Sign Class Graduation (or, Why Brian is a Bastard)

You may remember a few weeks ago when Brian and I started going to a baby sign language class. Well as of this weekend, we are officially graduates of the Hop to Signaroo program!

I'm not sure if this counts as accredited...

Despite our initial reservations (when we showed up and were the only people there without an infant), it turned out to be a lot of fun and we learned a lot. I now know over a hundred signs for various foods, family members, animals, and other things that seem like they'll be really useful for a young toddler.

There was a brief snafu when we tried to come up with name signs for "Daddy Andy" and "Daddy Brian", though. Combining the sign for "Dad" with the letter "A" worked fine. But when we tried to do the same with "Dad" and "B", when inadvertently ended up with the sign for "bastard". Now, I'm not gonna go into whether I think that's an appropriate sign for Brian or not, but suffice it to say that we had to come up with something else!

Classmates

It was also really encouraging to see some of the kids in the class start picking up on signs after just a few weeks. Some of them were as old as 8 or 9 months, and they really seemed to get it quite quickly. One in particular had 4 signs down by the end of 4 weeks, and it seemed like the floodgates were flying open!

All in all, a good experience, and I really liked our teacher (Nancy Hanauer). Highly recommended to anyone in the Seattle area!

Baby Sign Language

Brian and I went to our first sign language class on Saturday! The concept is that infants are able to comprehend and use basic language before they have the ability to actually verbalize those concepts - but they're definitely able to use their hands earlier. By using some simple signs consistently, a child will ideally be able to communicate basic needs (eat, milk, change, etc.) much earlier than they will be able to speak. And that in turn can reduce both parent and child frustration. Sounds good to us!

There's a class offered at a number of local hospitals called Hop to Signaroo, so we enrolled and started over the weekend. What we didn't realize was that we're the only people in our class who actually don't have a child yet! Awkward. It seemed like a good idea to me - learn all the signs and the methodology before our lives get a lot busier with the arrival of a new family member. (As long as we don't forget it all by the time a placement actually happens, that is.) Anyway, we quickly explained that we're waiting for an adoption placement, and so everyone nodded knowingly and stopped looking at us like the creepy childless guys sitting in the corner by themselves.

So the class was actually a lot of fun, and I now can punctuate a few words with signs! (Have a diaper that's wet and needs to be changed? I got you covered!) The class is using actual ASL signs, which could potentially end up being useful outside of the context of raising a child. And we came away with the handy flashcards to practice on our own before next week. We'll be signing like pros in no time!