brag list

As of today, this is a list of all the signs that Gabriel knows (at least the ones that I can recall). I'm sure that if we would learn more signs, the list would be much longer. How grateful I am for signing and for being able to see that Gabriel is understanding the meanings of things, even when he can't verbalize all of them. When listing them all, I realize the list is becoming quite impressive. At least to his mommy.

1. all done
2. more
3. baby
4. eat
5. duck
6. bird
7. doggie
8. cat
9. horse
10. elephant
11. apple
12. drink
13. water
14. juice
15. milk
16. happy
17. sad
18. mad
19. mama
20. dada
21. grandma
22. grandpa
23. Taylor
24. Paige - we had the kids make up the sign for their own name and teach it to Gabriel
    
    
    


25. play
26. car
27. airplane
28. helicopter
29. boat
30. fish
31. please
32. thank you
33. sorry
34. want
35. ice cream
36. flower
37. tree
38. friend
39. night night
40. train
41. open
42. on
43. off
44. bus
45. yes
46. popcorn
47. cracker
48. rain
49. book
50. shoes
51. help
52. want
53. yummy
54. ball
55. night night
56. help
57. cereal
58. hungry
    

He mostly uses sign as identification, rather than initiating his wants or needs. For instance, he doesn't tap me on the leg and sign "I want cereal, please." But he will see me pour the milk in the bowl and sign 'milk'. Additionally, being a child instilled with manners, he will properly use 'thank you' when I give him his cereal without prompting. Some of them he has difficulty doing the actual sign for, so he adapts his sign accordingly. But he knows, and we know, what they're intended to mean. 'Cause he's a smartie.

the student becomes the teacher

Gabriel has been busy teaching Elmo sign language.

Here he is giving us an example:

----------- 'All Done' ------------

Gabriel's been showing Elmo around all week. You might say he's been a bit bossy. He's making him sign, getting him to open the doors, making him sit on his booster seat....

Gabriel loves.... Gabriel

The last couple days we've been having fun with our video camera. We've had this camera for about a year and a half but have never fully figured it out so it's been used only a handful of times. The disk holds 30 minutes of video so after Taylor had his concert and Paige had her recital, there was some space left that we used for Gabriel.

We figured we'd capture a bit of him using his signs. I turned the monitor on the camera around so Gabriel could watch himself in hopes of keeping his attention. Needless to say, it worked better than I expected. He was so intrigued with himself, he couldn't stop giggling and kept coming to get a closer look at the handsome guy on the screen.

Then we finalized the disk and all sat down in front of the tv to watch the concert, recital and Gabriel once again. When Gabriel came on the tv, the real-life Gabriel jumped up and started to repeat what was being done by video Gabriel on tv. It was quite amusing to watch him watch himself and giggle. So amusing, in fact, I thought it was share-worthy (even if the video quality isn't up to par) :

signs for:.................... 'bus'................................ 'off' .............................'all done'