Tricks

As every parent does, we think our baby is the cutest and smartest to have ever graced the earth. Gavin understands and performs many different tasks on a daily basis, and he has just started to verbalize some of them. We taught him the sign language for "more" so that he wouldn't get so frustrated when he couldn't verbalize that he wanted more food. He actually uses this as a multi-purpose sign now: it means "yes" or "food" or "eat" (i.e. before mealtimes we ask, "Are you hungry? Do you want some food?" and he will sign "more"), and of course, he uses it to signal during snacks and meals that we should continue giving him more food.

Other things Gavin does on command are turning the lights on or off, opening and closing doors, handing things to Mom or Dad, splashing in the bath, clapping, playing "peek-a-boo," waiting patiently and then opening his mouth in preparation for brushing his teeth, giving kisses, waving, folding his arms for prayer (that's a new one), shaking his head "no" when he does something bad or we say "uh-oh" (but he still doesn't stop the behavior, naughty kid), and my personal favorite, saying "Mama." Some of these are shown on the following videos. Also on the clips are sound bites of Casey and I giggling like idiots and cooing at our favorite boy, but come on - can you blame us??