bananagirl

It's hard to put into words how much Maia loves bananas. If she had her way, I think she would eat several a day. Since I'm not sure if a child is capable of overdosing on potassium, I try to limit her banana intake to one a day.

Since we taught Maia the sign language for "milk" (the squeezing of the hand as though one is milking a cow) she has been trying to use the milk sign to ask for everything she would like. Signing for "milk" has come to mean "please can I have that thing I'm squeezing my hand at?". We've tried to teach her signs for "food", "bed", "please", "thank you", "more", "all done" and so on. No go. Just "milk" for everything in spite of all efforts.

Now just to give you an idea of how banana crazy she is, Maia has started trying to sign for "banana". Now the sign for banana is probably the most complicated one I've shown her. It requires sticking up the index finger of one hand while making peeling motions with the other. (If you want to see it, click here, then click on the letter B and scroll down to the word "banana".)

And it doesn't end there. Though she still hasn't attempted to say "mommy" or "mama" or anything ressembling the name of the woman who cares for her most of the day (though some of you thought "opika" was an attempt at "monica" -- thanks for trying!), she has been making a great effort at saying the word "banana".

... "bababa"... "obana"... "baaaan"... "aban"...

C'mon honey.... how about "aban mama"?!