File 770
Issue 142: June 2003
Is she walking? Is she talking? Is she sleeping through the night? The list of Frequently Asked Questions about Sierra Grace needs updating: the answers to these have been "yes" for quite awhile.
My beautiful daughter Sierra was last issue's cover girl, leading a flight of dragons over the lush green hills of Alan White's imaginary coastline. She grows more interesting and lovely every day. When I wrote about her a year ago, my girl was three months old, still trying to turn herself over. In January, eleven months old, she was grabbing for handholds like a rock-climber, pulling herself up on the coffee table, my pant- legs, the bars of her crib, the sliding glass door to the patio, filing cabinet handles. Sierra used to fall like a tree - very alarming -- until Diana taught her to land on her tush, padded by nature and Pampers. Sierra's mastery of the graceful fall meant we finally could stop hovering about her like stage ninjas. By February, from a standing start she could hurtle three or four steps into Diana's waiting arms. Now in May, she's trundling around the house at full-speed.
Sierra enjoys her independence. When it comes to food, her passion is for anything she can pick off her high chair tray and feed to herself, like peas (her favorite), bits of bread or tortillas, chunks of banana, pieces of chicken and shreds of cheese. In fact, Sierra thinks cheese is so wonderful she won't touch any other food if it's in sight. We're trying to limit her to a one-slice-per-day habit. And that's only having tasted those plastic-wrapped Kraft singles. Wait 'til you get to the good stuff, baby… I've noticed how the pursuit of cheese has inspired Sierra's most ingenious communication breakthroughs.
We've been working to teach Sierra a sign language vocabulary since the beginning, inspired by the DVD a child development researcher has issued showing infants can pick up a sign vocabulary surprisingly early. Babies are obviously less frustrated when they have a way to tell their parents what they need (and not have to cry until the parent guesses right). Sign is a tool that helps them learn to get along with people around them.
Soon after Sierra's first birthday she began to make consistent sense of sign language. She first began to use signs for "milk," "book," "more," "finished," "please" and "help." One day when Diana came home from work, Sierra rushed to greet her saying "Cheese!" and frantically making the "Help!" sign -- Sierra's first full sentence. This past Memorial Day Weekend Diana's friend Alene visited from Oklahoma. She knows sign, and Sierra quickly recognized that she did. Over the weekend, Sierra repeatedly got Alene's attention by rubbing her hands together. However, Alene didn't understand what she wanted. To wash her hands? Sierra said (aloud) the word "Kitchen." Oh, did she want to wash her hands in the kitchen? Well, "D'oh!" to all of us. The next time Sierra saw a piece of cheese she made the handrubbing gesture - which is pretty close to the actual cheese sign, something we should have realized!
We also hadn't known Sierra could say "kitchen." I guess she knows a batch of words and will say one whenever she thinks it might lead to some cheese. When no cheese is involved, her pattern is to say a new word now and then but not repeat it for weeks, as if she was satisfied with the prototype and feels no need to put it immediately into production. Words she now uses routinely include "outside," "mama," "daddy," "again," "all done" to get out of her high chair.
Since Sierra learned to walk, her speech development has gone in an interesting new direction. She sometimes paces up and down the living room delivering an effusive proclamation with energetic hand gestures - not one syllable of which I understand.
Sierra enjoys hearing stories and watching kids videos. I love it when she delves into a pile of books, hands me the one she wants read, then climbs into my lap to listen and turn the pages.
I've also enjoyed how being Sierra's parents has energized our family relationships and connected us to other people in unexpectedly intimate ways. She's much more than a new common interest (although it helps that we now know lots of "Raffi" lyrics.) People see us with Sierra and seem to say to themselves, "Now Diana and Mike can understand what we're talking about." I've discovered that few things in life are as fascinating as to be around her, make eye contact and smile, amuse her, teach her, see her make discoveries of her own, and to enjoy her sweet disposition.
Thanks and kisses to Diana, who took the photos of Sierra.
