Thumbs Up

Matthew's verbal abilities are fairly advanced so he's decided to work on his nonverbal communication.  He recently learned the thumbs up sign, which he is quite fond of except at meal time.  Thankfully, he has yet to learn the thumbs down sign. 

He's also learned to shrug instead of say, "I don't know," but this takes quite a bit of effort and concentration.  He squints his eyes and slooowly raises his shoulders up to his ears, then grins in delight at his accomplishment. 

While watching the Olympics, he saw Julia Mancuso do a little kiss/wave combo and he was delighted.  He's decided that it is his signature move and now he'll call, "Mommmmmyyyy!" then kiss his hand and wave at me with a charming smile.

When all else fails, he can always fall back on the high five.  When we were driving in the car recently, I heard him in the backseat saying, "High five!  Down low!  Too slow!  Okay, again.  High five!  Down low!  Oh, I got you!"  I glanced in the rear view mirror to see him high fiving himself.  He also escaped from us at church and attempted to get a high five from the priest, which was a no-go.  Apparently, "Amen" is the accepted response at Communion, not "Down low!"  I suggested to Matthew that next time he try a fist bump and "Blow it up!"