I Love You

Even though my little one is now 18 months old, he was recently evaluated to have the speech of a nine month old.  It is hard especially after having two early talkers to have a little guy who can't say I love you, and can't even give real kisses yet.  Sign language however has been a life saver and if you have a child who is showing signs of developmental and speech delays, I suggest starting signing as early as possible.  We started when little guy was about 12 months old and still wasn't really babbling much yet.  I just looked up signs online and printed off pictures.  We are up to about 15 signs now, and the newest one is my favorite.  I just recently taught him the sign for I love you and he loves to sign it back to me at bedtime.  It just melts my heart.  Even though he doesn't quite get it right and it looks more like he is just pointing, it is so great to have that little moment with him.  And he gets so excited about it too!  He just loves it when he makes a sign and you know what he is trying to say.  He also recently learned the sign for cookie which of course is his favorite.  :)  He also likes the sign for shoes because it means we are going bye bye.  I am thinking about ordering some sign language dvds for him if he doesn't pick up some more words soon.  He has been attempting words but they don't really sound close to what they are supposed to be yet.  Like every word sounds like a variation of dada or babap.  Thank goodness for signs so we can figure out what on earth he wants lol.