sweet Leona goodness

Thank goodness cuteness cannot kill you, or we'd be long gone by now. Seriously.

Like last night.

Our evening routine has really solidified itself lately. I come home from work, hang out with Leona while Judge makes dinner, we eat, I help clean up a bit and take Leona to have her bath, we come out and I dry her off, she escapes to run around naked for a while (utter mindmelting cuteness right there), sometimes snatching one of Judge's red t-shirts asking to wear it, before I get her back into the bedroom for her before-bed nurse, Judge comes in, she finishes up, I head out while Judge stays in bed with her until she falls asleep, and then he sneaks out of the room.

Often she will stop by for lightning-nurses during her after-bath running arounds, before she's off again. But once Judge gets up, she will run into the bedroom signing 'milk milk milk!' - sometimes accompanied by almost tears - and dive down and start nursing, or if we are already on the bed and she is nursing on and off (as is her norm) and she hears Judge's chair scrape, she will also dive down frantically as she knows the nursing is almost coming to and end (until like 3-4 hours later when I head to bed and she wakes up and nurses again).

To help her prepare mentally that the nursing session is coming to an end I've started telling her when 'the last time' is, and I hold up one finger to show her. She hasn't really caught what it means yet though, as last night she smiled hugely and held up her little tiny hand right beside her face, with her pointer pointing stright up to the sky. Yes, I said, it is the last time, then it is sleepy-time. I get another huge smile. But oh the (15 seconds of) broken heart when I didn't let her switch sides. My sweet, sweet girl.

[Really gotten the hang of climbing on and off her perfect-for-her chair...

and note of course her sippy cups are a must-have]

[She's also so good at setting up her space for some awesome peaceful gazings - 

though her favorite is still the actual windowsills]

Also when we read her favorite books (point and say the animal and the sound it makes...she's totally not into stories yet), she has started to try and do the 'sound' for rabbit - basically scrunching of the nose like bunnies do - but she's totally not there yet, so it is kind of grimmacing with her mouth followed by squinting of the eyes (then I did it in the mirror and realized she's not so far off after all). So on Saturday we borrowed a few animal books from the library, and Judge spent most of today roaring like a lion, woofing, miaoing, 'swoop-swimming' with his hand for fish - to great giggles and delight...and is *totally* stuck on turtle. I think he should make his neck disappear for that one. Will tell him my suggestion when he gets out from the bedroom ;)

And man is she on fire with the signing! Often we just do a sign once or twice and she's got it. Which has put us in a little bit of a pickle, as sometimes we (and with we I mean I) haven't thought the sign through before we make it up. Like for spoon...we have so many signs that are just the hand kind of twisting or waving a little differently, and she modifies all the signs little by little, so there have been overlaps in them sometimes, causing a bit of a mix in the communication. Because her spoons are something she is very particular about, I figured it was perhaps a good idea to have a sign for it, and kind of made as though I was holding a spoon and then twisted my hand back and forth...and realized it we were unclear it could be eat, water, bye, etc. So I tried next day to change it (make as though holding a spoon and do one big scoup with it) but to no avail. The first version was already taken on by Leona - and with no confusion between any of the other signs.

[With one of her sippy-cups in hand - 

when she's not holding a flower in the other both hands have to have each their own water]

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