When did I started teaching signing to Ezra? Oh, yeah, that was in late May, wasn’t it? Since Joel is still with his ah-po and ah-kung in Sandakan, I’ve been signing with just Ezra.

I’ve been pretty consistent with the following signs: more, milk, drink, eat, finish/no more, enough/that’s all and bathe/bath. I’ve been doing it every day with Ezra, but I thought Ezra would never get it. Until a few days ago, that is. Last Friday, he did the eat sign, which made me jump up and rush to get him something to munch on, just to show him that I understood what he wanted. And then last night, after finishing off a pack of crackers, he signed to me that he wanted more! Exciting! He also has less meltdowns lately. I think he finally understands that he can use all those gestures I’ve been showing him, and that it works both ways. I also find that he’s talking more as well. Speech is definitely improving. I’m able to understand him more now. Phew!

The only thing I regretted not doing when he did signs was that I didn’t get excited enough. Showing excitement does encourage him to do things more. What can I say — I was too shocked when I saw it! I couldn’t react on anything but respond to what he wanted. I’ll make sure to give him more compliments the next time I see another baby sign.

(I scheduled this post to a later date, so this update might actually be a few weeks off the original timeline)

It has been three weeks since I used the baby sign language book I just purchased. I only watched the DVD once. I haven’t opened the quick guide that comes with it. Ezra and especially Joel absolutely loved the little baby signs book for the pictures. However, one time Joel was holding the book and somehow managed to get his face sliced off a bit from the sides of the book, sort of what you get with a paper cut. I decided to put the books away for a while, but I’ll be putting them out again some time later.

As for the signs themselves, it’s still a learning stage for all three of us. Currently I’m focusing on only a few signs that I think are critical to lessen Ezra’s meltdowns. Those are drink, eat, milk, bath and finish/all done. I haven’t seen one indication from either Joel or Ezra so far. I’m not so worried about Joel now. His articulation is getting better. Ezra still gets frustrated when I can’t read what he wants. I showed and repeated the baby signs to him, to which he doesn’t respond. Then when he wails, of course my stress levels go up, and I stress out quite easily.

He does try to speak a few words, like mommy, habis (finish), daddy, and a few more, but not the other important words like milk, drink and eat. I guess I’ll have to wait a couple more months to see if I can communicate better with Ezra using the baby sign language.