More Hand Jiven'

Our yuppy

Oliver is a communicating fool lately, with new signs and sounds coming every day. Last weekend he mastered our new favorite: the bear growl (which also serves as the lion or tiger's roar). Once again at the Museum of Natural History, we had just visited our friends the elephants (Olie can also now sign "elephant" as well as mimic their distinctive trumpet.). We decided to test what we thought was a bear growl from the morning reading session. Therefore, we move from African to North American mammals, where bears were more prevalent. In fact they have three bear exhibits: grizzly, Alaskan brown and black bears. O kept running from window to window and sure enough there it was: "Grrrrrrr!"

Up from a nap with extreme bed head

Yes, Olie's communication is definitely motivated by things that make noise. Last week, while listening to NPR, O signed "music." Besides signing music, Olie "sings," often chiming in with his own "Ahhhhhh," whenever Chad or I hum a chord. Oh, and O has been "playing" the flute for at least a month now. By "playing" I mean to say he understands the concept of blowing out.

Olie also signs car (done by mimicing two hands steering the wheel), but O only uses one hand. (Going to have to rectify that before he actually drives!) Then two nights ago, true to his Cape Cod roots, Olie surprised me with the sign for "crab." Other new signs: "ball," "butterfly," "monkey" and "seal."

In terms of actual speech, Oliver's still holding on to one-consonant-plus-one-vowel-only sounds, "ba (ball), bu (bus)", etc. But he has added a few new monosylabic "words" to his rep: "hot" which comes out "ha," and "ah da" - "right there."

Finally, I'm not too worried about Oliver's ability to concentrate. His reading sessions are now sometimes so long that I get restless. And Olie can sit still for more narrative stories now, though he also still likes a good interective reading experience. "Goodnight Moon" is a new favorite. Olie can even find the tiny white mouse. And getting back to the bears, he loves any book with sleeping bears in it (we have two). He loves to mimic their snoring, which he does by blowing in and out of his nostrils. Where does he get this stuff?