Talk to Me, Girl!

I have posted a lot about Claire's communication recently.  Here's one more story about how it is really starting to take off.

The other day, Claire's nanny ("Auntie Lu") and I took Claire to Wake Up and Sing, a music class at the Center for the Visually Impaired.  When the class was over, "Auntie Lu" put Claire in her stroller, and as she did, Claire started to cry.  We tried everything we could think of to calm her down:  We held her, rubbed her arms, reassured her everything was okay.

Finally, I sat down with Claire, positioned her so we were looking at one another, and asked her to tell me what was wrong:

"Claire, are you hurting?"  She continued to cry.

"Are you hungry?"  She cried even more.

"Do you want to go home and watch a movie?"  She cried harder.

"Do you want to go home and play with toys?"  She cried even harder.

Finally, I hit on it:

"Are you sad because Wake Up and Sing is over?"  Her crying calmed to sobbing.

"Do you want to listen to music?" She stopped crying altogether. 

With that, I pulled out my iPhone, put on Pandora's Toddler Radio station and watched her eyes grow wide as her favorite children's songs played.  

What an amazing discovery--to know that Claire can tell us what she wants, as long as we work to figure it out!  

Communication is my greatest wish for Claire Bear, and I love knowing that we just might be onto something!