The More Monster

(here's the next installment of the much promised but as yet undelivered recounting of our time in Massachusetts...)

Evelyn has been using a handful of signs for a few months now - namely, the signs for "more," "hungry," "no more," "full," and waving "hi" and "bye." Considering how much the girl likes to eat, it's not a shock that "more" is her most used and favorite sign. When I ask her if she's hungry, she puts her bunched up right fingers to her mouth, her sign for "hungry." From there on out, it's More More More (touching her bunched fingers to each other, sometimes with such vigor I swear she's just adding exclamation points, as in "More. More. More!! MORE!!!! Who knew signing could be so loud?).

Maybe she was indulging over the holidays like the rest of us, but she seemed to be eating even more than usual while we were in MA. Everyone marveled at how much she can eat. One morning, Evelyn had a whole banana, some grapes, some apple, an egg, her portion of oatmeal and some of Rhea's, and some toast. She would have kept going if I didn't decide at that point that she'd had enough and was in no danger of starving.

Another morning at Grandpa's house, John and I sat on either side of Evelyn in her high chair; John with a bowl of oatmeal and raisins, I with a plate of fried egg. Evelyn turned to her left to sign "more" to Papa, then promptly swung to her right to sign "more" to Mama. She was like a little More Maestro, orchestrating her symphony of breakfast delights from her podium.

We're now in the stage where she wants to eat whatever we're eating more than what she's eating, particularly if we're eating anything with bread. So it begins. She might be happily eating her meal but once she catches sight of bread, there's no stopping the relentless "more" signing, which, if ignored, is followed by whining and crying until she gets that bread. Luckily though, when the bread is gone, she readily accepts it when we say there's no more and happily goes back to her meal.

(We think she has even learned to say "bread," as she almost clearly said it one morning at Nana's house while frantically pointing and reaching for the bread on the counter.)

She did the "more" sign so much that I think Rhea learned it by the end of the 2 weeks just by watching her. Meanwhile, Evelyn picked up a new sign while we were there -- the sign for "Thank you." It only took a couple of days of modeling it for her to get it, so then I wondered what other signs I could teach her. Since we got home, we've taught her how to sign "please," and just in time, because the incessant whining and begging turning into crying is not such a pleasant way to be told that she wants something right now.

(Here are some pictures of Evelyn at Aunt Taryn's and Uncle Chris' house on Christmas Day. After a few persistent tries at putting her tray on her portable high chair, she resigned to waiting patiently for us to get started with Christmas dinner.)