This is cool. When our daughter Leona was born we named her Leona after Leo XIII who I had been reading a lot of at the time and thought was a good chap to be named after, but then we realised that Leona could also be after Leonardo Da Vinci and we said at the time that it was good because then she had a bit of science and a bit of religion.

Turns out Leonardo Da Vinci designed a cool mechanical lion to impress the King of France. By all accounts Da Vinci's lion was ahead of it's time using various mechanical trickery that didn't come in to common use until the industrial revolution. We are used to such things, but to people in the sixteenth century it must have been amazing.

Anyways, some Italian guys have studied the old sketches and made Da Vinci's Lion. It is very cool.

You can see a video of the lion in action here.

Okay, so it didn't settle, and there was barely enough to make a snow-teaparty let alone a snow-ball. But for Leona it was very exciting. It's not the first time she's seen snow, but it's the first time she's seen it and been old enough to get all excited.

The snow gets a definite thumbs up (sort of)...

Ella then remembered that normal people (grandparents etc) would be shocked and horrified at these photos of Leona in snow with no hat and gloves. We put some on sharpish...

Very Stylish.

My my my. A year. A whole year. I still feel a bit like she just arrived the other week but actually a lot has happened. In her first year girl has been through four weddings, two funerals and a flood. She's been all the way up to Durham and all the way down to Exeter (twice). Because Easter was early this year she managed two mothers days before her first birthday (only one fathers day). She's eaten goose and duck and lots of raisins and even moved house. Phew!

She is changing at an astonishing rate, the left picture was taken three months ago - she is propped up in a chair and we are all very excited about it...

...the second picture was taken much more recently, see how she effortlessly sits up with no support at all!

In fact, Leona is doing loads of things effortlessly these days. Ella dug out the book today they give you when your child is born and it's full of milestones you are supposed to look out for and note the date. They have almost all happened, she copies the sounds you make (simple sounds, not words) she claps when music plays and she even sings. She smiles, picks up "small objects", empties boxes of things and can take the lid of anything. She is heavily in to exploring things closely, here she is enjoying a spoon...

I mentioned singing. The singing isn't exactly singing as you or I might sing, she can't say the words for a start. It's more of a kind of high pitched humming sound with the sorts of breaks in you get when you go aaaaah and open and close your teeth without closing you mouth. As part of her exploration, Leona found the Piano:

When you bang the keys they make a sound, which is fun. Also fun are Christmas decorations:

Those are fair trade decorations by the way and only cost £1 for a great long woven streamer thing. I feel also strongly compelled to share with you this excellent example of Snorkel Face, Leona can make her top lip touch her nose which is impressive.

So what do you do for a first birthday? Well you get a balloon...

...and, if your name is Leona, you get a Lion Cake!

While listening to my mum recalling tales of my own childhood and the cakes I had I felt an obligation to provide Leona with a particularly special cake. We drew sketches and designs and everything. The best laid plans were hatched and all was going well Ella baked a beautiful sponge cake and asked me to use my carving skills to carve a Lion. I mauled it. I completely ruined the cake and do you know what, Ella saved it, she made it good again. Well done Ella!

So there we have it. One year old! Here's a traditional 0,3,6,9,12 months picture. The same baby grow (for scale) and the same dad (click here for large size)...

So all that remains is to say Happy Birthday, Sto Lat and thank you Leona for a great year.

Happy Birthday!

Nine months old. See-saw day. Leona has been out of the womb for as long as she was in it. She's developed amazingly since she was born. When I look back at the photos from her first week I barely recognise her. We did a bit of a recap at three and six months and now she is nine months old.

It's been a very exciting three months really, when it started we were just making our first tentative steps in to sitting in a high chair and being fed very very liquid goo. Now Leona is quite comfortable sitting in a high chair picking up segments of satsuma all by herself (pre-checked for pips of course) and eating them. She is crawling around rooms, getting hold of things she shouldn't and generally being a lot of fun. We are still loving the whole parenting thing and it's still no where near as bad as the hype suggested.

Leona is now crawling around...

She is sitting up on her own...

Getting expressive...

Something else Leona has been getting in to is books. Obviously she can't read yet but she has a few books with lots of pictures and (really impressively) she has learned to turn the pages.

Here's a nice photo of Leona and her mum...

And here's a photo of Leona and some old rocks we saw in a field...

She really has been growing...

In each of those photos, Leona is three months older than in the previous one. See how she grows! I don't suppose that babygrow will still fit her when she hit's the big one.

It seems only yesterday she was born, then she was named, then she was three months old. Now, she is SIX months old!

Time flies by when you're having fun!

In the last three months Leona has come along in leaps and bounds. She's had solid food (okay so not that solid)...

[if this spoon is in your house and you recently returned from a honeymoon in Ireland can we have it back now please]

She's been standing up (with a little help)...

Munching on Giraffes (no assistance required)...

Growing her feet...

Growing and Growing...

Yes, that is the same babygrow.

...and tiring us out!

Michelle and Jessica came over and Ella made a birthday cake and Leona couldn't blow the candle out but we sang Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Half Birthday Leona!