Katanya - well done on teaching Felix to sign! Sound like he is doing a fantastic job.

Just a slightly different angle - side step maybe - on this subject. The secondary school that Matthew & Joshua go to has a large deaf facility. As this is their first year at this school it's all quite new to them. Matthew (14) has been learning bits and pieces of sign language to communicate with friends that he has made at the school and is considering taking Auslan as a subject next year. Of course he has learnt the standard words that all teenages want to know first in any language (at least now I know what he's saying/signing!) but he was telling one of his friends about Jacob and she suggested he learn a few word to use with him. They set up a webcam on MSN and she showed us a few things like hungry, tired, cuddles, mummy & daddy and offered to make a CD for us of her signing a few other things so we could remember how to do them. Matthew came home the other day and was playing with Jacob and was asking him if he wanted his "bug" (really cool Lamaze toy!!) which is his favorite. Each time he was saying & signing "bug", Jacob looks at the bug and smiles. After a few days Matthew has stopped saying "bug" and just says " Does Jacob wants his" and signs bug. Well blow me down if he's not looking at the bug smiling!
Ok he's only 4 months old and this just maybe a fluke, but I thought it was great that Matthew took the time to learn something to teach his baby brother. When I spoke to Matthew about it later on and asked him why he decided to do it he said, if he had known a little sign language or an appropriate way to communicate with hearing impaired people when he started at his new school, it would have made things easier for both him and his new friends to talk to each other. By the time Jacob is ready for secondary school, and if he goes to the same one, he will hopefully have an advantage in communicating with everyone.