As a baby, in the days her routine consisted of sleeping, eating
and pooping, Sophia mirrored Brandon’s behavior. However,
she’s now a year old and developing a personality and intelligence
of her own.
In “Second Chance” I wrote about our use of signing and
speaking when communicating with Brandon (and now Sophia).
Brandon seemed to grasp the concept and use it much earlier than
Sophia has. But now Sophia’s on board. And she’s even
developing her own signs.
She recognizes the sign for “drink” but doesn’t use it.
Instead she says “juice” (soos) or “milk” (mik) and, once she
catches the eye of an adult, moves toward the kitchen to get a cup of
her beverage of choice. She does sign “eat”
(tapping the fingers of one hand against her lips). The sign
for “more” is tapping the fingertips of both hands together.
Because she’s evidently going through a growth spurt, she
frequently wants to eat -- and her sign combines eat and
more: the fingertips of one hand against the palm of the other.
I have two cats and her family has a dog, so she’s learned
the sign for cat (flick of fingers against cheek indicating
whiskers) and dog (snapping of finger/thumb as if calling a dog
to heel). She is a book lover and will turns pages in one
book signing “eat” to identify pages of food items.
There are pages of animals -- a cow, horse, pig, elephant,
giraffe – and we’re working with her on these. Brandon
hasn’t forgotten the signs, so he, too, tries to teach her.
In fact, even though he knows their proper name is “giraffe,”
he continues to refer to them as “long necks,” the sign for
giraffe.
Daddy was her first intelligible word. “Daddy” to come get
her first thing in the morning. “Daddy” to come get her
after a nap. Then she learned “Mommy.” If Daddy
doesn’t come get her quickly enough when summoned, she moves
on to Mommy, calling louder and more often until she’s finally
rescued from the confinement of her crib.
Sophia is easily frustrated and issues a deep-throated “arrrrghh!”
when she can’t accomplish some task she’s undertaken. She’s
also been known to bonk herself on the head with her palm, as
if asking, “What am I going to do?!”
All little people must like music. She’ll stop whatever
she’s doing when she hears a catchy tune. Her response to
the music will be to stamp her foot or turn in circles or hunch
her shoulders and flex her knees in her interpretation of the
beat. And she grins as she moves.
Sophia’s now cutting back from two naps a day to one.
Once she picks up a fuzzy stuffed animal and puts her thumb in
her mouth, it’s a subtle indication she’s ready for sleep.
We ask, “Are you ready for night-night?” and she races us to the
bedroom. Yes, sometimes it’s a false positive, and it
appears she merely wanted to run, not go to bed.
Other times we get lucky. Toy cuddled in her arm and held
close to her cheek, thumb in her mouth, she’s quiet for a short
time. A respite for the latest high-intensity learning
machine.
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