects and requests, while his words are more focused on people (although animals and statements are close behind). Of all his words, there are only 7 that he can't also sign and they're almost all names, colors and letters, which are a bit more abstract. His words basically consist of the vowel sounds plus B, D, H, M and N.

I'm very glad we tried sign language with Liam since it has clearly enabled him to communicate with us much more than he can with words alone. I'd imagine this leaves him less frustrated than he would have been, but who knows? His vocabulary is very strongly centered around nouns (the verbs he knows like eat and sit are more focused on the nouns involved - like the food or the end-state of sitting - than the actions themselves). Grouping people with animals makes the focus on living things quite clear too. He's also picked up on the names of things before the attributes (e.g. ball before yellow). His spoken vocabulary is limited by the sounds he's capable of making, and his signs are also limited by the dexterity of his hands (yellow, sheep and water all involve more difficult hand shapes).

Here are the lists of words I'm counting so you can judge for yourself whether they "count" as words :)  Drum-roll please....

Signs:
Animals (13) : cat, dog, fish, lion, bird, pig, monkey, horse, cow, owl, bear, turtle, giraffe
Objects (11): moon, book, light, phone, bath (tub), fan (ceiling), ball, "that" (pointing), shoes, car, plane
Requests (10): help, open, pick-me-up, more, eat, drink, milk, please, down, sit
People (1): daddy, mommy
Statements (6): no (head shake), yes (head nod), all-done, bye, blow a kiss, hi/bye (wave)
Numbers (1): one
Colors (1): orange
Food (2): apple, banana

Says:
People (~6): Dada, Mama, Ady (friend Adeline), Baby (himself in a picture, or other babies), Debbie, Mommy, Daddy, Bobo (one of his grandfathers)
Animals (5): Ditty (for Kitty), 'oof (for dog), Moo (for cow), Raaar (lion roar), Baa (for sheep)
Statements (4): Bye, No, Hi, Uh-oh
Objects (3): Ba'a (Ball), Bone (dog's bone), 'Aoom (for car's vroom), Boo'oo (Pool)
Requests (2): Mo'h (More), num-num (for food)
Colors (2): B'oo (Blue), Yeddow (Yellow)
Sounds (1): A-choo (to fake a sneeze)
Letters (1): B

Kiss

I discovered that Liam learned a great new skill today - giving a kiss :) It's a wonderful new addition to our bedtime routine.
Liam is walking about 80% of the time now without help and I can tell we're on the verge of a new era of running after him. We took him to a terrific park yesterday with rubber padding all over the ground, and spent a long time following him around.

His signing vocabulary is getting bigger all the time and includes lots of animals (lion, cat, dog, pig, bird, fish...) and he's also starting to learn how to make some animal sounds (lion roar - which is adorable, woof, meow, moo).

On a visit to the zoo with his friends, he is fascinated by, of all things, a cow. To his credit, he did really like the elephant and the lion too--but he did indicate that the gorilla was a dog and had little interest.

Trying to play with the neighborhood kids that are twice his age, he ends up playing the role of the door-man.

Stand Up

Liam continues to learn more each day.  He's added some signs, like book, dad, bird and done.  Interestingly, he'll sign bird when he hears one, even if he doesn't see one, so he's linked the sound with the animal in his mind.  One of his most powerful new tricks is to shake his head "no" and nod "yes."  This leads to a narrowing-down process where he'll sign "more" "book" and then we take out books one-by-one and ask if he wants that one until he gives an enthusiastic nod.  Of course, sometimes we have to make him do something he is clearly shaking his head "no" to (like leave the playground after playing for an hour), but that's just early practice for many years of not always getting his way :)

Liam's also getting more physically capable.  He can walk on his own for a few feet and stand himself up:

Signs of the Times

A couple months ago, we started teaching Liam some sign language.  He's really started to pick it up recently and its been great.  When he wants something or is interested in something, he can communicate a little better than just pointing and grunting.  I got the camera out today and asked him to say "more" (which is putting both hands together - above).

Then I asked him to say "eat" (which is putting your fingers to your mouth):

Finally, I asked him to say "cat" (which is the most difficult one for him because it is an "OK" sign that you slide from your mouth to your ear - representing whiskers).  After looking around for the cat, he figured out that I just wanted to see the sign:

  

 
He's gotten the sign for milk (squeezing your hand) and dog (patting your thigh) mastered and is working on light bulb (looks like holding a piece of paper in front of your face and letting go).  We can certainly tell that he understands a lot now.  If we ask him where something is (socks, a toy, the light, etc.) he looks and points at it.  I'm excited to teach him more signs and communicate even more with him :) A video would capture these better... I'll have to remember that next time.

Lingua Liam and Giving Thanks

We've started teaching Liam sign language because babies can learn to communicate with their hands before they have enough control over their voices to talk. As the book on sign language I got from the library points out, babies use sign language without instruction. For example, if Liam lifts both arms up, he wants to be picked up; if he reaches toward something with one arm and out-stretched hand, he wants it (or to be taken to it); rubbing his eyes means he's tired. These signs seem to be pretty universally used by babies and understood by parents without any coaching.

The book recommends teaching no more than 3 signs a day, no more than one sign per sentence and recommends starting with "more", "eat", and "milk" because they are usually the easiest to learn. They're easy because they don't involve much dexterity and they are things babies frequently want and need help getting. The book also recommends opportunistically teaching a simple sign for something of particular interest to the baby. For Liam, this has usually been "cat" so far. He now studies our gestures as we sign. If we're consistent, the book says he might mimic a sign in the next 8 to 10 weeks.

Thanksgiving was terrific. We got together at two big family celebrations and Liam loved it. He has always loved being around lots of people and new things. Since he's happier, and we have so many helping hands, we can relax and enjoy ourselves too. Liam got sick just before Thanksgiving and woke up every 3 hours during the night like he did as a newborn. It was sad to hear his little coughs and labored breathing while he tried to sleep. He seems to be over it now and slept through the night last night for the first time in days. In honor of Turkey day, Liam had his first meat in the form of some chicken and sweet potato baby food. He liked it, but he's liked almost everything he can eat so far, so he's not too picky. Just don't try peas and rice together (separately is still fine)!

Liam is still learning new things each day. As this blog also serves as our baby book, I'll list some: army crawl across the floor (necessitating some child-proofing measures), clap his hands with a huge open-mouthed smile, wave, stand up (while holding something for support like a foot-stool), point at things he's interested in (right hand only), turn off the electric piano, and make one of his toys play "la cucaracha" ad nauseam :) while rocking back and forth to the beat.