Jordan shows love & his first sign!

This is what we put on Jordan as we were heading out the door this morning, it would prove quite apropos!

Interpreter, Heather, tries to figure out how this thing works

Facilitator, Alaina, talks to the kids about sharing

Jordy wasn't really listening!

We went to ELF today, and learned a whole lot! It was quite a busy morning and worthy of a nap very soon, I think. We were given a new book to take home and learned some new signs that go along with it: drum, bee, mountain, and lots of others! Alaina also taught us a new song "If you should meet a crocodile," that we will need to practice signing as well! After we went through the book and song, the kids had a snack, and played a bit with a very elaborate toy that is new to the play area, and Jordan seemed to fall for Megan,one of the regulars to ELF whose sister has a cochlear implant. Jordan was trying to give her kisses! Eventually, the novelty wore off for Megan and she turned away, which caused some indignant screaming followed by tears. It was all very cute! Better get used to the heartbreak, kiddo!

Darn, I only just missed it! But you can hear the tail end of Megan's smackeroo!

And below, you can see affectionate interaction, including Jordy's affectionate head-tap, something frequently used on Uncle Mark, which we call "noggin."

rebuffed!

Something else very exciting to report is that Ingrid and Heather also feel pretty strongly that Jordan has made his first sign: MORE. Yep, he's our kid! Jordy has been doing this for weeks, but I wasn't sure if it was just an arbitrary movement he liked to make or if it was communication. He started doing it after I gave him some water out of my bottle, then he would come back after a couple minutes and make this hand movement, and that seemed to clinch it. I've got a couple of pictures to try to show it to you, but it is hard to capture it on film without help; I have to do something that elicits the sign, then quickly bring the camera up and shoot. The way Jordan makes the sign kind of looks like the sign for Mommy against the palm of one hand. Sydelle once told me that this is very common, it will start out on a different part of the body or in a slightly different hand shape and will evolve into the correct shape / location over time. For example, many tots sign Mom or Dad with their index finger alone, rather than with thumb and splayed fingers. Makes sense too, when babies learn to speak they don't start out with, "Good morning, Mother, may I please have some cereal?"