This is a picture of the official BEST LOAF OF BREAD WE HAVE EVER MADE. It is a 2-lb loaf of olive bread. I LOOVE the olive breads I've tried from various supermarket bakeries. I was expecting this loaf to be similar: hard crusty outside (sometimes a little too hard) and salty olive goodness inside (sometimes too salty!). But this loaf beat the pants off them all. It had a delicately crispy crust and a subtle olive taste - not too salty! The crumb (the inside loafy part) was finely textured and even; no big swiss cheese-like holes that make your carefully cut slices fall apart (tho that IS sometimes fun to have a big holey crumb). Jesse was experimenting with adding a LITTLE more yeast than our recipes have traditionally called for (we had an "accident" where he added 2x the amount of yeast, attempted to salvage 1/2 of it back out, and ended up with a pleasantly less-dense loaf than we'd usually been getting) - it may not have worked out as well for this particular recipe because we did end up with a little bit of bubble/collapse action at the very top when we took it out of the bread machine - no damage to the flavor though! We've been eating it by dipping our slices into a bit of good olive oil spiked with some fresh ground black pepper and salt - we devoured about half this loaf in one go while it was still warm, so we've been trying to restrain ourselves since then! This loaf will DEFINITELY be a frequent repeat . . .
As to the OTHER half of this post . . . I've been doing a bit of reading about baby signing (not singing, tho there will definitely be baby singing!) that got me intrigued. From my preliminary "research" it seems as though babies start consistently using single words to communicate after 12 months and can string several together into small sentences around 2 yrs. However, they apparently can start to use signs around 6 months of age! As Baby She-Glass won't have an older sibling to interpret her wants/needs for us (you're welcome Liz and Nally!), it seems great to be able to have another way of communicating. We're certainly not expecting to be conversing in fluent sentences with a 6-month-old (I don't think WE'D be able to be fluent by then!) but using the signs for words like mom, dad, sleep, more, yes, no, grandma/grandpa (!) would be so neat! Mama Woodford, this specifically made me think of you (and Vanessa??) - but I'd love to hear if anyone has heard/read/seen anything about this.
7 comments:
A friend of mine has been using signing with her baby. At an early age the baby was able to sign she needed to have her diaper changed. Christine is very happy with her signing experience. It seems like it is a great way to communicate with babies.
Hey Caitlin, it's Liz Rogers. I found this link on your Facebook and have been reading your blog. By the way, congrats on the baby!!!
As an SLP, I recommend thinking about wants/needs (using words to make requests) rather than using signs to label. Although it would be cute for her to sign Mom or Dad, it doesn't serve much purpose. It would be much more useful if she was able to communicate things such as "more, all done, help, juice, milk, hurt", etc. Think about situations that lead to frustration and go from there. I teach signs a lot as a starting point for communication, it is very empowering to young children.
Thanks Liz! I agree that focusing on wants/needs is a good idea, especially to start off. Have you come across any books on this subject in your travels? :)
Sign language is handy (pun intended) not only for needs and wants, but for potty training, too.
Check out the videos here if you are interested in checking out this new application of baby sign langauge:
www.PottyTrainWithBabySigns.com
hi caitlin...yes, signing with your little one will be very rewarding for both..i have a book i will bring to you...can't wait to wee you soon...and sooo love the loaf of bread...please let's make one when we see you in april...i can smell it now!!!!!!!!
I had heard about this in the past few years. I wondered if it would have helped me with Luke and Ellie, because I couldn't understand what THEY were saying, although I think they understood me.
Actually, I think i talked to Jesse about it, a little while back.
I like the idea of board books that you can read with the baby. I have one called Baby Signs and you can read together and show her the signs as you read. Doing hand-over-hand assistance helps to start.
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