I love this stage of baby signing. My son is in the signing burst stage of baby signing… he can’t get enough. He’s at the point now that when I introduce a sign he can almost immediately reproduce it. He understands that I am teaching him a gesture that will represent something, so when I start signing, he watches and waits to see what I’m saying. Watch this video of Ben signing, he just turned 13 months this week.

Here is a video of Ben my 9 month old signing up.  A lot of the time when babies start signing back the parents don’t recognize that the baby is trying to produce a sign.  If you pay attention and notice that they are attempting to copy you or tend to do the same thing over and over when you say or sign a word, then give them positive reinforcement by acknowledging their attempt and then help them by taking their hands and help them do the sign again.

Andrea Ploehn

Okay, my almost three year old boy gets into more trouble in a day than I can write.  I’ve started pulling out the camera for some of his messes, so here’s a video that has about half of the messes he’s made this week.  Feel free to give me moral support after you watch this… I need it!

Andrea

It’s amazing how fast they grow up.  It’s been so fun doing sign language with another baby.  So far he recognized about 10 signs and he can actually sign: up, all done, more, and eat. 

And can you believe this little guys walking!  He has to keep up with the other two.

Andrea Ploehn 

Ben started signing up at 8 months and more at 9 months old.  Here are some great video clips so that you can see some examples of the very first attempts of a baby using sign language.

A few weeks ago we were in Salt Lake City, UT and we visited a place called bouncing off the walls. It has huge inflatable toys. My kids had a blast, we were there for over two hours and they still didn’t want to leave. It was nice because I just had to watch them have a good time! Here are some fun video clips. This is just one of the rooms they have available.

Andrea Ploehn

Okay, I know I’m a little late getting this post together, well ridiculously late… but I forgot I had these videos… so here you go.  We had such a great time over Thanksgiving.  We spend time each year with my dads family and it’s pretty much turned into our family reunion.  This year we had over 90 people!  It was my parents turn to host… so we had to do something fun.  My brother came up with the idea to rent sumo suits, if you’ve never done it, you should.  I couldn’t stop laughing.  I know it’s not really a traditional Thanksgiving type thing to do, but I think people will at least remember this one.  Have fun watching some of my family members fumble around in fat suits!

This is my husband and brother-in-law.

This is me and my sister.

Andrea Burton Ploehn

This was the first day he decided to start walking… I was a little excited, he was only 8 months old!

Brandon is starting to get pretty good at doing things by himself, well that’s what he thinks.  Kids are the best!

Andrea Burton Ploehn

All of my kids have loved jumping in this.