Leila Rose Petal

Rusk and Cheese by Nicky P

Miss Leila has been somewhat in the wars recently. The cough and cold that caused some spectacular vomits has morphed into an infected throat and ears so the Little Princess got her first ever course of antibiotics this morning. Although she’s been generally pretty happy and good tempered she seems to have finally understood that she is sick and therefore allowed to be grumpy and difficult to get along with. She’s one very grouchy baby today.

I suspect being unwell isn’t helping her eating behaviour either. The only thing she really wants is a rusk and, boy, does she want it! Show the kid a rusk and her face lights up. She bounces in her seat and both hands come up to grab it and stuff it in her mouth as quickly as possible. Spoons are not nearly as interesting so food from a spoon has to be delivered around rusks. Sometimes the rusk can be dipped in food, but one must return the rusk to her highness pronto to avoid outraged screeching.

The inflatable donut has really started to come into its own now that Leila can sit without needing a lot of support. She sits in it for ages with a collection of toys and plays. She rarely gets into a position from which she can’t extricate herself and when she starts to get tired she can recline and watch the world go by.

She doesn’t do quite so well with rolling, though. She’s very good at rolling from her back to her front and does so pretty much as soon as she’s laid on her back. Getting from her front back onto her back is a whole other matter however and Leila seems to prefer to lie with her face on floor and yell until someone rescues her. Then she rolls herself over again…

Sleeping has to be our greatest achievement of recent weeks. Leila has dropped her late night feed and now sleeps from 7pm until about 6am. I had hoped that, with the start of daylight saving over the weekend, she might sleep until 7am, but she’s already adjusted and is back to the 6am wakeup. We may not be getting a sleep in but being able to go to bed before 11pm is doing us a heap of good.

The thing that I really must mention before I finish this post is how much Leila loves Finn (I may have to use this as evidence in years to come). Leila is a happy, friendly baby and most people are greeted with a big smile, but she is always, always, really excited to see Finn. He gets the biggest smiles, the loudest yells and, when he sings and dances to “Michael Finnigan”, he’s the only person who can make her laugh her head off. Wherever Finn is, Leila is happiest by his side.