I think he said "more."

Or was it "all done"? During dinner tonight Miles kept pulling on the fingers of one hand with the other, and I was wondering what new phase we were entering. Was this a way of relieving stress? What was he stressed about? And then I realized, he was doing the sign for more (with each hand, pinch fingers to thumb, then bring hands together) . We've been showing him a portion of a sign language video for four months, and this is the first time I've seen him spontaneously try to communicate. My heart actually skipped a beat when I finally understood him. I made the sign back, heaped lots of praise on him, and fed him another bite of applesauce, which he pushed away with a loud "unhhh!" as in, how much clearer do I have to be, I am not hungry! Hard to tell. But still, trying to express himself with his hands is a big step.

I'm a big fan of teaching babies to sign, if for no reason other than to help toddlers feel less frustrated when trying to tell adults what they want. Assuming of course that the adult understands the sign the baby is trying to make. We've been playing the My Baby Can Talk DVD for about 10 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Each word is taught by watching an adult and baby each sign the word, then there is footage of toy and animal versions of the word, all set to classical music. It's really not bad, other than the terrible attempt at rapping about shoes. For Miles, it's the only TV he gets to watch so he doesn't know any better.