“All done. ALL DONE!”

Each of our babies learned sign language to help them through the really tough season of not being able to verbally communicate with us.  This was a fantastic tool to help us know what the kid needed even before he could tell us with words.  One of the signs they learned was the sign for “finished.”  We taught them the words, “all done” and the sign for “finished” and this signified that they were done with whatever activity they were currently involved in: riding in a swing, eating lunch, playing outside.

Quick, seemingly irrelevant fact: one of our rules for tickle fights, or muscling sessions, is that when someone says, “All done,” the game stops, although usually only briefly… just long enough to let the kid catch his breath and before you know it, the underdog is saying, “again!”

We were brought to tears this week when Parker kept goading Matt into a tickle fight by saying, “Can’t get meeee!!”  Matt would stand up, hunch over, take two steps toward Parker, and immediately Parker would raise his hands, sign “finished” and start laughing and saying, “All done!  ALL DONE!!”

This happened several times before I got my phone out and when I finally did, I couldn’t get a great picture.  The blurry ones will have to do.  Parker loves “glubs,” (gloves) which explains their presence, though they really have nothing to do with this story.  (Oh, and if Parker were to add some tidbits of information for this story, he’d want you to notice his really cool “jetpack” and he’d want you to know that his name is Spiderman.)

It’s so funny how, even though it’s been a long time since Parker needed to use the sign for “finished,” he still reverts to it in moments of near panic!