As both parents have spoken Portuguese to a greater or lesser degree for some years, and learning a 2nd language is much easier for a baby than for an older child or adult, it was only natural that we spoke to Rachael in both English and Portuguese. And she does respond equally to both languages (for now!)

We were both intrigued to hear about baby signing. Apparently, babies can sign words several months before they can say them (signing can begin from as early as six months of age). This allegedly eliminates or reduces the "terrible twos", which is thought to be caused by the lack of ability to communicate (yet to be proved in our case!). So we set about learning a few signs to start us off.

Rachael could say hello and goodbye (both the same sign – waving) at around seven months. A good start, so we thought. At ten months we were still waiting for her second sign! Finally it came – more! Then milk (which is also misused for drink, but we’ll let her off), prayer, shoe, clean/wash, music, dog, teeth, help, duck, up, and help. She may be trying to make others that we do not yet understand (she has certainly tried to make the sign for "change" - as in nappy - although she couldn't quite figure it out and just defaulted to "wash"). But it’s lovely sitting at the table, and instead of whinging for more (how irritating!), she simply signs it. Or when she comes crawling up to us making the ‘milk’ sign because she’s thirsty. The other day when we switched off the radio, after a little while she clearly signed "more music", and started dancing as soon as we put the radio back on!

So on the whole, these methods have worked for us. Maybe the comments here will help others to decide if these methods are for their family or not. At the very least, it’s given you an insight into what is available for babies these days.