Some Anecdotes

Teething Again

We think John is working on some new teeth, as he is inexplicably fussy, chewing on his finger all the time, and drooling like a big, sloppy dog. Yesterday Chris and I visited the Cingular store to upgrade my cell phone. John was on my front in the Ergo and, for the first time ever, I handed him my then-current cell phone to play with. He played with it and chewed on it for about three minutes, at which point I glanced down and noticed an error message on the phone. I handed the phone to the saleswoman and asked what was happening. She said, alarmed, "Oh no! Water damage!" Immediately she opened up the phone and disassembled all the parts. After three minutes of mouthing it, John had filled the entire interior of the phone with thick drool! The woman dried off the phone thoroughly, but it was broken and dead! Word to the wise: don't let your baby play with your cell phone! Thank goodness I was there to get a new phone anyway.

Baby Signs

I've been making baby signs at John for months now. I began with "nursing" and "kitty," which I figured would be popular, when John was only a few months old. About a month ago, I began using other signs as well, such as for "ceiling fan," "drink," and "all gone." I am not sure, but I think that John is starting to understand what I'm doing. When I am making a sign, he watches my hand intently. About three weeks ago, I noticed that John would hold outstretched his right arm (always his right), bend at the wrist, and squiggle his fingers around slowly while watching his own hand carefully. For a week I thought he was just having an older baby's version of discovering his own hands. Then it occurred to me that he could be trying to imitate my making signs.

I hazarded a guess that the first sign he would try to imitate is for nursing, so when he would make his sign, I'd reply with the sign for nursing. If he smiled, I took that as a "yes, I would like to nurse" so I would nurse him. That isn't a conclusive experiment, but is interesting to me.

Yesterday, John and I were lying on the bed when he began pointing to the ceiling fan. Each time he pointed, I would make the sign for fan and say "fan." Then John would burst into a huge grin and point at the fan again. This has gone on repeatedly for 24 hours now and I truly think that it represents John's understanding that a thing has a label and he can ask me for that label and I will give it to him. It is our own Helen Keller "water" epiphany!

I'm really not trying to be faddish or hippy-dippy with baby signs, but am hoping it will lessen the common frustration between ages 9 months and two years when the baby has language in his head but cannot get much of it out of his mouth. A toddler might be having a meltdown because he wants a glass of water but doesn't know how to ask. If John can simply sign "water" to me, won't that make life easier than me wondering why on earth he's throwing a screaming fit on the floor?

To the other mothers who have worked with baby signs: Do you think my above observations really are the beginning of John's understanding what I'm doing? Or should I be looking for other behavior?

Oven Locks

John now cruises the kitchen looking for trouble. He pulls on the oven door with strength, so I keep it locked all the time. Last night I discovered that the oven lock only works if the oven is turned off. If one wants to actually bake with our oven, one must unlock it and leave it unlocked! Chris and I think that either we don't understand something or this is the stupidest oven lock ever designed. I don't want John ever opening the oven door, but most especially when the oven is at 450 degrees!