Month: November 2006

Walking And Carrying

In ten short days, Leilani has really progressed with her walking.

These past days, we could tell when she became tired because her walking became very unstable, with falls and frustration for her. Tonight, despite being somewhat tired, she was walking more confidently than ever. She walked from one room to the other on purpose, looking for one of us or something to play with. She really can “steer” to go where she wants, when she wants. She was even getting excited and almost running short distances, without any disatrous falls.

And the past two days, she has been carrying things while walking. I actually think it is a big motivator for her to walk, and I would believe it was a big reason that humans learned to walk upright. She loves to grab toys, and then she wants to take them with her, but when crawling, they would get in her way. As soon as she walked confidently, she tried to stand with objects or grab them along the way, and now she can do it consistently. She can even play with the objects while she walks, devoting attention to the toy instead of to the walking.

I think both of these abilities show that Leilani has begun to master the walking, meaning she can do it unconsciously instead of needing to focus on the act. And that will open up a whole new world of experience for her (and we’d better get ready).

Leilani Walks

First Leilani took a few steps between us, then she learned how to stand up, and today she did both, meaning that she walked all by herself.

After breakfast, she was playing on the dining room floor, practicing her standing. We were watching her because she was getting good at it, and then without warning, she just started walking across the whole kitchen. I ran after her because she was leaning from side to side, but I actually didn’t catch up with her because she was going so fast. She reached the refrigerator and sat down and we cheered her. I measured later and she went 15 feet (5 meters). I think she walks fast to keep from falling: since she doesn’t have the muscle control yet, she moves the other leg quickly forward before she has time to fall outward.

Later today, we filmed her doing it again:

Babytalk

Leilani is making further languauge progress: Her word for food has been “Nam-Nam” for a while now, it is German babytalk, and she can say “ball”… Today on our walk I picked up a round avocado that the wind had just blown off a tree. Leilani said “ball” and I explained to her it was an avocado that we’d eat for lunch. She thought for a few seconds and then said “Namnam ball”. New words now are “Pa” for brush (don’t ask me why) and she signs washing hands (more to tell us she understood what we want than to ask for it :-) and she has made up the cutest sign for flower – she crinkles up her nose and sniffs, because many flowers smell good. She does it without really smelling when we show her a picture of a flower and ask what it is. The most important word that we are working on now – she repeats it but doesn’t use it on her own yet – is “Weh-Weh” German babytalk for pain.

I noticed (from reading “Dear Abby” and mothering.com that the nation is divided on the subject of babytalk – so I need to add my two cents too. We do use babytalk on certain words to teach her much easier words, with easier sounds. “Ei-Ei” – means pet the cat gently (or don’t hit …, instead touch gently), “Weh-weh” – pain, “night-night” – sleep, “num-num”/”Namnam” – food (basically she started saying that on her own, I think it was banana that she tried to say, one of her first solids, but now nana -banana and num-num are definitly 2 different words)… These are words that are much easier for children to master than the adult version – the German “Essen” is a very hard word, so is the english “sleep”. Most often we use both, the adult word in whichever language we are speaking, and the baby word. When she says something understandable we echo her word back to her together with the translation – the dialog goes something like “Wawa!” (translated from German->) “You are saying Wawa, Mommy is saying Wasser (Daddy is saying water) wawa – water – wasser – would you like to drink?” “Wawa” … at this point the water for her is ready too and she drinks. We also use a high pitched voice and speak much more slowly and simplified, but still try to keep the grammer correct. Even though we planned on (and are still trying to) using more sign language we are still sticking with baby talk, signing is more efford than one would expect (hands out of direct field of vision, baby is beeing carried or crawls, hands full)

It is pretty important to me that Leilani learns to communicate as soon as possible, because it will decrease her frustration, not to brag about it or as a sign of intelligence (the person I regard as the most intelligent of all at all times, Albert Einstein supposedly started talking at the age of 5 years, and I personally know a bright 7 year old boy who started talking when he was almost 4). Leilani is a very active, and a little highstrung and nervous baby, who already throws pretty bad tantrums (screaming at the top of her lungs, throwing herself on the ground, hitting back of her head to the ground…) if she doesn’t get what she wants / needs. Unfortunately sometimes these are essential things like food, water, nursing, a nap (or important non-essentials like Tylenol for teething pain) and we sometimes are too busy to read her pre-verbal early signals. My theory goes that at least 2/3 of her tantrums could be prevented as soon as she uses language consistantely – I might be wrong and maybe she will throw tantrums just for the sake of it like some other mothers imply, but I want to try.

Feed Me!

Recently a friend asked what Leilani eats – my answer was not very enlightening… Just about everything we eat. So I paid a little more attention, among the things she had in the last 2 weeks were:

Homemade:

  • Veggie casserole (eggplant, okra, purple potatos, carrots and spinach) with tofu and Feta, lots of garlic and herbs
  • Andy’s french beef (gardenburgers in that case) in carrot – wine sauce (the alcohol evaporates completely when cooking)
  • Pan fried gardenburgers with pea sauce (with garlic)
  • Turkish almond – (raw) garlic – yoghurt dip once with bread once with noodles
  • Chinese stir fryed vegetables (wit garlic / ginger / black bean sauce)
  • Steamed vegetables (carrots, eggplants, okra, leafy greens…) with grains (often quinoa, amaranth, white or brown rice)
  • Pasta with pesto
  • Polenta with tomatosauce
  • Fish (salmon, cod, butterfish, pollok) grilled, steamed, panfried, in spinachsauce (fake sorrel sauce)
  • Guaccamole with bread, very few cornchips on the side
  • Salad (no aruggola) drenched in olive oil and cut finely
  • Carrot – pea sauce with tofu
  • Creamed Okinawa spinach (one of her favorits)
  • Homemade lasagna (spinach – tomato – feta – cheese)
  • Bread with: Butter, cheese, veggie lunchmeat, avocado
  • Toaster waffles (her favorite breakfast food)
  • Pancakes (with ground nuts and almonds)
  • Amaranth Flakes, puffed cereal
  • Organic fruit loops and raisins (her desert)
  • Small amounts of fruit: Bananas, papayas, persimons, apples, pears, sugar-apples (or attemoyas, not sure)
  • Freeze dried peas (her absolute favorite) and rasberries

Baby food:

  • Spinach lasagna
  • Rice / oat / mixed cereal with soymilk
  • Fruit in jars

Restaurantfood:

  • Mexican: Rice, beans, guaccamole, veggie burrito, fish burrito
  • Chinese: Steamed seabass in onion – ginger sauce, mixed vegetables
  • Pizza

Measurements

Leilani was at the doctor’s October 24th for a vaccine, but the nurses thought it was a check-up and did all the measurements. I’d been meaning to post the results, so here they are for the record:

  • Height: 29.5 inches = 75 cm = tall
  • Weight: 20.5 pounds = 9.5 kg= average
  • Head circumference = 14 inches = 36 cm = normal – Updated in December: that was a wrong measurment… see below

I just found the “official” 9m checkup paper that was made 2 weeks before that:

  • Height: 29 inches
  • Weight: 19 pounds 2 Ounzes
  • Head circumference = 17 1/4