As many of you know, we’ve had some success teaching Arden a few baby signs. The sign for “eat” and “more” came naturally to her being the bottomless pit that she is, but she also knows some other signs like “banana” and “all done.” (Are you seeing a theme?) When we first researched baby signing, we read all sorts of fun stories about babies using signs abstractly to express themselves. For example, one story we heard was of a baby using the sign for light while watching a sunrise with her father. We’re not terribly disciplined about using our baby signs, so we weren’t really expecting Arden to use them outside of their literal meaning (i.e., to ask for food). She surprised us, however.

We were walking to a restaurant the other evening and she kept pointing out into the distance and following it up with the sign for “ball,” which is a simple, overhand throwing motion. We kept looking around for the ball she was talking about, but didn’t see anything and chalked it up to the usual trial and error that goes with the baby language territory. When we left the restaurant, however, she started doing the same thing, but pointing up at a higher angle, and we finally figured out what she was pointing at. It was still quite light out when we were walking to the restaurant, so it’s understandable why we missed it the first time. But in the waning light of the evening, we finally noticed the faintly glowing, two-thirds-full moon, or as Arden likes to call it, the ball in the sky.

UPDATE:

Arden continues to use the ball sign and point out the moon in the car, on walks, etc. She often looks to the sky to point out birds, airplanes, and trees, but her favorite find is ALWAYS the moon.

Categories: Anecdotes
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