Miriam's dictionary

Today Miriam managed a three word sentence, which we thought was surprising given her vocabulary of just 5 words! She said "Dat bo(wl) dere" to let me know exactly which bowl she wanted her porridge in. Her other words are ba (bag) and "Aye" (I)- which is yelled whenever we say "who wants to..." in imitation of Reuben. Bo is also used for ball and bo bo for body board.

She's slower than lots of her friends with speaking because she's good at communicating with her hands. I thought I'd share some of these with those of you who feel you're missing out on seeing the changes. Now that she's started speaking I wonder if she'll stop developing new signs.

Much of this involves pointing - and her pointing can be very precise, easily understood even by strangers and very bossy! Eg when I'd picked up her friend/competitor Olivia she gestured for me to pick her up too, then she pointed at Olivia and down to the floor ('you - get down'). Failing with that she pointed at someone's nanny ('you - come here') who came to take Miriam. Miriam shook her head and pointed at Olivia ('not ME - take HER away'). Failing that, she got down and pointed to Olivia then the floor ('now I'm down - you get down'). All done in an imperious manner which makes people laugh.

Once when I told her off and she shook her head and pointed at Reuben to blame him. He said "Miriam did it". She put her finger to her lips and blew to tell him to be quiet. Eventually she gave in and gave me a "sorry" cuddle.

Common signs:

panting with tongue hanging out - Dog/bear/men with beards (Grandpa and Noah so far)
whistle - Bird
blow - insect (because we often blow them away)
round mouth and concentrated look - pig (she hasn't worked out how to snort yet)
one hand turning on the other - spider (from Incey Wincey Spider)
Quack Quack - Duck
waving hands - butterfly/dragonfly etc.

blow - hot (food, water, kettle etc)
hold hands out together - I need to wash my hands
hold hands out wider and shrugs - Where or "I don't know" or in combination eg. with saying brum brum (from today)- 'I thought you said we were going in the car...?'
Points to mouth - I'm hungry
Points to someone else's mouth - you need something to eat too (even to Granny and Grandpa over Skype)
pat nappy - nappy needs changing...
round mouth and raised eyebrows - ...and it's pooey (an effective mimic of my reaction!)
pat pjamas - I need to get dressed
pat clothes - I need to get into my swimming costume
pat head - I need a hat
pat feet - I need my sandals so that I can go outside
point to ground in front of someone who's sitting down - Stand up!
'down came the rain' gesture for rain
blow - it's windy (there's a lot of blowing involved in her communication!)
insistant tap on a particular part of her plate - give me more of whatever was just there
Head butt - yes, that's the one I wanted
shakes head - no (she's good at that - it was one of her first gestures and always gets a laugh from strangers because it looks so natural unlike the nodding)
finger to lips and blow - shhh
'Wind the bobbin up' gesture - let's sing
Crouches down to ask for help in jumping (into the pool or on the trampoline)
lifts her shoulders up high and says "hup" when she wants to be lifted up to reach something (eg. the baking powder because she loves baking) - or where that doesn't work she drags a chair over and climbs onto it.
Pulls your chin towards a picture (and often pulls your finger towards it to point) - talk to me about this picture
Pushes your chin - stop talking/singing
Points into her mouth - Miriam
hand round the back of her neck - I need a bib or I need my rucksack (and therefore to go out)
Hand face down and wiggling fingers - come (African style)

Some of her communication involves impromptu miming. A couple of examples this weekend have been miming drawing so that I'd get her some pens and miming rinsing out her cup to ask me to do that before she filled it (herself) with water from the cooler.

By the way, I wrote this on Sunday, and since then she's added car, cup, book, bye bye and down to her verbal vocabulary.

My personal favourite sign from today: she said "huup", put her hand to her mouth palm upwards and quickly pulled it forward - burp!