the signs are on the way out

We realized today that Mia is dropping signs since her language has gotten more understandable. She made up a sign for 'go' a long time ago - waving her hand up and down with her fingers together, usually with the word 'dee-do' which means upstairs, downstairs or outside. Arun noticed tonight that we haven't seen that sign in weeks. She just says dee-do.

She doesn't use many signs anymore unless I don't get what she is saying. Example - she'll say 'ba' (ball) and if I don't at least acknowledge that is what she is saying, she'll say it and use the sign with a come-on-mom look on her face.

Funny thing about her language - she still uses the animal sounds to identify the animals and not their names. Most are still moo or baa or ca-doo-doo (cock-a-doodle-doo). My favorite animal name right now is 'mingo' for flamingo. I kinda hope she never learns the other way to say that one.