I posted this on Signing Time's Facebook page today.

My 7 and 9 yr old boys tease each other, as brothers often do. Today, we were watching Baby Signing Time with their little sister. Rachel was singing The Bug Song when my 7 yr old says to his older brother, "I'm going to bug you." Expecting a tease, I started laughing when he went to his brother and signed bug on his brothers nose. LOL!

Jamo's birthday!

Somehow I blinked and Jamo turned 9. Wow. Next year it is double digits. How did it go so fast?

I stayed up way too late making Hopkins cupcakes.

It was worth it though. Every month I go to both of my boys' classes and teach them a Signing Time lesson. So, the kids all knew it was Hopkins and loved it. :o)

Between my 2 scheduled classes, I also managed to make it to help at Roo's lunchroom at school. I'm having some kind of RA issue or something right now. And I spent the lunch time running around opening milk bottles, thermoses, etc. Owie! And tomorrow I have 9 classes. Oh please let my hands work tomorrow!!! I can barely open the jelly jar for my kids in the morning. And before you ask, mommy, yes, I have my appointment scheduled with my Rheumy. :o)

I've never shown a picture of my RA hands, have I? This is my good hand, only some of the knuckles are swollen. On my right hand, my fingers are starting to go wonky and won't straighten out.

We had a wonderful evening. Jamo shocked us all and picked Pizza Hut for dinner over his beloved IHOP. Then the kids decorated the cake and we opened presents. If you didn't know, we have a recently started tradition of letting the kids decorate the cake. They are much better than I am at it anyway! Here it is:

Leftover frosting from the cupcakes and sprinkles. Lots of sprinkles. haha! It is a penguin with a 9 on his tummy. Can't you tell?? And do you know what I *just now* realized? We forgot to actually EAT the cake. Oops. The kids were really excited about the presents, so I don't think they noticed.

After this action packed day of making cakes, wrapping presents, making a mess etc, I got a call to show the house tomorrow. Oy. I guess it is better than today, but since I'm working all day tomorrow, I'll have to clean it all tonight. It's going to be a rough night!

Best mommy in the world

Conversation with Roo while making Signing Time Valentine's with him:

Roo: You are the best mommy in the world.
Me: Because I printed Signing Time Valentines?
Roo: Yes, because you work for Signing Time and that is really cool.
Me: Aw thanks!
Roo: And do you know who is the second coolest mommy?
Me: Who?
Roo: Rachel.
Me: She is pretty cool.
Roo: In your opinion, you might think she is the coolest because she started Signing Time.
Me: But not in your opinion?
Roo: No, in my opinion you are still the coolest and that won't change.

At least not until he is a teen. :o) Sure love my little guy!

Twinkle, twinkle little star...

This is the song I usually dread most when teaching ASL signs. The sign most children learn for diamond is HIGHLY inappropriate in ASL.

Imagine my shock today at church when I start signing Twinkle, Twinkle with Sugar and she signs said HIGHLY inappropriate sign.

"Sweetie, that isn't the correct way to sign diamond. This is how to do it." *shows correct way*
"No. It is like this." *signs HIGHLY inappropriate sign*
"That isn't the way. You need to do it like this." *shows correct way*
"No. My teacher said to do it like this." *again signs HIGHLY inappropriate sign*

I finally told her we'd talk about it later just to get her to stop signing it wrong. eek!

***to sign DIAMOND, make a "D" with your right hand (fingers all touching the thumb except the pointer finger is up) and tap it on your left ring finger, where a diamond would be.

Here are some online dictionary results:

Click to sign DIAMOND (the object, like what is in the sky)

Click to sign the shape DIAMOND

Excitement galore!

Oh, there is soooo much to blog about! But, I'll start with the news that has made it hard to blog in the first place!

I just got a new job as the Associate Director for the Central Atlantic Region of Signing Time Academy! YAY! I am super excited for all of the wonderful experiences I will have doing this.

To celebrate, I'm having 2 separate giveaways. One is on my Facebook page and the other one is at Allison's giveaway blog. If you've been waiting to get a Series 2 DVD, you might want to enter!

And keep an eye out for these upcoming posts:
Niagra Falls
Sioux Falls
And cute stuff with the kiddos

Ruby slippers

SugarPea is growing fast. I bought her some new shoes yesterday since her old ones were too small. She picked out some red, sparkly ones. When she wore them to church today, her teacher said, "Those are beautiful ruby shoes you have!" Sugar said, "They aren't booby shoes! They are red!" The whole way home Brad was trying to explain that a ruby is a red stone.

"Ruby, Sugar. Ru-ru-ru-ruby."
"Wooby. Wu-wu-wu-booby."

Oh so funny!

Sugar has been asking me to help her form signs lately. In ASL, the number 3 is done with your thumb, index, and middle fingers and the number 6 is done with your thumb and pinky touching. We've been working on her 3 lately, since she is 3 and is frequently asked how old she is. Today at church, she was signing water. Water is signed with the same handshape as the number 6 (forming a W) bouncing on your chin. But she was signing it with a number 3 on her chin. Such a cute little girl!!!

The website is done! YAHOO!

I'm so excited to announce that my website is all done! I finally accepted that it wasn't going to happen if I was making it, so I turned it over to my friend Jared at NetProCity. I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out!

To celebrate, I'm giving away some Signing with a Smile products. 2 people will get to pick a gift from the Promotion album on Facebook. All you have to do is go and check out my amazing new website and then come back and leave a comment on the promotion post on Signing with a Smile's Facebook page giving me some feedback (good or bad) about it. I'll randomly draw 2 winners on February 1st. Good luck, and thank you so much for supporting me in this journey!

Black Friday Sale

Today only! Shop in my store! www.signingtimeacademy.com/melisamons

Friday, November 27 - 50% off orders over $25

* All single DVDs, CDs, Books and Flash Cards are 50% off on orders over $25
* No Coupon Necessary
* Excludes ALL GIFT SETS AND COLLECTIONS
* Not Valid with any other offer
* Good one day only
* Not available to wholesale and distributors

Big sale!

Head over to Signing with a Smile to get a huge discount on Black Friday and the rest of the weekend!

Up and running

Okay, while I make some tweaks and changes, I thought I'd put up my first draft of my website so you can get an idea of what I'll be doing. :o)

http://www.signingwithasmile.com

Calling Philly Phriends

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday. I feel very blessed to have such amazing people in my life.

I am going to have a 'practice' class for my friends for my first Signing Time class. I have curriculum for both a baby signing (1-3 yr olds) and for Signing Time (3-8 yr olds). Since it will be my first class, I don't want to have so many people that I get overwhelmed. Please leave a comment or email if you would be interested in a class and for which age group. Feel free to tell your other friends about it too. Thanks for the support!