BST

It stands for Baby Signing Time. But in our house we refer to it as BST because if Caitlyn hears those three words together in the same sentence (and sometimes even if she hears any one of those words in a completely unrelated sentence), she starts signing "Baby Signing Time" like crazy, asking to watch one of the DVDs. We're glad she loves them but we try to keep her TV viewing time to one 30-minute DVD a day, so we have to be careful about when we mention it.
My mom and dad bought the DVDs as an early Christmas present last November when Caitlyn was about 15 months. After one week of watching the first DVD only once a day, she was doing all the signs. It was GREAT! She could tell us she was hungry or needed a drink, and could tell us she wanted milk, water, a cracker, a banana, or that she was happy, sad, hurt, or had gone potty. We were sold. Instead of crying and throwing tantrums because we can't understand what she wants, she can usually tell us exactly what she needs. So when she cries we just say, "Can you show me what you need?" And she'll stop crying and sign what she needs or how she is feeling so we can help her. Of course, sometimes she asks for something she can't have right then, and cries when she can't have it. And sometimes she's just downright grumpy or teething. So it doesn't eliminate ALL crying and trantrums, but a LOT. And a lot is a heck of a lot better than none!
I've been meaning to film her signing for a long, long time, so we finally did it and here she is. (She'd just woken up, so she's a little less energetic than usual.)


Other words she can sign include "more, finished, sleep, drink, eat, tree, leaf, sun, book, friend, phone, stop, go, wait, please, thank you, sorry" and a pretty good variety of other words. Hopefully she'll start talking sometime in the near future (more than yes, no, bye, and daddy), but for now we're LOVING the signs.