close call

Today we took our not-raining-Saturdays walk to town. Headed first to H&M to buy a size-bigger pair of 'moccasins' (this pair to be exact - only style they had in) - as these are the only type of shoe she is willing to wear (her current and only pair - gifted to her by one of her grand aunties and uncles - are featured in the photo below). They're really quite great - with soft leather bottoms and sides that are thick enough to protect her feet outside, yet pliable enough for her to feel like she's close to barefoot (her preferred foot-status), and fully-socked. 

These will most likely be what she wears indoors come fall and winter - we will have to find other solutions for outside walks of course though.

[Lounging on the library stairs]

We then browsed one of my favorite shops, Ting - one of those kinds of stores with tons of cool gadgets and toys. You know the kinds of things that make you go "oh my goodness look at this", where you are either shaking your head at how crazy it is that someone may actually buy it, or that it is so cool you totally want to get it for yourself (until you catch a glimps of the price, and then you again shake your head at its outrageousness - especially if you're not 100% acclimatized to the local cost-of-living).

Next stop: Library (2nd time ever). Leona is totally wide eyed about all the kids and people, often taking a book and offering it to someone (they never accept), and in love with pulling out books and flipping through one once in a while.

As we were leaving, to our dismay, we realized we only had one of her coveted sippy-cups. You know the ones that she needs to hold one in each hand when she goes to sleep? Yeah, *gasp*. Asked lost and found. Nothing. Decided to walk back to Ting and look around just in case, with no high hopes. And hey ho waddayano, it was sitting there nicely on a glass countertop, along with her sunglasses and the flower she had carried with her on the walk over, untouched from when I (or Judge?) had placed them there when we took her out of her carrier. Crazy-awesome Norway. Seriously.

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return of the dark night

You don't fully understand how attached you are to the sun until you experience a winter darkness in the arctic - I mean, most of us of course know we love a nice sunny day, that sunshine makes us happy, but I don't think you really know how much you need the sun until she returns the first time after being gone for two months, and you find yourself running outside with a giddiness you never imagined possible.

The forever-day was a bit different than the forever-night for me and Judge - I totally *loved* that the sun would shine in through our window at 2am, bright as bright can be. Judge on the other hand was going a bit bonkers, as he felt he was never able to relax and wind down - with it being light and sunny* all the time he felt like he should be out doing something.

*Ok, so there hasn't been that much sun this summer, but there really hasn't been that little either, in my opinion...perhaps because when it has shone it's shone 24/7.

But yesterday, I was again thrown for a surprise. It was the first time in four months that I experienced a true dark dusk (it was 11:30pm) - with the sky being just a slight, dim light. And I was once again blown away by how wonderful it felt. It was like some electicity was switched off in me, and it just felt good to look out the window and see just people's windows with lights on, peeking through the darkness, rather than the entire world out there. Whoda thunk?

This little lady will still have to wait a few more weeks until she gets to experience it though, as she hits the pillows between 7 and 8pm. 

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birthday shenanigans

Ok, so shenanigans may be a bit strong, but in any event it was Judge's birthday this week (and Taiwanese father's day). Neither of which we had big plans for. It's been awesome weather though this week,

so we decided to walk to town and buy cheese cake (our favorite kind of cake), and then headed to a place that I had heard sold really good fish-n-chips (I thought they were just ok, but seems I may be pickier than I thought, or perhaps I had expected them to be a full meal's worth).

It was in fact right beside our old romping grounds - or rather where we used to go every Saturday for our weekly grocery haul, but since it was the weekday and it's also still summer vacation (which means lots of people have left the city) it was quite empty there.

And boy am I happy Leona's now at an age where she can walk around by herself! Because there was no kids seating, only bar-stool style for us, but she was *totally* happy to just walk around in the open area right beside where we were, dragging a paper bag around behind her or carrying it, with her two sippy-cups in it, offering it to people who walked by and telling them there was water inside (they took her water sign for a wave and would wave back) - and they all would glance around to look for her parents as it was totally not clear she was with us. Just looked like she was a little person out and about running errands.

