Last Friday, Siena uttered her first “Yes, please” in response to a question regarding whether she wanted (what else) some fruit. It came out more like “Yes …. peace,” but we know what she meant. The “please” was also accompanied by the usual vertical wave (or flap) of her right hand, which she picked up some point at school a while ago as the sign language for please (whether it truly is or not we have no idea). We had been wondering how long it would take for her to say “please” given that she was able to communicate it using her hands already…was that slowing the vocalization of it perhaps? We had no real way of knowing.

We practiced “yes, please” all weekend long (during a visit to cousin Isabel’s), and she’s getting quite good at it. We smile, cheer, and laugh when she does it, so there’s lots of positive reinforcement. Sometimes after we cheer, she’ll cheer right back. So funny.