A good sign

Elise has been learning basic "baby sign language" for several months, and is starting to catch on. (I was skeptical at first that this works and is useful, but I converted.)
She is being taught basic signs by us and by the teachers at school: water, thank you, milk, no, mom, dad and more.
We have seen her sign, but it often is, well, sloppy. It's not quite the right sign, but it's close enough for someone in a diaper.
Yesterday I was feeding her lunch. She had cleaned her tray of the bread and cottage cheese. I turned to look at her and she was staring at me and making an absolutely perfect sign for "more." You could have taken a picture of her gesture and slapped it in a book as an example -- of course, you first would have to remove the mashed bread bits from between her fingers.
Well, this little episode was pretty exciting. Oh, sure, like I said, we've seen her sign before and she signs at school. I told Anni about it when she got home, but I could not explain why it was any different than when she has signed before.
And maybe it was no different, except that it finally clicked for me: She wanted something, knew that to get more of it she had to do something other than cry, so did that. Basic communication -- it's very underrated.
There was an even more exciting development today, though.
I took Elise to Menards. I put her in the cart and we wandered around the store, including making the required stroll through the jaw-droppingly fascinating lighting section.
After finding my items, we were nearing the checkout lanes. I paused for a moment. I looked down at Elise. She looked up and gestured for "more."
I'm sure we'll make that trip again.