Liam's First Sentence
Signed this afternoon, repeatedly:
"More Stars!"
As in the twinkle twinkle version.
After lots of concentration (and failed attempts at getting his hands to move by using the force) he finally got his hands tapping together in front of his chest in a 7 month old version of the sign for "more" and immediately followed it up with his flailing fingers sign for "stars."
It was a really exciting afternoon. And we're really sick of singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Nathan jumped ship and has been making up his own lyrics, but Mama and Daddy are sticking it out to encourage this new way of communicating.
Stories (update coming soon?)
We know we owe this blog a real update, but how about Nathan stories from the past few (five!!) months that we don't want to forget?
Nathan has begun asking me to tell him stories at bedtime instead of read them. He asks for "pretend" stories (as in I have to make them up) and "real" stories (retelling of stories he knows). One night he asked for a pretend story, so I started to make one up about him, "Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Nathan..." having absolutely no idea where the story was going, and a tired little voice said "oh, I love this story." I felt so warm and fuzzy that he loved my story just because I had included him in it, before he had even heard it, until he continued "It has tigers in it. And pancakes." Oh. He thought I was starting Grandma's version of Little Black Sambo (Little Boy named Nathan when Grandma tells it). At least after that I knew the rest of the story.
Nathan and I were making up a song together. I'd sing a line and then he's sing a line - we went back and forth. Eventually he brought the tune to a nice final cadence so I used my next line to begin a bridge section - a B theme of sorts. Nathan interrupted me: "No Mama, when I sang (here singing his ending for me again), that was the end."
This evening after dinner Nathan put on his batman cape. "I'm Batman!" "Great, can you help Daddy clear the table?" and he started clearing dishes. On one trip into the kitchen I called out "Daddy, have you seen Nathan? Batman is being so helpful cleaning up Nathan's dishes - I want to tell Nathan." Nathan walked back into the dinning room and explained to me "I'm pretending to be Batman, but I'm not really Batman - I'm Nathan." Glad we got that straightened out.
Reality
Mama: Okay, let's get organized.
Nathan: I don't know how to get organized.
Daddy: Yah, I know.