Yes and No

Both of my children said yes way before they ever said no. Don't envy me, they figured out plenty of other ways to communicate no!!! Because of this, their use of the word yes had several different forms. Timothy said a very cute "deh" for maybe a year before he learned "yes". And now we're reading a wonderful book we checked out of the library called, "Yes, please...No, thank you". I think it's sinking in!

Through May of this year, Samantha just nodded yes. It was one giant nod from top to bottom (never multiple nods). It was very cute, and she would practically lose her balance because it was so exaggerated. Then at the end of May/beginning of June she started nodding regularly. At the end of August she finally decided to go with "yeah", and she has almost completely phased out the head nodding with it. I know that these are silly details, but before long all the cute baby actions and words will be gone. I won't be able to get them back, and I'll want to!

Many of you know that for the first year of Samantha's life, Timothy thought if he ignored her enough she would just go away. It was literally like she was an invisible person in the room. Thankfully, all that has changed now, and they have their own unique way of playing together. He thinks his sister is pretty "funny".

That being said, they have developed their own yes/no game. Timothy thinks it's hysterical that Samantha doesn't say no, so he starts the yes/no game. The entire game is that Timothy says no and Samantha says yes. They alternate saying their respective words forever until they're both rolling from laughter. And the game is clear to them. Sam knows when Timothy says "no" for real and when he's says "no" to start the game. When it's the latter, she just jumps on in.

And I would think the whole thing was totally adorable if it didn't have the end result of teaching Samantha the word no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Counting the days before the game's "alternative #1" is Timothy saying yes and Samantha saying no!