Talking With Their Hands

Ellie's Kindergarten teachers are awesome.  They teach a lot of sign language in class.  Ellie can sign the story "Brown Bear Brown Bear" and has a cute little song to go with it.  She likes to use it as often as possible, particularly at the dinner table.
Jake also likes to talk with his hands but in a different way.  We've noticed it since well before the summer.  His hands are always a part of his speech.  It started with holding them out (sort of like and innocent, "I don't know...I didn't do it" way) whenever he was talking.  I don't know if that started because he was often trying to avert trouble or didn't quite know the right answer to the question at hand.  He later moved to holding one finger up while he talked.  Now he mostly holds one finger up, but also wiggles all of his fingers on the same hand if he's thinking hard or excited.  It's really cute.
Will seems to be picking up on the talking with his hands trend.  Whenever he's babbling, he's pointing around to whatever he's talking about.  I'm really not sure who they're getting this from, but it's cute.

11 Months

I don't know how in the world sweet Will is already 11 months.  I have the cutest pictures of the sweet little booger, and still can't figure out how to upload them.  Bummer!  He is such a treat.  He's started taking steps.  About 2 weeks ago is was 2.  Now we've counted up to 21.  I wouldn't say he's walking yet, but he sure is building up confidence and trying to step more often.  I am so not ready for this!  I did my best to discourage it, but who listens to me when there are 4 eager older siblings giving LOTS of encouragement.  I finally gave in.  Will has also turned into quite the chatter mouth, and is taking a new interest in reading every now and then.  Such a fun fun little man.

English Lessons

If Will never speaks English, I'll know why.  I think I've already mentioned that Jake calls him "Willie Baggie".  Not sure why, but that's what he calls him...all the time, not just here and there.  It's to the point that everyone else even calls him that here and there.
On top of that, the other day Buck was home in the morning.  Usually Buck heads out to work before everyone else gets up.  This time, though, he was there when Jake greeted Will in the morning.  The greeting didn't really register with me because I hear similar greetings all the time, but Buck was thoroughly entertained when he heard Jake eagerly announce, "Slappa poopa, Willie Baggie!"  I've also heard, "Yippie dippie!" and many other nonsense combinations.  To date, though, "slappa poopa" is our favorite and is working its way into every-day vocabulary in the house.  It's fun, but poor Will may have horrible struggles with the English language...and his name, for that matter.