Handle My Kids With Care

Sign Language

"Who taught Jeongin how to sign some words but didn't bother teaching the rest of us what they mean?" Hyunjin shouted from his room, coming out into the living room to try and find someone who had an answer.

"Miss Wendy said she was going to start teaching him some things so he can communicate better." I answered, and the seven year old pushed the child towards me for me to deal with him.

"What is it?" He signed out a few things, and I was proud of what he had managed to learn and retain so quickly.

"He's asking you to play with him, Jinnie." I translated, and Jeongin nodded excitedly, turning to his older brother to see if he would indeed play with him.

"I can do that. But can't you actually talk so I can somewhat understand you?"

"I t-tryin'." Hyunjin messed up his hair on him and sat down in the middle of the floor so they could play whatever they were going to play. Not that I think it was specified.

"Dad! Binnie-" Felix's cries were muffled and I got up from the kitchen to go into their room to see what was going on.

Changbin was covering Felix's mouth with his hand, stopping the four year old from being able to tell me what he had wanted to.

"Everything okay in here?"

"Ew! Did you just lick me?" Changbin removed his hand from the smiling boy's mouth, wiping his wet hand on the younger's shirt. Lix moved away from his hyung, climbing up to one of the bunk beds to get out of his reach

"Seungmin, are they behaving in here?" The three year old looked up from the book in his hands, clearly only looking at the pictures based on how quickly he was flipping through the pages.

"Nope!" Changbin pushed his head playfully so Seungmin jolted a bit, earning a cry of pain from the younger.

"Hyung!"

"Sorry! I forgot! Are you okay?" The three year old took a few breaths as the pain subsided, straightening himself out on the bed.

"Yeah." He whispered. I gave Changbin a glance so he would remember later on to be gentle with him, but I already knew it wasn't needed. You could visibly see how worried and sorry he was.

"Dad! Can you translate?" Hyunjin yelled from the living room, and I left the room to see what Jeongin was trying to say now. Miss Wendy and I had agreed that sign language would be a good thing for him to learn until he starts school and gets paired with a speech coach, but I forgot that meant no one would quite know what he was trying to say until they learned too.

"I-I-I... no."

"Can you sign it out?" He shook his head, frustrated he couldn't get his point across to us.

"Is there any sort of context to what he's saying?" Hyunjin shook his head, just as confused as I am. I looked back at the youngest, but he just crossed his arms and repeated what he had already said.

"You don't want to play this game?" I tried, but he just shook his head.

"Can you try saying it again?"

"I... n-no."

"Have him write it out! He's a lot better at writing than speaking!" Minho shouted from his own room, and I sighed. He's three. I don't know how much he really can write when Seungmin and Felix can't really right. I mean, I might as well add Jisung into that category too.

I got out a sticky note and pencil and gave them to the three year old. He sat down on the carpet and leaned over to scribble, holding up his finished work for me to read.

"You want to play with Jisung too? Not just Hyunjin?" He nodded, earning a sigh from the room down the hallway.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Jisung came out from his room, joining the two in their game in the living room.

"I definitely need to figure that one out soon."