baby signing - #regrets

At the risk of sounding like an over-eager first time parent, not only am I speaking Spanish with Pippa at home, but I have also taught her a few baby signs. I take the Spanish speaking pretty seriously. I don't take the baby signs seriously at all. They were more of an after thought. I guess I thought that giving her a way to communicate with us before she could form words was a good idea. I guess I thought it would make my life easier. I guess I was wrong.

So far, Pippa knows how to sign dog, more, and eat. We're working on thank you, but I don't think an 11 month old understands the concept of thanking someone. So never mind, we'll save that for later. We're also working on play, all done, read, mama, dada, and water, but there's actually a really big problem, and I'm considering banishing baby signs from now on.

What problem could be so desperate that I would ban a form of learning from my household, you may ask? The problem, gentle reader, would be a child with an insatiable appetite. According to Pippa, she is hungry when she wakes up, when I change her, when she gets dressed, when I read to her, when we go for a walk, when she finishes her bottle, when someone else eats or drinks, when we play, and when she has just finished eating. You guys, she can't stop signing that she wants to eat. I don't want to put my hand anywhere near my mouth for fear that she'll think I'm signing comer (to eat). I don't even want to do any other sign, because she just signs back comer.

Now, you may be thinking, 'Emily, you're the parent. Just don't give her any food! Distract her! Redirect her! It's not that big of a deal.' Let me answer you this: have you ever experienced a child going boneless? It's that phenomenon where upon not receiving exactly what she wants, a little one will magically have all the bones in their body melt and sink to the floor in devastation, accompanied by screams of agony. Inconsolable.

That's right. Girl goes boneless every time she doesn't get something to eat, which is the majority of the day.

It's my fault, really. I should have known that teaching her how to get access to food was a mistake. I should have known. #regrets