About a year ago, Kevin and I made the decision to teach Kennedy sign language. It was a little slow to start and took her a while before she was able to sign back, but we are so glad that we made this decision! As of right now, she is able to sign almost 20 different signs and understand even more from us. As she hits her 15 month "Language Explosion", it seems like she is adding a new sign to her vocabulary almost every day.
We used a combination of books, web resources and Baby Signing Time videos to teach her (and us!). The videos were, by far, her favorite. It's pretty exciting to know that Kevin and I are learning another language as well. We plan to continue with it and maybe take formal ASL (American Sign Language) classes eventually.
Sign language has made communication so much easier and saved us many frustrations (on both sides). Babies are able to express themselves with sign much sooner than with verbal language, so she is able to tell me what she wants or needs without me having to figure out what her cries and tantrums mean. Some people are afraid that if their baby learns to sign, it will delay their speaking, but Kennedy talks up a storm. We encourage Kennedy to sign and speak by signing and speaking ourselves. She does this with about half of her signs, but the rest will follow soon, I'm sure.
What a wonderful gift to be able to communicate with and understand your baby!
Here is a video of Kennedy signing
Kennedy's signing vocabulary
(to the best I can remember, in the order she learned them)
- puppy
- milk
- more
- all done
- hi and bye
- please
- thank you
- eat
- bird
- horse
- water
- mama
- dada
- bath
- sleep
- potty
- wash hands
- brush teeth
- shoes
- socks
In a word, LOVE.
Seneca Lake is one of my favorite places to visit in New York although, admittedly, the visit usually involves a trip around the lake sampling lots (and lots and lots) of delicious wines from the wine trail. Today, however, we stopped at the northern end of the lake just outside of Geneva, about a 45 minute drive from Syracuse.
Seneca Lake State Park is a really nice park with miles of walking/jogging trails and a beautiful view of Seneca Lake... and, of course, an awesome splash pad for the littles. We thought $7 was a great deal and saw no sense in spending more to go to one of the bigger waterparks, since K is too little still to really enjoy it. This was perfect for her.
The facts:
Price: $7 for a car load
Hours: 8:30am-8pm during the summer
More Info: Click here!
- The spray ground is nicely maintained and has water sprayers of various sizes and intensities. Many of them were too big/strong for Kennedy, but there were a few that were more her speed and she loved them. There were times where some of the bigger kids got a little too rowdy and we had to move her to a different area, but I'm sure that is the same with any playground.
- The nearby playground was just ok. It has mulch for the ground cover and I am just not a big fan of the mulch. There is also no shade over the playground.
- The beach was closed for swimming when we went, but it seemed like an average lake beach (hey, I'm a Florida kid... no New York beach will ever match up in my opinion)
- The park itself has several dozen picnic tables, grills and shaded areas to sit/play. The grass was well kept and grills were functional. There were also several pavillions available for rent for parties and such.
- There is a small concession stand near the splash pad. They don't have a large selection, but they are fairly priced for snacks and drinks. We just brought a cooler with snacks/drinks to enjoy.
- We went on a week day and the crowd wasn't too bad. I would not go on a weekend... I'm sure it's a mad house.
