It never occurred to me that there might be a problem with my 28 signs in 28 days plan.  Oscar alerted me to it early today, when he point-blank refused to engage in my attempts to learn new signs.  What’s the saying . . . you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it float on its back?

I tried to teach him ”tickle”, which he thought was funny, but wanted none of, and then I thought we’d ease on over to “grandpa.”  Now, this should not have been difficult.  He knows the sign for “grandma,” which he uses all the time.  He also has seen the sign for “grandpa” a number of times.  I know he knows how to do this sign.  So, I’m trying it over and over, Nanny Norma starts in too, all to no avail.

It becomes clear Oscar wants nothing to do with this today.  We tried a number of times and he wasn’t having any of it.  Eventually he started a hybrid “grandma” / “grandpa” sign, which appeared to have been borne out of sheer laziness or stubbornness, and I’m certain it was done in disdain.  “Grandma” is signed by touching the thumb of your hand to your chin and moving it out in two arch-shaped motions.  “Grandpa” is similar, but you touch your thumb to your forehead before moving your hand out in the same two arches.  Oscar has decided that if we’re going to press this, he’s going to meet us in the middle.  No more signing “grandma” properly.  Now, when we say sign “grandma” or “grandpa”, he’s decided that he’ll do the arching gesture, but he’ll do it in the middle of his face – not where his hand should be for either sign – but right in the middle.  Why bother with two signs when one sign in the middle gets the point across just as well?  I swear, if he knew how to roll his eyes, he would have while he threw his “grandparent” sign at us.

I now see the error in my ways.  The 365 projects most bloggers engage in are within their control.  Sure, their pictures may suck some days (none of yours, nach), but no one can keep them from their objective, unless someone breaks their camera.  My error was in not taking into consideration that my project is entirely dependent on Oscar’s willingness to learn what I’m trying to teach him.  Sometimes that is an uphill battle.