a sign of the times

Now that Raisin is talking more and more, he's using his sign language less and less. As much as I love to hear him talk and am flabbergasted by how quickly he picks things up, I'm a little sad to see his signs go -- those pudgy little fingers moving in funny, expressive ways to tell us something that his voice can't.

Every once in a while I'll quiz him just to see if he still remembers signs for certain things. He does. And it's so interesting to me how there's usually only a slight overlap of signs and verbal once he's learned to say something. Even though he can now say the word "more", occasionally he still does the sign when he's very adament about wanting more or when he's very sleepy. My favorite time is at night when I sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to him. He usually gives me the sign for more right when I get to the part that says, "Like a Diamond in the Sky," because he knows I'm close to the end and it's time for me to put him into his crib. Apparently he's too sleepy to say it -- or maybe it's the Nuk in his mouth.

So because I'm feeling all weepy and nostalgic about his loss of sign language, I bring you "Milk." This was taken in April on the beach in Florida. He had just started to use the word "milk" about a week before but here is the overlap with sign. I really miss that little cow-udder squeeze. Sniff.