C is for Cookie Cracker Pretzel?

In our continuing quest to help Nik learn to communicate his wants and needs in a manner which is far less annoying than whining or crying more universally understood, we’re building on the small sign language vocabulary he already possesses. I may have mentioned in a post or three about how rapidly Nik’s skills are developing since we took him off the Lamictal, yes? And I may have also mentioned a time or twenty that his appetite —rather his willingness to taste things —is increasing at an amazingly fast rate which, if unchecked could impoverish a small country, no?

Nik long ago learned the sign for cracker which is made by flexing your left arm at the elbow and tapping the elbow with the closed right fist. It comes in handy at feeding therapy —about the only place he will deign to eat goldfish crackers anymore; his palate has become more sophisticated since he’s no longer taking the seizure meds.

Nik’s latest culinary favorite seems to be small pretzel rods —”dipping sticks,” actually. They are the right size for his hands and he can carry one around nearly everywhere he goes while he plays. Quite convenient, that. Unless you have an aversion to sweeping, vacuuming, and mopping the floor at least once daily? But I digress.

Since there doesn’t seem to be a universal sign in ASL for pretzel, we’ve been using the same sign for cracker and then saying the word pretzel for Nik. It’s simple and it seems to work. But, Nik being Nik, he came up with something all by himself yesterday; it happened so fast that I wouldn’t have believed it if Niksdad hadn’t been there as a witness.

I was in the kitchen starting to get his dinner ready when he walked over to the gate singing and smiling. When Nik knew I was looking at him, he signed cracker, please. “Oh, would you like a pretzel, Nik?” I asked. Without missing a beat, he signed please and quietly uttered “ge gah.”

Kid’s got me wrapped around his little finger like, well, a pretzel, I swear!

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