bLeog: January 2007

Well who can believe that the little L is a year and a half old? And what a great age it is. He is endless fun. Here is an update:

Vital statistics
Weight - 13.44kg (2 stone 1 and a half pounds)
Height - 84cms (2 ft 9 inches)
Head circ - 50cms (19.6 inches)

A bit of a growth spurt - 9cm taller than he was 6 months ago. He's looking less round than he was, but still looks like Mr Greedy from the side and remains up around the 90th percentile for weight. His height has zapped up from the 50th to the 75th so he's a bit more in proportion than previously (although between you and me I'm not sure that the curls didn't account for some of that growth as they make it difficult to tell if his head is right up against the bar)! He still has a "big Tonka head" as his daddy calls it, head circ is still well above 90th percentile.

Current hobbies Pigeon chasing, goat slapping, zooming cars along the ground with sound effects, selecting requested animals from his collection then applauding himself (current repertoire: Tasmanian Devil, koala - pronounced kaaawaaa, yes an actual word!- emu, kangaroo, penguin, kookaburra. We are working on wombat and rainbow lorikeet), ball throwing, spinning on the spot until he falls over, train and tram spotting, jumping off kerbs, running in and out of the toddler pool at the leisure centre, falling over and getting proper big-boy grazed knees, unscrewing his musical box off the side of his cot pretty much every morning, photography (he knows one end of the camera from the other and is much more interested in taking photos than sitting still to be photographed).

Favourite toys Miniature animals, balls, cars, things out of kitchen cupboards, and the rollaround gumball machine is enjoying a renaissance. He likes to mix these around e.g. putting a wombat in a saucepan or koala through the gumball machine.

Favourite books He is now completely in charge of what's read at bedtime - if you start off with a book that you want to read, he pushes it away, climbs off your knee and goes off and fetches the book he wants. So he makes it very clear what his favourites are. Still loving things with flaps including anything by Rod Campbell (currently enjoying Aussie Animals) and especially fond of Flip Flap: Opposites at present (entirely because of the huge number of flaps and folds rather than any concept of opposites). Likes the rhythm and repetition of Tickle me too by Nicola Smee. Loves the colours and textures of Maisy's Twinkly Crinkly Counting Book by Lucy Cousins, and "counting" with his finger. Likes pages with lots of pictures that he can point to when you name them, so with Aussie Animals he will rush through the main story until he gets to the back page which has all of the animals on, and he lingers on that one for ages; with old fave Yellow Bird Black Spider he is less bothered about the story than the start and end pages which are decorated with all of the pictures from the book, and he loves to sit and point to them.

Songs and rhymes Where is Thumbkin? (holds up his fingers and bends them like the actions), Wee Willy Winkie (does the 'rapping at the windows' on his high chair tray and holds up fingers as if counting - when we sing it at music group we always count the time out on our fingers e.g. "Past 5 o'clock - 1 - 2- 3- 4- 5"). Likes to bounce to Scissor Sisters.

Goat slapping action shot. It wasn't hard and the goat didn't seem to mind, but I did, and Leo deserved a good hoofing in the facehole. Stand up for yourself, goats! We made a sharp exit when Leo couldn't manage to progress from slapping to stroking.

More goat abuse

Sound effect - breath being sucked in hard, like a coffee percolator

Off to the pool with Will - what else is there to do when it's 39 degrees? Note big boy's scraped knees. All better now though.

Picnicking in Flagstaff Gardens in Daddy's lunch hour

One of Leo's photos (I held the camera and he pressed the button)

Leo gets his mitts on the Spee. That's my boy.

P.S. For anyone who cares, I still think the GB SP is the most elegant games console ever made. I'd put it in a bracket with the iPod and iPhone (I think, having not owned either). In another bracket entirely are the PSP and my elderly 20Gb iRiver brick. Sure, they each do a useful job and are highly functional, but you need to work around their deficiencies (battery life, stick position etc. for the PSP, dreadful UI on the iRiver). The SP has one function - let you carry simple and fun games around and play them until you want to stop - and it does so flawlessly. So what if later consoles are more powerful? They're bigger, more complicated, less focussed. Not 'bad', but less perfect.