Year: 2007

Leilani got a few very nice gifts recently – the last times I did not have the microphone handy, but this time was perfect – I found the microphone and recorder in an instant, and Leilani was so happy with the book, it is one of her favorite books.

Fledermaus is the German word for bat, one of a few words she always says in German…

I won’t do a complete transcript, but just comment a little: First Leilani thanks Grandma, and then runs off to show the book to Heidi (a drawing) and Rudi (her red horsie) and then reads the book. She actually commented on almost all pages, but I cut a lot out. Later we unpacked the magnets.

We went to the fair on Saturday:

We met Carey, Alain and Raya, went on wild rides (at least the women did), on baby rides, to the petting zoo (one of us had to leave) ate TONS of junk food and Andy won a plush Nemo for Leilani. It was fun!

Right after we looked at the photos with Leilani and let her comment. It is pretty hard to have her talk into the microphone from the correct distance, she almost sticks it into her mouth, sorry about the bad sound:

She was on a sugarhigh, and is pretty hard to understand. Transcript (interupted by the photos she was looking at:

I want some – I want some – I want some – Num-Num!
What Num-Num would you like?
Ahm… pizza … junk food
You would like junk food???
Ja! Sugar high, sugar high, sugar high. Too much junk food, pizza.

We are happy to announce that Leilani is not half as addicted to junk food as he mom is…

Andy and I were debating which photos to delete and what to keep, and Leilani got bored and started singing.

Vidirallala, vidirallala…
Heidi, Heidi … trying the french version I think :-) … all done
Can you sing the octopus song for us?
Octopus, feeding (should be swimming though) in water. Done.
No, no, what happens then?
Oh, no, got eaten. Humongus whale. Bruce (the Nemo shark) eaten. Bruce eaten.
Bruce ate the octopus?
Ja. Bruce shark, Bruce swimming in water. Nemo swimming in the water (*real text below)

We looked at more photos and prompted her to speak German.

Leilani fliegen
Mit was fliegt denn die Leilani?
Luft, Flugzeug, Hubschrauber (this one was right :) Hubschrauber, blau Hubschrauber
Laut, Nau(?), Laut, noise, [macht Laerm wie ein Hubschrauber]
Flugzeug, Leilani Flugzeug fliegen Daddy!

After the last photo of the fair iPhoto showed us this one:

we were still recording:
Gil!
Ja that’s right, and who else?
Nemo, swimming.
Swimming where? In the ocean?
Dory ocean!
Dory is still in the ocean. Where is Nemo.
Fishtank!
In the fishtank. That’s right Leilani.
I want Bruce. I want Bruce. Jellyfish.

More fair photos, no more Leilani comments…

We rode on the Ferris Wheel twice

The first time Carey, Alain and Raya joined us:

Proud winner!

The morning before the fair we saw the most amazing sunrise, and all day long the clouds were awesome:

*Real text of the Octopus song:
Octopus Octopus swimming in the water
Octopus, octopus
Chomp,Chomp,Chomp,… oh no He was eaten by

a Great white shark,a Great white shark, swimming in the water
a Great white shark,a Great white shark
Chomp,Chomp,Chomp,… oh no He was eaten by

a Humongous whale, a Humongous whale, swimming in the water
a Humongous whale, a Humongous whale

Our last potluck happened at the Islander at the beach. For once we went in the pool instead of the ocean:

On the left are our new friends Angel and Daya, right Aditi and Jaya

Leilani has been in a really bad mood for the last week and a half now. Her nose is runny, we don’t know if that’s a sign of teething or a beginning cold. She is also still bringing Lavender to Kiko’s grave and singing him the healing song.

Anyway… she has liked temporary tatoos ever since her cousin Lilith gave her a ducky 4 months ago, we used them in early potty training, as rewards, and – like this time – as bribes: Yesterday when she was crying and whining about everything I walked up to her with 2 Thomas the train tatoos (one was Percy actually) and sugested if she promised to be good, I’d put one on each of her forearms. This made her smile and promise right away. I told her if she continued to whine I’d wash them off [I later told Sonja that taking back wasn’t a good behavior model].

Well, I forgot, and she continued to whine. Today I put sunscreen on her, including the forearms (between 2 whining episodes) and this made Thomas and Percy fade – oil takes the tatoos off. A little later she complained again, using her worst voice, and clinged to me – I saw that one of the tatoos was completely gone and the other one almost. I told her “See, you are so whiney, that the tatoos are fading” Leilani looked at me with an expression that reminded me very much of Andy and said “Sunscreen!”. Of course Andy heard it, and I think it made him very happy…

Leilani actually said that yesterday. Not “want num-num” not “I want some eatin” (which worried me a little, she had used that one for almost a month :-) Her sentences in English are getting better, she seems to have learned quite a few grammer rules, but in German she is still lumping words together.
A week or so ago I tested her ability to keep the languages apart – I let her “read” one of these “First Words” books, that have photos of objects and per photo just one word. I prompted in English “What is this?” “What do you see here?” and she got almost 100% right. When we were through the book we started over, only this time I asked in German, she answered at least 70% correct and in German.