Day: November 2, 2007

Smart Baby

Leilani loves us to read to her from a kid’s dictionary – it has really pretty pictures and she enjoys learning about the world.

Sometimes she surprises us by using big words. Today on the toilet she said: “Don’t touch Doo-doo. Don’t touch feces.” another suprising one was when we served corn that was still in the husk. “Take off husk dady.”

She remembers things from long ago – she looked at a picture we took on the Big Island over a month, in a lava field (among 30 other photos that show lava fields), near where my Mom had stumbled, and immediately commented: “Oma fell down.”

Usually she goes mute when we visit Dr Ancharski – he doesn’t have a nurse and does all the poking and proding himself, but yesterday, Halloween when we were almost done and she started to relax she told him. “I going trick-a-treating, I get lollipop.” (And she really did. hope I’ll post soon).

She got very emotional today while watching Heidi: Heidi’s aunt Dete had dragged Heidi to Frankfurt, and left her with the Sesemans, where Heidi was extremely unhappy. After her kitten was confiscated by Fraeulein Rottenmaier, Heidi decided to run away. When she was caught by Fraeulein Rottenmaier before she even reached the train station Leilani cried, all the way to the end of the episode, even though she knows from the book that Heidi eventually gets back, and even though I sat with her all the time and explained that Heidi would be sent back once Clara’s Oma saw how unhappy Heidi was…

When I read Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? she finished the sentences from memory…

I read “Panda bear, panda bear, what do you see? She replied “I see a bald eagle soaring by me” – I said “Bald eagle, bald eagle what do you see?” She continued: “I see a water buffalo charging by me.” … (The picture of the next animal is on the next page, so when she said this she didn’t even see it yet.)