[OT/ANN] Now I'm a father

[Ryno Swart]

> They are hand signs that are specific to what a baby can do with their
> hands. Much of ASL (American Sign Language?) involves using fingers and
> babies (or at least ours) wasn't able to do ASL style signs. These I
> guess are more akin to gestures. He learned roughly 6 of the 12 we
> decided to use on a regular basis and he made up around 6 of his own
> that we picked up on. We did not go through the frustrated
> non-communicator stage. It was soooo cool when after a shower and we
> had dried him off, when he asked for More Shower (since those were two
> signs he could do). So we stuck him back in the shower and he was
> amazingly happy.

Wonderful stuff, Kee,

How I wish I had known about these signs! Here is an amazing experiment 
you can try, Malte... I did it with our newborn, some years ago.

When you walk the baby up and down the passage, and you will, and you 
do that slow smooth turn at the end of your length, watch your baby. If 
there is something that grasps his attention (a light pattern on the 
wall is a good one), you'll note that as you turn your body and his 
away, his head stays lined up with the object of his attention. Now you 
can move around, dip and lean, duck and weave, and his little head will 
adjust as required to keep looking at the spot of light. The muscle 
control is unbelievable, and supposed not to be there at all. I believe 
that our lives are governed not by fate, not even by free will, but by 
the play of our attention. Ah, how I wish I had known about this book!

Ryno.
http://artistvision.org ...a work in progress...