Progress!

I usually don't have time to write a whole lot, but as our little family has come down with colds (Iris is the only one who doesn't seem to lose any steam!), I've determined that I have to take it easy today. I didn't feel great yesterday, but as a mom, how do you take a day off? So Josh worked from home to keep from spreading his cold, and I cleaned, and cooked, and did everything I normally do. So, inevitably, today I'm worse. But the house is cleaner (I don't know if I will ever achieve the elusive "clean"), and my energy level is almost nil. So, I'm taking it somewhat easy (its never a complete vacation with an almost-walking 10-month-old prowling around!). I've found that one of the biggest problems with being sick at the same time as the rest of the family is that I can't pass her off to the in-laws or parents, for fear that she will pass the creeping crud off to them. Oh, well!
So, Iris has made some huge progress in the last couple of weeks. After months of discouragement and frustration and trying to guess what we were doing wrong, Iris is now signing. Of course, as she had to know the name of the favorite family member first, she has been signing "doggy" for months. But nothing else. Certainly nothing helpful. But in just the last two weeks, her signing has ramped up. She now raises her hands when she's "all done", puts them together for "more", and sometimes slaps her forehead and chin, which we are hoping means "Daddy" and "Mommy". We would at least like equal standing with the dog. It is so nice to see the fruit of our labors. At least it will give us more encouragement to start more signs--I wasn't going to even try "please" and "thank you" until we got the basics down. Now we can teach her manners!