jennanddave.com

Dave and I have been teaching Henry words using the point and repeat method, which goes something like this:

me (pointing to the ceiling): Look! Henry! Ceiling! Ceeeeeeilinnnnng!! CEILING!
Henry (pulling out binky and looking up): guh-guh-guh-guh!
me (pointing to Flash): Look! Henry! Doggy! Dah-ghee. Dah-ghee. Dah-ghee.
Henry: Eee-eeee!
me: That's right! Doggy!
Henry: Eee-eeee!

Then we both sit back and look at each other, feeling very pleased with ourselves.

Naturally, the first words we tried to teach him were "daddy" and "mommy". One of us would walk into a room to find the other sitting with Henry, lightly poking him in the chest and saying "Hen-ry", and following it up with exhuberant pats to our own chest while saying "daddy" or "mommy". The other day Dave noticed that when you ask him to say mommy or daddy, he'll stop what he's doing and pat his belly. We thought that was really weird until Dave put two and two together and said he thought Henry was just doing what we do every time we say mommy or daddy. Isn't that cool? Now I'm wondering what the next thing we teach our kid to sign should be...