Day: May 18, 2006

Leilani has a babysitter! Chloe is 15 years old, had 3 younger siblings and has been a babysitter since she was 13. She comes by 2-3 times a week, while we are home for about 6h total. Leilani likes her a lot, and Mommy gets some time off! Once they know each other better Andy and I will take one evening a week of and go on a date together, and I’ll get one afternoon to blog (or clean the house). We expose Leilani to a lot of people especially kids now and hope that the fear of strangers does not set in, or at least not as strongly as in some babies.

Dear Friends and Family,

You gave Leilani so many great gifts and beautiful clothes, Thank You so much. Natalie and Markus just dropped off a bag with adorable summer clothes, and Rosemary sent us a beautiful dress, and our neighbor Malia gave us another one, so right now we have enough clothes in sizes up to 18 months. Leilani is very tall for her age, she wears 6-9 months and 12 months clothes now. We are very grateful, but ask that you please do not spend any more money on clothes for her for at least the next 1/2 year . If you come across them cheap, or find them at a yardsale, please buy 18 months to 2 years. We feel bad if you spend the time and money to send clothes that we give away because Leilani can’t wear them.

If you’d really like to buy Leilani gifts we do have a few ideas and suggestions on what to avoid and what to buy.

• Surface wash only (Oberflaechen waschbar) is a problem. I toss every cloth toy she gets in the washer, because we don’t like the chemicals and flame retardants that are often on them. Also, she throws her toys in the dirt, and shares them with Jackson the dog. Some things come out of the washer OK, and some in rags.
• PVC is another problem, this is not sold in Austria and most of the European Union anymore since the study done in 1997(!!!) in Danemark. She does have a lot of PVC toys already, and it makes us feel bad to take them from her, but we really would like to limit new ones.
• We also don’t like things that have batteries: they do too much with the push of a button, make a lot of noise, and children get either bored easily with them, or fixated on them.
• Absolutely no videos or DVDs (no Baby Einstein, Baby Sesame) until she is 4 or 5, and absolutely no toy weapons, especially guns. We know that this _ABSOLUTE_NO_ to TV, videos, computergames, toyweapons… will not last forever, but we’ll try to make it last as long as possible.

What we would like Leilani to play with are soft, washable and cuddly cotton dolls and stuffed animals – though she has enough of these now – and wooden toys that are painted with nontoxic paint. Made in Austria, Germany, Danemark or Sweden (Ikea) is a plus. She also has silicone teethers, which are supposed to be less toxic, and likes to chew cloth and cottondolls. Nova Natural Toys has a nice selection of natural wooden toys, Fair Trade and environmentally friendly, long lasting and as non-toxic as possible. We already got a few toys from “Spielzeugschachtel” und Purpur Shop I think they have a similar selection.

Below is a list of links to individual toys that we would like Leilani to play with in the next 1-2 years. We will start buying things from the top of this list, if you’d also like to buy things from this list please ask us for an updated version, so she does not get the things twice. We also read a lot to her, we have enough books in German and English, but French books, especially rhymed ones would be nice.

Thank you so much, Aloha

Leilani

And for her 2nd birthday or so:

• A wooden toy farm
• doll house