Yesterday over breakfast Conrad signed to me "What's your name?". I responded by spelling out my name and then he prompted me to ask him the same question. So I signed the question and then almost fell off my chair when he signed back "C" "o" "r" "a" "d". Notice he missed the "n"? But wow! I was so impressed! I asked if I could sign his name with him and gently reminded him there's an "n" before the "r". Of course, then he signed a "t" instead of an "n", but it's darn close. The next time we signed together I corrected his "n" sign and now he's got it down!
In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised. Last week several times he climbed onto my lap asking me to sign his friend's names. He didn't show any interest in signing the names himself, just wanted to see me do it. It wasn't long before he was recognizing "Cole" and "Ellen", then it was "Roman", "Isaac", "Braden". Signing with Conrad has been so much fun, and I get more and more encouraged when I see him signing back to me!
Last night it was daddy's turn to read to Conrad before bed. I wasn't paying much attention so I don't know what preceded the "silly" but Conrad must have signed "silly" to Tim. Tim responded by agreeing it was silly and made two Y hands thinking he was returning the sign to Conrad. This is about the time I tuned in because I heard Conrad correct his dad, telling him to brush his nose with his thumb. (I'm guessing anyone who doesn't know the signs is getting lost at this point!). Tim then turns to me and asks if that's right. Yep, Conrad is right. Next question from Tim then is what does this mean (the sign he had been making, because he's seen us use that sign too). CONRAD answers him, "play". Tim looks at me, I nod. And then for good measure, Conrad teaches his dad one more sign. "And this means 'fun' ". I'm still smiling thinking about the whole exchange!
