It's Official: He's a Pre-Verbal Communicator.

Ezra has discovered some new sign language. And so begins the communication....
He's figured out that opening and closing both hands rapidly means "bye-bye", and he now knows that bye-bye means outside, and that outside ultimately means time with the exalted garden hose... I've never seen anyone so obsessed with a lawn maintenance tool in my whole life. I'd wager that he dreams of this hose at night-- just the two of them, prancing and twirling in the grass, splashing plants and soaking socks into the wee hours of the morning...

Just yesterday he started doing the sign for "food" or "hungry" by tapping his fingers to his mouth, and I don't know if it's just a little over-excitement from learning a new trick or what, but this kid is suddenly telling me he's hungry 24-7... It's now this constant tap-tap-tap-tap of little fingers to little lips, and I quietly wonder to myself, "Has this kid been consistently hungry for the past 14 months??"

We are leaving tomorrow night to drive to California, and I'm so excited to get away and have a change of pace for a bit... Ezra has been on a loosey-goosey schedule for so long (with naps, meals, bedtime...naps, meals, bedtime....) that I'm feeling a bit stir-crazy lately. I was never one for rigid schedules or repetition and predictability, so this "daily routine" with him is not in my nature and it wears on me.
I'm ready to 'rough it' across the country for a couple of days and then hand him over to friends and family and enjoy the security and safety that goes hand-in-hand with old, comfy community like that... a little breath of fresh air for a travel weary momma and her pre-verbally communicative son. :)