Since Callum was about 7 or 8 months old, we’ve been showing him this baby sign language DVD, which he really loves. The idea is that babies are physically able to make signs with their hands much earlier than they’re able to say words with their mouths. But we haven’t been pushing it. We aren’t that consistent about making the signs when we speak to Callum, in part because our hands are often full. Still, we show him the video pretty regularly, because he seems to really like the sign language lady and the little girl.Anyway, Saturday morning, I took the boy with me to Peets Coffee. Our coffee maker is broken, and I was jonesing for the morning caffeine. I also hoped it’d be good people-watching for him. Got coffee for me, and milk for him. Somewhere in there, between sneaking a sip of java and helping him sip from his milk cup, I saw him do it. With his little right hand, Callum did the sign for “milk.” He showed zero recognition of the fact that he’d done something rather extraordinary and exciting, so maybe it was just a fluke (like the earlier first word false alarm) but the sign for milk is pretty distinctive. Will he repeat the feat? Only time will tell.
