Sign of the Times

Dearest Sammie Girl,

You, my darling, have exploded with developments in this past week. For the past several weeks, you've been creep/crawling and stopping to do what can only be described as the half sit/half lounge positition (really, it makes you look like some sort of bikini model--if bikini models had Buddha bellies and diapers). I half-seriously wondered if we'd have to give you intense sitting lessons lest you not pick it up naturally in the call of the wild/living room.

That changed a few days ago, Sammie dear, when you took the time from your daily creep/crawl/lounge lizard act to sit up. On your own. Several times. Whew. I guess we won't half to follow you to college so we can place you in a sitting position now--because you're doing that on your own now, thankyouverymuch.

You've also taken to learning new things to keep us amused. Previously, you were a two trick baby (raising your hands on cue to "sooo big" and giving somewhat reluctant high fives). Now, you can wave hello and good-bye on command (usually when the person's left the room--but better late than never), you stick out your tongue when we ask what the snake does, and you're using sign language during meal times.

I'm particularly excited about the sign language thing. I'm partially deaf, and if I don't teach sign language to my baby, the deaf community will take away my deaf card. Frankly, being deaf is the one conversation starter I've got left, so I needed to do whatever possible to keep the deaf card active.

I always said I'd sign non-stop to my children when I became a mom. Then I became a mom and reality/laziness hit. I started off with the best intentions, signing constantly, but then life got in the way and I just started talking instead of signing, even though you were already showing progress at six months by signing "bottle" to us. Guilt eventually got the best of me last month, and I took up signing with you again, focusing especially on "more" and "eat."

This past weekend, your short deaf wonder mama's chest swelled with pride when you first signed "eat" while I fed you your breakfast. A few minutes later came "more" when your daily dose of Cheerios ran out. Since then, you've signed these words on a number of occasions; apparently you're a Pavlov baby because food is one the thing that's conditioning you to use sign language as a means of communication. Yeah, baby!

I'm going to *try* to keep it up by adding a few more signs to our daily vocabulary: sleep, dog, mom, dad, book and no should keep us busy for the next few weeks. Hopefully it'll be enough to not bring shame to the deaf community.

In other news that's hardly news, we had a rather chaotic weekend, darling girl. The women on Nonni's side of the family thought it would be a lovely idea to get together for a weekend in the mountains.

And it was lovely...until nighttime, when certain babies refused to go to sleep. You--who has slept through the night since you were a mere few weeks old--stayed up until well past midnight and then woke up, inconsolable, every other hour for eight straight hours. So...I accidentally slept in past breakfast. Crankiness ensued all the way around, crankiness that didn't subside until you were down for a nap and I had a special beverage along with my lunch.

At least we got some pictures out of the deal:

With Nonni:


With Aunt Diane's *adorable* puppy:


Four generations of Willis Women:


With your cousins:


Sporting "half pint" and "full pint" shirts:


...and finally, on the way home:


I love you Sammie--even as you're screaming out your refusal to nap as you are right now, I love you,

your mama

PS. Got the pictures back from the Pullen Photo Shoot last weekend. What's up with the turtle face you're sporting in some of these pictures?









and lastly, my favorite: