Month: December 2007

Purzelbaum-tree

First the explanation: Purzelbaum is German, it means somersault. Taken apart into two German words “purzel” means to roll and “Baum” means tree.

Leilani still needs a lot of entertainment in the car. When the standard “I see…” game got boring Leilani started asking silly questions “Are you a car?” I answered “No!” and countered with “Are you an ear?” Leilani laughed, and answered “No! I am Leilani! Are you a shoe?” It went back and forth a few rounds until I asked “Are you a tree?” Leilani thought for a while, and said yes. I asked “What kind of tree are you?” and she replied “Purzelbaum tree.” She laughed about her own joke and confirmed that she was funny Leilani.

Andy says: she is definitely making small puns and jokes. One word will remind her of another and she will say both. But I think she knows jokes are funny from the feedback we give her—how else could she learn than from social context.

Here’s another story that shows she doesn’t just imitate us, she also creates herself.

We left Leilani with my parents last night to go out for a date, and I won the bet that she would be awake and running around a bit hyper when we got home past 10pm. After getting all wound up and crying when we didn’t understand she wanted to play with the purse she got for Christmas, she settled down and got out the toy cell phone. We often suggest she pretend to call her friends and tell them what she’s doing, although we didn’t prompt her this time. Here is her conversation (she only voices her side):

— Hi Raya and Jaya.

—I’m at my grandma’s house.

—I’m not crying.

—I’m playing nicely.

A few photos from our date… Indian Dinner at the Clay Pot

Walk at 37th Street

Meeting scary creatures there

At home in the meantime.

2007 – Merry Christmas – Mele Kalikimaka – Frohe Weihnachten

We wish you a peaceful, joyful Chrismas and a prosperous New Year!

Click on the “>” to play Mele Kalikimaka!

2 days ago Leilani asked us to take her photo, she grabed the Christmas bear and sat down next to the tree:

Because we are leaving for Austin today we celebrated Christmas early.

Leilani bringing and…

..handing Andy his gift.

Opening presents is one of Leilani’s favorite things to do.

Say “Cheese” Leilani!

Leilani wearing some of her new Christmas Jewelery

Tutu and Me

Leilani still loves to go to Tutu and Me in Anahola.

Leilani is very focused as she works on a Christmas ornament for a long time

The glitter glue doesn’t stick very well

Leilani glues lots of strange things on her ornament

Then she is off to climbing…

…crawling…

…and jumping:

She loves to give people gifts – most kids had no idea what to do with the nicely wrapped presents that the Tutu and Me aunties had brought for the kupuna (elderly) and some tried to open them themselves or carried them to the wrong people, so Leilani got to give out 2 presents.

At the beginning of the closing circle there was running and dancing:

Storytime: Please sit behind the yellow line, which Leilani does perfectly. The book read was Numbah One Day of Christmas (“Numbah One day of Christmas, my tutu give to me / One mynah bird in one papaya tree…”):

Click on the “>” to play it!

At the end of each day all the aunties give and get lots of hugs:

In other news: I won my court case, the full replacement cost of the camera but George Brown refuses to pay. Kind of tacky, but Google won’t index this if nobody links to it… and to get that into the search engines is my main hope that he ever pays…

I can do it!

Leilani’s longest sentence so far: “I am standing on some rocks and I can do it.” She was helping Andy to plant a papya tree in the middle of a plot, wanted to water it and could not reach: “I can’t reach it.” Then she walked around the plot to the other side, stood on the rocks and leaned a little and really was able to water from there. She commented, unprompted.

2 Year Checkup

Leilani went to her 2 year checkup a while ago, on November 20th.

They found her healthy, the persistent cough – now much better – didn’t worry the doctor nearly as much as it worried me. She was really good about her shot too, just gasped a little but did not cry. Before the vaccination she kept emphasizing how brave she was, that she wouldn’t cry and that she was a big girl. When the nurse came though, all the braveness disapeared. “Go away please! Nooooo!!! I don’t want to….” But she held still (with a little help) and it was done in a split second.

Her measurements:

Weight 26.5 lbs 12 kg
Height 35 1/2 inches 90 cm
Head Circumfrence      18 3/8th inches   47 cm

18m Checkup
1 Year Checkup
9 months
6 months
3 months
Birth Measurements are in the very first blog article