I also want to suggest the baby sign language. I did it with my first two (4 and 2). It is amazing. My four year old was talking nonstop from the moment he was born and was way ahead on meeting those milestones verbally and took off big time with the signing, and still enjoys learning new signs and trying to sign things to this day. My two year old was behind when it came to verbal communication so much so that we were about to have his hearing tested and speech tested when he just took off chatting (around 18 months) and hasn't quit yet. What saved us during that interim time (and still now) is the signing. He was able to communicate via that and once he did start talking (which we think he was delayed not because of the signing but becuase of his older brother who would never let him get a word in) his vocabulary was amazing from the start!
So as you can imagine now, our house is just loud as both boys just attempt to talk over each other. Plus, the signing is great because we can now communicate at a distance without having to yell...which has been great at play places or just out with lots of people.
I could go on and on about the signing....but I won't. Obviously, we are huge fans here and are working hard as a family with the third baby.
Thanks. We got a signing DVD that we've been watching with DD (I watch it to learn myself, honestly.) We left DD with a baby sitter the other day and I told the baby sitter that DD used to say Mama for me and sign milk, but won't anymore. Well, DD said Mama a bunch after I left and after pulling on the sitter's shirt and getting no milk, DD signed "milk" to let the sitter know what she wanted!
I am actually a little worried about DD. She was saying Mama for me and me only since 7.5 months, but now she barely says it. She was saying "mabwa" for awhile for water and getting angry if we wouldn't share our glass, but she won't say that either anymore. She's gone back to yelling / singing "Ah" a lot and barely babbles. If I leave her upstairs to get something downstairs, she sits at the top of the stair (behind the gate) going "Ahh!" and waiting for me to reply with "Ahh." She could do it all day.
I feel like I should be worried about her hearing or something, but she goes nuts if I say "milk" or she sees it on the signing DVD, even if she just nursed. And she seems to have a decent receptive vocabulary.
She is walking about 50% of the time now. I counted 19 steps in a row the other day (yay!) She just turned 9 months. Is that thing they say about concentrating on one thing at a time true?
DH thinks maybe we are too quick about taking care of her needs. She only says mama now if she is fussing long enough and I don't come and get her.
