Happy birthdays, congratulations and ~ma. Phew, busy weekend.

I'm relatively awake now. Shame I don't wanna work.

Is teaching babies to sign a thing? I've been reading about various people doing this and thinking that their children have an unfortunate hearing issue that they're just not discussing. But there seem to be rather a lot. I hope everyone's kids' hearing is ok.

GI Joe was far better flick.

That is a surprise. I was going to take some kids to see it but the reviews scared me away. I should know better.

Is teaching babies to sign a thing? I've been reading about various people doing this and thinking that their children have an unfortunate hearing issue that they're just not discussing. But there seem to be rather a lot. I hope everyone's kids' hearing is ok.

We're considering doing it for Ryan. It's not full ASL or anything like that; rather it's just signs for things like "food", "hurt", "more", concepts like that. The advantage is that kids understand a vocabulary before they can vocalise the words. Teaching them some signs lets them start communicating when they're hungry, hurt, bored, tired etc earlier. It has no lasting benefits in proper language development - it's all too simple for that - but it might make things smoother for the kiddie until they can talk too.

What billytea said - the cognitive ability to communicate develops more or less at the same time as hand-eye coordination, but months ahead of lips/teeth/tongue coordination. A 6-month old doesn't have the physical capacity to say the word "hungry" but they can be taught to sign it. And better communication = less crying.

Steph isn't the only person having issues at car dealerships.

P-C, sounds like you have even more reason to call now because I'll be damned if his attitude should have changed because you threatened to call. The whole point of what you should go in saying is that you shouldn't have had to resort to a threat in order for him to treat you in the manner in which you should expect as a paying customer. Plus, the job was not completed to your satisfaction, but because the salesperson wasted so much of your- the paying customer's time engaging you in such a belligerent manner you couldn't stay to resolve it, nor did you have any desire to do so, since clearly, the salesperson wasn't interested in treating you- the paying customer who provided this salesman with a commission in these trying economic times- with simple courtesy and a desire to fulfill his promise to you, the paying customer.

See where I'm going with this? You're in the right here and if you don't call, then you're giving tacit approval to their behavior and you know, that guy should know better-- he's one phone call away from losing his ass and he knows it.

What you need to do is check the paperwork and ascertain where it said you had to bring it in within 90 days and make sure you emphasize that at no time was this made clear to you even during repeated phone calls.

Not that I'm cranky about stuff like this or anything.

Teaching them some signs lets them start communicating when they're hungry, hurt, bored, tired etc earlier.

A 6-month old doesn't have the physical capacity to say the word "hungry" but they can be taught to sign it. And better communication = less crying.

Oh, good. Thanks! That's something of a relief.

Stage 2 cable outage in my area. STOP No phone, internet or tv.STOP Posting from cell.STOP Send interwebs ASAP. End message

Mom's actually teaching my nephew ASL because that's what she knows. She's started off her career as a speech therapist for hearing impaired kids, then taught Deaf and hearing impaired elementary, middle, and high school; then went into pre-k assessments for special ed; then did Adaptive/Assistive technology; then finally ended her career as the media specialist at the school for special needs kids.

She started teaching him "more" when we were keeping him in Jan. If you stopped doing something he wanted or if he wanted more food and it wasn't coming fast enough he'd scream and fling himself backwards which made it hard to hold him. So she worked on "more" food, "more" book, etc. He's just now able to make the proper m sounds so when I was up there if he was really emphatic about wanting More! He'd say MA!MA!MA! really loud as well as signing. And he's just now starting to say nana for banana.

Stay strong Vortex! If you don't make it, we'll always remember you fondly.