Well hello there.
Today is Memorial Day and a day of perfectly American contradictions. The celebration of a day free from work and obligation, and families gathering for picnics under the sun is supposed to be about a day of remembrance for all the soldiers lost and injured in the wars of our country. Even here, in our heavily militarized and armed-forces-supporting city of San Diego, Memorial Day is called the "unofficial start of summer," when hordes of people start their yearly pilgrimage to our famous beaches. Hardly the grandiose remembrance our fallen soldiers likely imagined receiving.
I feel a tide of change coming fast and strong in our family, and we are doing our best to prepare little by little, day by day. Soon we will head to the mountains and claim a new home for ourselves; it seems yet another birthday of mine is rife with the major changes that are peppered throughout my life. I've spent two birthdays on airplanes (one coming home from months in Ghana), and another in Buenos Aires, two days before boarding a plane back stateside after five months abroad. Change is inevitable. Change is good. Change is what keeps our lives exciting and alive. But change is a lot of work, especially with a curious, fast, and impish toddler imprinting the process with her gigantic presence.
Speaking of that toddler, here are a few recent-ish videos of Del signing. I've combined them together for a quick montage, and. . .(drum roll please) I finally figured out a simple way to add text to the videos! For someone as technologically challenged as myself, I'm pretty proud of this accomplishment. To view them, you need a browser that is NOT Firefox, and you will need to watch the video in YouTube instead of imbedded here.
Along the lines of the videos, Del has added yet more words to her ASL vocabulary. In a nutshell, here are what I recall off the top of my head: baby, horse, sheep, deer, cow, frog, cool, strawberry, brush, fish, airplane, car, dance/music, hear
My current favorite sign is for "flower," which she produces with a "1" handshape, fingertip firmly INSIDE of her nose, and with a rotation of the wrist. She makes location and handshape errors sometimes, and still gets some categories a little confused. She's trying to make sense of the subtle differences between dogs and cats, and continues to insist that chihuahuas are cats, no matter how many times we tell her otherwise.
In English, Del now has four words and one animal sound. She says "hi," "dada," "mama," (rare) "bye bye" and "oooo" (moo). She says "oooo" for horses and cows so we still have some kinks to work out. She understands most two step commands in English as well as ASL now, and continues to surprise me with the depth of her comprehension. I love how her ASL usage gives me better insight into her understanding of what goes on around her, and reinforces the idea that children are much, MUCH smarter than most of us tend to give them credit for.
Enjoy the videos, and as always, I openly encourage you to share your thoughts!
Today is Memorial Day and a day of perfectly American contradictions. The celebration of a day free from work and obligation, and families gathering for picnics under the sun is supposed to be about a day of remembrance for all the soldiers lost and injured in the wars of our country. Even here, in our heavily militarized and armed-forces-supporting city of San Diego, Memorial Day is called the "unofficial start of summer," when hordes of people start their yearly pilgrimage to our famous beaches. Hardly the grandiose remembrance our fallen soldiers likely imagined receiving.
I feel a tide of change coming fast and strong in our family, and we are doing our best to prepare little by little, day by day. Soon we will head to the mountains and claim a new home for ourselves; it seems yet another birthday of mine is rife with the major changes that are peppered throughout my life. I've spent two birthdays on airplanes (one coming home from months in Ghana), and another in Buenos Aires, two days before boarding a plane back stateside after five months abroad. Change is inevitable. Change is good. Change is what keeps our lives exciting and alive. But change is a lot of work, especially with a curious, fast, and impish toddler imprinting the process with her gigantic presence.
Speaking of that toddler, here are a few recent-ish videos of Del signing. I've combined them together for a quick montage, and. . .(drum roll please) I finally figured out a simple way to add text to the videos! For someone as technologically challenged as myself, I'm pretty proud of this accomplishment. To view them, you need a browser that is NOT Firefox, and you will need to watch the video in YouTube instead of imbedded here.
Along the lines of the videos, Del has added yet more words to her ASL vocabulary. In a nutshell, here are what I recall off the top of my head: baby, horse, sheep, deer, cow, frog, cool, strawberry, brush, fish, airplane, car, dance/music, hear
My current favorite sign is for "flower," which she produces with a "1" handshape, fingertip firmly INSIDE of her nose, and with a rotation of the wrist. She makes location and handshape errors sometimes, and still gets some categories a little confused. She's trying to make sense of the subtle differences between dogs and cats, and continues to insist that chihuahuas are cats, no matter how many times we tell her otherwise.
In English, Del now has four words and one animal sound. She says "hi," "dada," "mama," (rare) "bye bye" and "oooo" (moo). She says "oooo" for horses and cows so we still have some kinks to work out. She understands most two step commands in English as well as ASL now, and continues to surprise me with the depth of her comprehension. I love how her ASL usage gives me better insight into her understanding of what goes on around her, and reinforces the idea that children are much, MUCH smarter than most of us tend to give them credit for.
Enjoy the videos, and as always, I openly encourage you to share your thoughts!
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