my kids all learned sign language as babies.

just the basics.

enough.

our brains can comprehend speech at 6 to 8 months,

but our vocal chords aren’t yet developed enough to make the sounds.

a baby boy can sign, can say, ‘all done’ instead of screaming like a banshee.

a baby girl prone to shrieking can sign ‘tired’ or ‘hungry’ or ‘dirty(diaper)’.

this takes some of the frustrating guesswork out of parenting for me.

and to see my kids speak like that is very, very moving.

but i think i’d nearly forgotten what it is about the language

that made me fall in love with it in the first place.

  my friend m. sent me this link and reminded me.

there is such rugged beauty, gracefulness,

 and intense depths of emotion here.  they floor me everytime.

and by the way, ‘he had me at hello’.

‘graceful’ taken from 41:12 in job.