We interrupt this regularly scheduled program to share an exciting morning. Our thoughts on advocacy will continue tomorrow, but I thought it was important to share that Tessa and I had our first conversation this morning.
At an unreasonable hour (5:56 am), Tessa was being quite loud in her crib, so we took her out and made her crawl around in bed with Mom and Dad. After about half an hour, she got a little restless.
(All words were signed and spoken by me. Tessa spoke “down” but just signed the rest.)
Tessa: Da… Da… Da! (down)
Me: Oh, you want to get down from the bed?
Tessa: Da. (points forcefully at the door)
Me: Downstairs?? No, wait.
Tessa: Da. Eat. Milk.
Me: No, wait. No milk, no eat. Wait.
Tessa: Cookie.
Me: Wait. No cookie. Wait.
(pause)
Tessa: Cookie please.
BOOM. Tessa for the win.
Yo soy La Lay 
Way to go!!
Yay for Tessa! Using her “words” to have her wants and needs met.
That’s fantastic!!! Way to go Tessa!
So exciting! And also awesome that one of her first thoughts on the day is surrounding a cookie!
Ever since she learned the sign for cookie, it’s all she thinks about. 🙂