NO!

I never taught Doug the sign for 'no'. It looks too similar to the sign for 'bird'*. Once, I asked him a yes or no question signing 'yes' and 'no' and he looked up and around for a bird, so I abandoned that. Plus, it's kind of a nice perk to have a toddler who doesn't scream or sign 'no'. The other night Jeff and I were trying to get him to say the word 'no', but as he has in past times, he pointed to his nose and we just took it for a simple misunderstanding. In the past week, Doug has been putting his index finger to the side of his nose. I didn't know if he was altering a known sign or creating a new one. I had no idea what he meant. A few minutes ago, I told him it was time for me to take my shower. When I shower, I put Doug in his crib with his toys and sometimes he'll nap. Anyway, he didn't want to go to his crib, despite the fact that he was crying and walking in that direction. Then I saw him place his index finger next to his nose and look up at me. He did it twice more. He was objecting! He was signing 'NO!". Leave it to Doug to make up his own sign for 'no'.

*The first sign I taught him was 'bird'.