Da Keiki Blog

Long ago I noticed that Leilani would not play with toys or wear clothes that were not unique enough to have a unique name. “The Nemo Dress” was a lot more valuable than one of her Nemo bathing suits. The butterfly dress lost its appeal as soon as she got another dress with butterflies on it.

I first attributed it to her wanting uniqueness, but now, this preference has pretty much come to an end and I think it was just her lack of words and maybe imagination at an earlier age that left her unable to distinguish.

Now she is more verbal, and her mind is sharper and she can give names or describe previously unnamed things, and does not depend so much on us coming up with names – for example she has a battery operated toy with a lot of buttons, that can play some music and kids songs, or quiz her about ABCs, shapes or numbers etc. Since I dislike this toy, and just kept it because it was given to her as a Christmas present it ended up in a corner somewhere, where she found it half a year later, turned it on, played with it and named it “My singing thing”

We watched the fireworks in Lihue!

It rained. Water and even more so debris from the firework.

But it was very pretty. Leilani slept through the whole thing, noise and all…

We went camping at Anini once again. Friday I filmed a concert (and decided to get a new tripod head) and then joined Andy and Leilani who were sleeping in the tent already.
Saturday was nice and uneventful, we snorkeled, Leilani played in the water, it was pretty cold for Kauai though. We watched…

…a beautiful sunset…

… had a nice dinner of Mac and Cheese, and a very restless night, the couple in the next tent fought badly, violently and for hours, we would have called the cops for domestic violence, but didn’t have our cellphone. As soon as they quieted down Leilani started coughing fits. We slept in, went snorkeling again, and Leilani took an early and long nap.

Shortly before we left Leilani made a new friend, and let her hold her new and beloved otter

All in all a nice weekend.

Leilani loves art and crafts. Glue, paint, glitter, scissors…

This is what she made for me for mother’s day. She sat for hours cutting little snippets with scissors, sorting them into little containers, later Andy drew an outline, applied the glue, and she put the little snippets on the paper.

She and I made the shark in the same fashion – only that I had to help cut the snippets.

Her 4 year old friend Viora drew the picture on the left and Leilani copied it. I think that’s pretty advanced (but Viora thought that Leilani couldn’t draw flowers):

Another nice party with a sad aftertaste… Chris and Chris are leaving too.

Sssh! Don’t let the grown-ups see us.

OK, I will only tell Jaya… but my silence comes with a price… move over

Leilani plays nicely with her farm animals now, inventing stories and roleplays… she created a “pond” in the front, put the animals around it and said the animals go there to drink.