Biker Babe!

Okay, okay - a lot of posts in one day, but so much to report! Check out Noa on her fabulous new bike which she got thanks so a special program through Rusk Institute to get bikes to special needs kids (thanks Julie for making it happen!)

As you can see Noa LOVES her bike! In fact, she learned the sign for bike in about 1 minute flat!

The pedals move when the bike moves (unlike the tricycles we've tried in the past) so that she learns that moving her feet makes the bike go - and it's great exercise for her legs. There is a bar in the back that lets us steer it.

She loves the little tiger's head which squeaks when you squeeze it - and there is a little purple bell on the side of the handle bars that she is getting the hang of. The only problem with the bike is that it is soooo cool that all the other kids on the playground want to ride it - and it's tough to explain that we can't let other kids ride it. I'm sure we could do it with one kid or two, but the playground is packed with kids and this bike is too expensive and frankly, not for climbing on... so tough to be cool and popular.

In other signing news -- Noa has been signing up a storm!

She learned the sign for different in the matter of a few days. She uses it when she wants a different flavor of food - we'll start trying to use it soon for different toys, or different music, whatever.

She's also been very interested in signing letters - not that she knows what they mean, but she gets that they are meaningful. In Arizona Ben was doing some letters into her hand and she would feel the letter very intently and then try it with her own hand. I've been singing the alphabet song to her while signing the alphabet for her and she really enjoys that - and spelling her name into her hand.

If you think about it - we all learned the alphabet song without really getting what all the letters are for (which kind of explains the "El-eh-meno-pee" section which eventually learn is L-M-N-O-P) so her trying it out is just like any other kid trying out sounds or fun songs without worrying about the meaning.

Though in Arizona she did learn the sign for swim - until we'd just used the bath sign, but as I learn more, I try to help her learn more as well.

Today, Melissa signed "I Love You" to Noa and Noa did the sign back. It was pretty darn cute!!!

Noa is VERY clearly interested in more signs -

AND as she becomes more interested in signs, she is making more sounds as well. She continues with the "j-yes" and this week we got a lot of "nice" and "in-dee." But rather than making us feel like we should focus more on speech, it makes us feel like we should continue to focus on the signs - because those are what gets her attention, and the sounds, if they do come, come after and seemingly as a result of having learned a sign.