45. Hands!

While Beatrice has been waving "hello" and "goodbye" for some time now, over the past week she has really nailed communicating with her hands.

Her first trick was pointing. I recently saw a TV program on primate communication. Apparently, one way primates differ from humans is that they aren't able to read (or use) physical cues such as pointing, which makes working together more difficult. So Bea's new-found skill feels like a big leap.

Pointing was closely followed by her signing "all done" at the dinner table. (A pretty complicated sign involving wrist swivelling.) I have been really lazy with all of the sign language aside from "all done" so I feel I should renew my efforts, now that she is getting the hang of these things. (Grandpa Griff is the only person who has been really consistent with signing--using the "grandpa" sign whenever he first sees her.)

And her most recent trick, the one that seems to make her the happiest, is clapping. (Apologies for the sideways movie--Grandma Fox is a little too artsy with her filmmaking.)

Here she is earlier today, working on her balance:

44. Look, (Grand) Ma--No hands!

43. Standing

Shortly after our last post Bea began pulling herself up to standing. It was like a switch turned on and she suddenly had a new favorite pastime. Today she twice stood for a second or two without support. One time she did so completely on her own--meaning we didn't support her and then let go, she just stood up! (We haven't documented that quite yet.)

This movie also catches her newest animal sound--the elephant. (!) We have a book of baby animal sounds and last night she began imitating Grandma Fox when she did the elephant. The book writes out the word as "braloo!" Bea says "broo." In this movie she is speaking with her elephant voice while playing with a lion.

In other news, she also likes to wave "bye bye" and "hello."