Jaycee meets a Favorite

When Jaycee was a baby, I went to a local Down syndrome conference and picked up information about a company called 'signing time' featuring Rachel. I had never heard of this company before. It sold videos aimed at teaching sign language to children. I got my first signing time dvd and then another and then another. Before long, we had a library of them. At first, I got these videos to develop Jaycee's language through sign. As her signing vocabulary grew, I depended on these videos more and more to learn new signs to teach her. I told her preschool about them and they began using the dvds in the classroom too.

 Last year, the signing time lady held a concert a few hours from our house. I wanted to go but Jaycee had several health issues going on. When I found out she was coming back this year, I was excited. A second chance!

I have a friend who also has a child with special needs. They too love signing time. "Hey do you want to drive 4.5 hours one way to go to a signing time concert?" I asked her. She said yes and away we went with our kids on Saturday. 

It was a little surreal being at the concert with Jaycee. She started signing before age 2 and we depended on sign language until she was 5. Now at age 6, sign is still a big part of our lives. There I was sitting in an auditorium filled with other signing kids. On stage was the one and only Rachel whose dvds and songs have impacted Jaycee's life so much. Jaycee was dancing on my lap with a huge smile signing along to the songs she loves.  Jaycee loved it. The music wasn't too loud so it didn't scare her. The lights were on for the signing, so there was no darkness to scare Jaycee. It was the perfect concert for her. 

As we scrolled through the pictures on the camera that night with her daddy, Jaycee signed "signing time" and got very excited!

I love having days like this. When I take my daughter to a fun event and everything goes well, it's great. There's no tantrums, confusion, or episodes of her running away, which is a miracle! It was just a normal day of everything going right. She's happy. I'm happy. We have a beautiful memory of this special day.