Meeni Keekuu

As we creep ever-so-closer to Finley’s second birthday, certain things are beginning to take shape in her little world. 

She moves around with much more ease, but still needs to learn to pay a little more attention to where she’s going. She has a tendency to be so enthralled in something, that she walks right into walls and chairs and people.  I’m pretty sure she gets that from her mother’s side.

She’s also more aware of who people are and is good at putting names with faces. And, we’re also noticing that she’s starting to string words together into mini sentences. “Daddy’s shoes,” “Mommy’s car,” and “Finley up please” are staples of her emerging language. She’s also doing her best to try and say whatever we can throw at her. 

The simple words are well, simple. But it’s the more dynamic words that result in some interesting interpretations. At least she’s giving them a shot. In fact, tonight, while she was making a batch of Christmas cookies with Heather, Finley was having quite the conversation… albeit one-sided and mostly unintelligible. But that’s what she thinks talking is… a series of random words, highlighted by inflexion and pauses. And for the most part, she’s right.  For all the talking we do… how much do we really say?

Finley clings to the important words, like Daddy or Mommy or whatever she’s interested in. Cars seem to pop up a lot. So do her dolls, her “babies.” She even knew to talk about cookies while she was baking them. Eventually, her gibberish will turn into “real” words and her sentences will get longer. But it’s good to know she has the basics down.

At any rate, she had fun having a little bit of “girl” talk with Momma. I’m not sure what they were talking about (and either does Heather), but they were gossiping away in the kitchen, baking the cookies. Finley seemed to be giving the low down on who does what at daycare… we think. And she thinks she’s responding to Heather’s prodding questions for more.

But the best part came at the moment when Finley had just the right amount of sugar from the cookie dough to regale us with the following holiday message:

(Push play to hear Finley's Holiday Message)

 

Meeni Keekuu will officially be the new holiday cry in our family. Finley and Momma will continue to bake Keekuu cookies and I’m sure the princess will be excited to unwrap all the presents she finds under the Keekuu tree. And come Keekuu morning, when they see their Keekuu stockings filled with goodies, all the kids will be meeni and bright.

And so, it may be a bit early, but from our family to yours, we hope you have the meeniest of Keekuus!