We had been looking more and more into eating gluten-free primarily because we’d had a hunch that my diet demanded it. Therefore we had been getting more and more gluten free foods in our pantry. My wife, thankfully, does the shopping.
A funny thing happened when she was at work. My son and I were hanging out in the kitchen as I was preparing breakfast and he started doing the sign for RAISIN, but when I showed him that he had a container full next to him, he changed his tune and started signing APE. I was confused! Then he made the sign for CEREAL so I pointed out the container on the table and handed it to him. Then he made the sign for APE again. I took this to mean HELP which we had changed from the ASL version as patting the chest with both palms. However, he was making small ape sounds, so I got really confused. Then he started signing CEREAL. Well, this really put me into a spell! Finally, after running through these options, he got up and went to the pantry, opened the door and signed APE again. I thought he wanted HELP so I picked him up and said “Show me” and he did.
First he reached up high for a box of cereal, then recognized what he wanted on a lower shelf. It was a bag of cereal with an image of an APE printed on the outside. Mystery solved, my baby wanted his APE cereal! Because my wife went shopping a few days ago, I didn’t know about the new cereal, but my son did, and was able, with a bit of persistence, tell me exactly what he wanted! The amazing thing, was that he’d done this just shy of his 17th month.
Signing is such an amazing tool for both you and your baby and opens up so many possibilities.