Month: November 2006

Today Leilani stood up from a full sitting position all by herself for the first time.

We had finished lunch, and she was crawling around on the floor, eating puffs and peas as we usually let her do so we can finish our meal after feeding her. We were clearing the table and talking and facing away from the kitchen where Leilani was. When I turned around, there she was standing by herself in the middle of the floor, away from anything that could’ve helped her up.

She looked fairly confident and pleased with herself, and we cheered her. She stood for at least 10 seconds and I walked over as she swayed a bit, but she eventually sat down without falling. I got the video camera and we asked her to do it again, but she wouldn’t. So I’m not sure how she did it, probably from a 4-legged position like most kids. I wonder if she was motivated by us standing nearby, because I clearly remember we were standing around talking and not paying attention to her.

Leilani is doing really good talkingwise. The 3 new words now are up, this and me. Me (or more often Me Me Me Me!!!) means “I want that” and “I am not going to give it to you”. This means “What is this?” and “I want to look at this / smell this / examine this closely”. Up means “Pick me up”, “I am climbing the couch / chair”, “Up”, “Out” (of the house, of the water) and sometimes “Down” (as in on the floor out of the highchair). Fortunately she is pointing a lot, that makes it easier to understand.

I need to get more consistent using the signs, and also learn more of them, but she seems to pick them up very fast. She still can’t say “U” and her “O” is pretty bad, but she’s mastered a surprising number of consonants

A few days ago I dismissed her pleas “Up, Up, Up” as babbling when she was in the swing and I was hanging laundry. Then she called “Mama, Mama”, and when I looked over she said “Mama, Baby up”. Of course I took her out right away to reward great communication!

She now often signs “Milk” when she wants to nurse, which is a big improvement over saying mecc (or screaming). Andy looked at a picture book with her yesterday, and she saw a picture of a goat with nursing kids, and signed milk – that’s pretty smart! She also signs crab – which is indistinguishable from milk, Andy taught her that sign just 2 days before we looked at the Signing DVD. I am now trying to teach her to do the crab with both hands, but usually the context makes it pretty clear what she means.

I think I mentioned “Wawa” (water) before, she is now really good at telling us when she wants to drink, but she also points out the other waters (in bottles, glasses, faucets, ocean…)

She woke up the other day and saw Mikey sleeping next to her. She adores him, but he runs from her when she is awake, only comes close while she is sleeping (she is pulling tails these days) So she looked at Mikey with a big smile and said “Mei” I said “That’s right, that is Mikey” and she said “Ki”!

Leilani took her first steps today! We were visiting Chris and Chris and Joseph, and I showed how nicely Leilani can walk now, with just one hand support. 5 minutes later she got up on her own and stood a while. Chris suggested we try letting her walk, and with a little motivation she twice walked one or two steps between the adults.

Our joy did not last long, moments later when she was crawling over to Joseph she stumbeled, fell and cut her upper lip. Not as bad as the last time when she fell on a shelf and cut the lower lip on her teeth though. This time the inside of her mouth is OK, she nurses and eats without troubles. She probably was overly excited about the walking or the applause, in any case, she cried, bleed and was miserable for an hour or so.

She did OK for the 2nd Monday in a row, today I tried to give her extra attention, and lay her down for a nap as soon as she got cranky, and stayed with her during her nap. We went to visit all neighbor animals, looked a lot of pictures and books, took 3 walks, and managed to eat before she got hungry (she has a tendency to signal hunger 5 minutes before she is crying from hunger). Both Mondays she met other children, and got to play outside for a long time, both Mondays followed low activity weekends, both Mondays she slept in.

One more new things are her morning walks. As soon as we are done with breakfast she gets her new Chinese shoes, and calls from next to the entrance door “Up, up!” She is then extremely cooperative while I dress her and put the shoes on, today she even found her yellow sun hat and put that on by herself. Then we go for a walk. She walks down the stairs with lots of support, and along the walkway. While I open and close the garden gate she holds on to the wall, and then we go up and down our street. Most days Andy and I walk on either side of her, so one person does not have to bend down so far – we don’t dare to hold her on just one handed yet on the pavement. Leilani enjoys very much to be able to decide where to go (within limits of course) and she seems to be very proud that she can walk like a big person.

Leilani and Ian were dragged along by their parents to protest agains the superferry. They entertained themselves – and each other with popcorn in the meantime.

Leilani is fascinated by big machines. Be it a tree-shredder (making enough noise that even the adults want to wear earplugs) an excavator, a dump truck or gas deliverer – she needs to go and watch and will protest loudly if we take her away. At the local farmersmarket we found a digger – parked and unattended:

Oh, the original poem goes:

What are little boys made of?
Hammers and nails, and puppy dog tails,
That’s what little boys are made of.
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice, and everything nice,
That’s what little girls are made of.

or maybe the 2nd line is Snakes and snails, and puppy dog tails,