Let me first say that I now get the Disney thing. We never went to Disneyland or World until I was in college, so I truly expected this to be a bit of a wasted experience for Oscar on most levels. Fun, yes, but I thought he’d miss most of it. Wrong.

My somewhat reserved little guy bolted from his stroller in a dead run when he spied Mickey Mouse holding court on Main Street. When I started humming It’s a Small World he didn’t hit me or grunt repeatedly as he usually does when I dare to sing. Instead, he put his hands on either side of my face and rested his forehead on mine. Remarkable, really.

This afternoon we returned to the hotel for a break and I taught him the sign for “swim” (small breast-stroke moves) and he repeatedly signed it back to me. I was so proud of him that I took him swimming despite the fact it was about 55 degrees outside. Alternating between the somewhat heated pool and overheated hot tub bought us two hours of fun before Oscar’s lips turned, and stayed, blue. Even the magic of Disney wasn’t enough to save us from the biggest fit since Vietnam when I forcibly removed him. He’s sleeping it off now before we head back for our final hours at the park. Two days was nowhere near enough.

Jeesh, what a day. First, we made it to Disneyland. Who knew so much went into taking a two year old away from the house for two nights? With all the stuff I packed, we may as well be gone for a month. So much for packing light.

Oscar is still a pretty good traveler, but he’s exerting his independence much more. Makes being in a confined space an absolute joy. Can’t wait to try it on a flight to Dubai.

We didn’t spend a ton of time learning new signs today, but I did teach him “happy”. What else would work here? Happy is signed by making a circular motion with both hands (flat) at chest level, moving down and back up, slightly hitting your chest. He didn’t even attpt this one, but that’s okay. We’ll keep on it.

He’s definitely feeling happy, though. Aside from an expected meltdown when he couldn’t ride Dumbo or the carousel for the third time each, he’s had an extremely happy day. If I had brought my laptop, I could post real pics, but for now all I have is this from the parking lot this morning.

Since I spent the evening packing for our weekend getaway, most of Oscar’s sign language came via our Signing Time DVD tonight. However, I did work with him on the word “signing”, which I’m trying to use with him as a cue (if he can’t say a word, I’m trying to both say and sign “sign” so he knows the two are interchangeable. Not sure he gets it yet, but I think he might. Off to Disneyland in the morning!

Oops, got home too late to post last night, but Oscar came through with another sign. He’s seen this one for a very long time, but has refused to actually use it.  Oscar will not answer “yes” or “no” to any question ever posed.  Ever.  He grunts, he yells, he arches his back.  You get the picture . . . but he doesn’t actually say yes or no (or sign them). 

Last night, though I did manage to get him to sign “yes” to milk [you sign yes by making a fist with your right hand and bending your wrist down and up (like you're nodding your fist)].  You know how salespeople trick you into buying things by getting you to say yes to little things they know you’ll say yes to (getting you in the habit of responding positively to them) and then hit you with the big sales push?  I used this technique on Oscar last night.  I knew he wanted milk.  I asked him a series of questions to which the answers were all yes.  I let him give me his standard grunt that means yes.  He did.  And then I pushed him to actually give me the sign when I asked him if he wanted milk.  Success.  Sadly, I think this is only going to work in extreme cases, but for the time being I’m okay with it.  Baby steps.

When I was in college my family had this incredible dog named Sammy.  He was the wildest, smartest, sweetest golden retriever ever known to man.  When Sammy was a puppy, he came in contact with some tiny little mice and after that experience every time we wanted to make him insane we’d point across the room and yell “mouse.”  Sammy would completely lose it, chasing after the invisible mouse.  Somehow it never got old.

Oscar is not Sammy, of course, but in celebration of our upcoming trip to Disneyl*nd, I thought I’d introduce him to the term “mouse.”  He has a Mickey M0use doll that has been sitting in his grocery cart for the past year or so.  Every once in a while he’ll push him around the hall.  “Mouse” is signed by brushing the tip of your nose twice with the tip of the index finger of your right hand.  Very easy.  Oscar picked this one up with no problem at all.  I even captured it on tape with some success.

Today’s real reward, though, came when the little guy curled up with me, looked up at me a little shyly and signed “hug.”  I love sign language.

Turns out one really needs a video camera to capture signs.  Who knew?  Taking the lead from a couple of you, tonight’s word was “hug”, which I tried to turn into “hug me”, but Oscar refused to go there.  He did, however, latch onto “hug” within two seconds, which led to a very enjoyable hour in which it seemed like hugging was apparently something he had wanted to do a lot of.  We’re pretty touchy feely around here, so I’m hopeful that he hasn’t been feeling like I’ve been a little chintzy on the hugs.  I think tomorrow’s word will be “tickle.”

A cross section of hug (which you do by simply crossing your arms in front of your chest).  And, just to share, behind Oscar was my weekend’s project.  An attempt to organize the three million toys that have invaded Oscar’s room.  I’m quite proud of it – it was in a million pieces, which I put together all by myself.  I even decorated the his and her globes – little rhinestones for each city Oscar and Etta have visited or lived in (I just marked Addis for Etta for now).  I’m hoping theirs will be as encrusted with little jewels as my bigger globe is in my office.