In la la land

Lexi’s favorite word these days is “la la,” which is Kiswahili for “sleep” (although I’ve also heard Desmond Tutu use it to describe himself going into retirement). I’d say it’s a concept bordering on obsession with her these days, but perhaps her grandparents (Sarah’s parents) had something to do with it when they visited Nairobi recently. She taught them the word when they were here, and perhaps that’s why she has taken great delight in it. It could also be that when Jane has trouble getting Lexi to fall asleep for her nap, she sings a little la-la-by that is just the words “la la, Lexi, la la” repeated over and over.

She is very good at identifying la la and people engaged in it (or supposedly doing it). However, strangely, she says it sometimes as soon as we go into her room in the morning (after she’s been la la all night). But at church the other day, a man a few rows back had his eyes closed while we were singing a hymn (clearly we weren’t at our usual Lutheran church). Although he was standing at the time as well, Lexi identified it with a “la la.” We were out somewhere recently, and Lexi saw a poster with a bunch of people on it. One of the people was lying horizontal, to which she declared, “La la.”

She also shows a tender, caring side when people really are appearing to sleep. A couple of weeks ago when I was ill with my mild case of typhoid, the afternoon I was feeling the worst, I had camped out on the living room couch under a blanket and in front of the TV. Lexi approached me several times, not quite sure what I was doing. But once or twice she patted me gently on the shoulder and said, “La la.”

Diagnosis: Good Kiswahili speaker

Lexi had her 18-month check-up at the pediatrician’s office yesterday afternoon. Perhaps the most telling thing I heard during the visit about her development wasn’t from the doctor himself, but from the receptionist. As she called us in to the doctor’s office, she asked me, “Where did she learn all that Kiswahili?” I told her that Jane, our nanny/house help taught her and that we had instructed Jane to speak only Kiswahili to Lexi. The receptionist said that she is speaking very well. She had heard Lexi speaking to me while we were playing with the toys in the waiting room. I replied that Sarah and I don’t know what Kiswahili words Lexi is saying, much less when she’s actually speaking it because we know so little of it (anything other than the several English words she speaks to us is just gibberish). The receptionist just laughed but seemed delighted and amused that such a little girl was progressing so well on her African language skills. Lexi seems to be doing better at 18 months than we were in our early 30s in learning French while living in a non-English-speaking country.

Health-wise, Lexi is doing well. She got two more immunizations yesterday and cried for each of them and then was shy with the cashier, as if she was angry at me for allowing someone to poke her with needles (OK, as someone who hates needles himself, I can understand if she was angry). Her vitals:

Height: 81.5 cm (32 in.)
Weight: 10.3 kg (22.7 lb)

She has shot up in height a few centimeters since her last doctor visit six months ago. Will she be a tall girl? Looking at her growth over time, for her weight, she has been at or slightly below the 50th percentile (although she’s just above the 25th percentile at 18 months, so she’s now skinny for her height) and, for her height, at or above the 50th percentile. So much for being an above-average Lake Wobegone child.