When my mom came back on Thursday she took us out to a tapas bar to celebrate his birthday as well, as she hadn't been here on The Day. Yum!

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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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windowsill view

This apartment is seriously perfect for Leona. Not only is the L-shaped couch nice and broad, but the coffee table can push right into the corner of the couch, making a huge flat surface that she can climb up on to and down off of without help or guidance or supervision.

[Here caught practicing her headstand - this and ice and some footwork are all things she's been picking up from watching Judge play around at home sometimes]

And not only are the doors to the bedrooms sliding doors that she can open and close on her own as well (now she no longer gets her fingers caught in the slide either, yay safe little fingers!), allowing her to roam safely as well as play a great game of peek-a-boo (or 'borte, borte, borte' as it is still known as in this house).

And not only do we just have matresses on the floor in our bedroom that she can also easily get on and off by herself.

But the big winners are the big windows and their windowsills. In Norway housings are required to have at least 30cm of insulation in the walls. That gives potential for nice wide sills - perfect for little toddler-bums.

Thus I often find the ever active Leona just chillaxing there, gazing out on all there is to see (cars, people, birds, dogs, scooters, greenery, and more).

Put this all together and we get this afternoon: When I got home from work I stopped right inside the door to listen for some sounds, as she is often at the tale-end of her nap, and heard none. So I quietly walked in - saw the door to the bedroom was open...odd...peeked inside and saw Judge laying on the bed fast asleep, but no Leona, looked right and saw her sitting quietly in her sill-corner. Found out later that she had woken up 20 minutes before I got home.

What a great life eh!

Sometimes she will sit there with just her thoughts.

Sometimes she will bring a snack (this she had snagged from the grocery bag and Judge found it later laying right there, and a red, juicy mess down her front - she had successfully chomped through her first ever whole tomatoe with just her two-and-a-bit front teeth):

[Pillow is there as it is a great after-work-lay-down-nursing-spot as well]

And sometimes she brings her waters. These she also needs to bring to bed with her. She is quite attached. She's also quite attached to her three spoons (sippy cups and spoons all gifted to her from a lady who obviously knows what's up!) - but unfortunately she has managed to disappear two of the spoons...and a toothbrush...and Judge's earphones. 

We hope she will lead us to her stash some day soon, as we have searched high and low for it already to no avail.



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arcticly botanical

Today we had sun and warmth - or at least not toooo cold, so we strolled over to check out the botanical garden that is located pretty close to my work.

Doesn't look like much more than a bunch of rocks interspersed with some shrubs from a distance:

But up close there were lots of really cool flowers.

[Judge *loved* the color on these]

However, for our little Leona, it was all about the pebbles.

[Though she did investigate this reed-stick for a while as well]

Realized mid-way through her strolling around on the pebble-paths that we had perhaps not given her the best set of shoes for this - they're softbottomed (just some leather) - but then again maybe it is perfect!

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playing with water

This past week water has been the big draw. Well, water and Auntie Katrina, both, as Katrina came up for a full week's visit, just to hang with us. Leona *loved* playing with and around her - one of her all-time favorite things has been peek-a-boo. One version: She goes behind the couch, waits patiently until she can't contain herself any longer and bursts out "Borte!" --gone-- and then into a fit of giggles when Katrina turns her head to look, before she scampers off to a new position. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

But yeah, so the water. The joy that has been ensuing from pouring water from one cup or mug or glass to the other has been imense.

Katrina filmed a "short" bit of the hour we played the first water-day:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9s2qdo7ncwbfckw/2012-07-16-working-with-water.mov

And note the clear directing: "Please give me that, no not that, that." "Please give me some more water." etc.

Next day we started up again, but it came to a quick stop - I think her arms were *super* soar (did you notice how tired her arms got from holding up and out that heavy ceramic mug hehehe), which led to not as much patience on her end ;)


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