More, More, More ....

Lilli has burst out of her month long silence with a demanding vocabulary! More and Mum are the two most frequently used and abused words. More, more, more is quickly followed with a crescendoing Mum, Mum, Mum if I haven't speedily reacted to the more request. The problem is deciphering more of what in particular she wants. More beans, more potato, more hand washing, more rocks, more tickles, more 'this little piggy,' more water, more birds, more garbage truck? The last two are particularly difficult to satisfy! She echoes words, such as dirt and dog, and watches our mouths in fascination as we talk to her. At dinner she wanted more, more, more, mumumum saying fffffffiiiisshhhhh. Fish, fish, fish over and over again! Her sign language repertoire is impressive. She's been working on Grandma and Grandpa while looking at the photo of Nana and Grandpa. Of course she signs more, eat and milk like a pro. Outside is a popular new sign. She puts a unique spin on bird and drink. The hands swimming together like a fish sign (for fish) is accompanied with a whole body wiggle! She freely applies the sign for car to any type of vehicle, be it bike, truck, bus or car. However she correctly signs airplanes when we hear them roar overhead. Our neighbour, a speech therapist, reassured me that despite what people say, signing at this age does not delay language, but in fact enhances and encourages language development. In addition it helps to reduce toddlers' frustration at not being able to get their meaning across. However our signing conversations are limited in their scope and sometimes Mummy just doesn't get it despite all of Lilli's frantic hand signaling, arm waving, narrowed read-my-mind eyes and insistent "talking." Or maybe I do get it and Lilli's finger is pointing (and accompanied with a repetitive "dat, dat, dat") to Mummy's much needed mug of hot tea. We're working on the sign for hot! We have, I'm afraid to say (or gesture), the sign for hurt down pat.