That's affirmative

For a long time now, Zachary has had basically two signs (in addition to his wide range of da's, grunts, and squeals) to help communicate with mommy and daddy:

1. Shaking his head (which he's done for ages, and signals "no"), and

2. Waving his hands wildly in the air ("all done", generally just for the end of meals)

In the meantime, we have one additional unidirectional signal that we give to him, though he's never done it himself - the "more" sign. We've both wondered at various times why we continue to sign it months after he would have started using it if he wanted to, but old habits die hard I suppose.

Anyway, what started as the funny answer to a question earlier this week has evolved into a more general third Zachary response, which the best I can tell means "yes". When I asked at lunch if he wanted more cheerios, at lunch today, he raised his hand in the air as if answering the "so big" question. This was clearly not the 'all done' or 'no' shake off. Throughout the day, he would answer my questions with either the shake off or the raised hand, so I think we may actually have established the word 'yes'. At the end of bath time, I asked if he was all done (he only sometimes uses the hand-waving in the tub), and he raised his hand. So I guess substituting one sign with another equivalent meaning indicates we've seen Zachary's first use of a synonym. Metaphors and similes will certainly be next.

Grandma is visiting this weekend! Zachary has been having a very fun time with her, smiling, laughing, and playing. The three of us went out for lunch (Meh is in the midst of a stretch of work and after-work activities), grocery shopping, and came home to have a walk around the neighborhood. Korby added to the, er, spice of the evening by escaping right as it was Zachary's bedtime. (First time in a while thankfully, and retrieved by one of our neighborhood fellow dog owners, who found him of course eating their dogs' food. At least he's consistent in his crazy food obsession.)

Recall how Zachary made crazy, um, going to the bathroom faces during lunch a few weeks ago? It was back during dinner tonight. Apologies for grandma's detailed commentary; listener discretion advised. Or something.