A few months ago, I wrote a post about Elianna's linguistic abilities and about how she was approaching the age that Helen Keller was when she lost her sight and hearing. Read that whole post here: https://www.iveyink.com/blog/2020/10/25/words-words-wa-wa
I've been thinking about this a lot recently, partly because Elianna's word usage and attempts have really skyrocketed over the past few weeks. She now regularly says "wa" or "wawa" when she wants her water cup. She even says "wow!" a lot.
But what is really cool, and also ties back to the Helen Keller story, is that she's now attempting some of our hand signals we use for Athena (aside from just waving at her). She tries a thumbs up for "good girl" but makes a finger gun instead. She tries "I love you," but looks like she's flashing gang signs. But she's working on communicating and now, on the eve of 19 months, I am so proud of my little girl and still so glad that a simple childhood fever can be treated rather that stealing her from me.
“I love you” in sign language.