Weaning the wean....

wean n. a child, especially a young one

It's hard to believe that it's nearly 6 months since the supreme being entered our life. Where did that time go? People always say your life speeds up when you have children and it certainly feels like that for me. It seems barely yesterday that I was racing to the hospital with a labouring T in the back, my life about to change forever....

Emily's half birthday is fast approaching and with it comes the start of some very important developmental milestones. For those of us that take sitting up as an everyday activity, I can assure you it's no mean feat, particularly when you have a little tummy that gets in the way. And having watched our daughter struggle with it in recent weeks, I began to question her supreme status. However, after many days of teetering and tottering, wibbling and wobbling, her mother and baby advanced yoga classes paid off and she has magically started to sit. And with sitting comes a whole new world of exciting activities - it opens doors to new experiences which we are now starting to explore, not least of which is graduating to chairs...

First time in the big chair

The joy of 'lunching'

And taking after the priorities of her mother, once Emily learnt to sit, first and foremost came food. We've currently chosen to try a 'baby-led' approach to weaning. For those that don't know, this means in theory (stress placed on theory), you just hand them the food in a suitably-sized piece and if they like it they eat it and if they don’t they won’t. The theory doesn't tell you about the terror of choking, the desire to mush the food into the table or the ability to get it everywhere but the mouth. Once again I started to question her supreme status....

Sitting's great but where's the scran?

Video clip: Emily's very first experience of food

 

 Video clip: Supreme status restored - mastering drinking within days (must be Daddy's genes)

Tramping in the Trossachs...

Following our delightful Easter visiting family, we have had the last two wonderful weekends entertaining my tribe. Firstly my niece Ruth came to visit, and then my brother arrived with his brood, aka the Southern Rookes.

As we had finally started to move out of the ice age, and some semblance of spring was in the air, I decided it was the perfect time to discover the Trossachs in more depth. Having spent the last 5 or 6 years doing some serious trudging up munros, the Trossachs have been somewhat overlooked by me due to their lack of vertical challenge. This is somewhat unfair and the area, about 45 mins north of Glasgow, is characterised by lush forests, stunning lochs, plentiful wildlife and numerous hills. William Wallace and Rob Roy once hid here and the region has miles of trails to be explored - just the place to further the supreme beings growing interest in the great outdoors (despite not ticking any munros for me).

Even for seasoned explorers every day is a school day, and one lesson learned in our adventures is that it's important to agree on the final destination before setting off. An unfortunate incident involving someone turning right out the car park and someone turning left, both heading to where they were certain they were supposed to be for lunch, led to a somewhat disjointed dining experience for two halves of the Rooke clan. Loch Katrine is 8 miles long as the crow flies (and 20 miles end to end by car), which when the family is split at either end lunch conversation becomes somewhat difficult. At least there was a cafe at either end of the Loch so no-one went hungry...

Despite such minor detours, both weekends were a great success and Emily loved seeing her cousins, Ruth, Chloe and Will once more, as well as Jenny and Dave. She may be the youngest in the riot of Rookes but she certainly gives her generation a run for their money - I think they all left shattered! And as I put her to bed tonight though I think she was missing all their cuddles as she seemed to not want to settle...so let's hope they come back soon.

A rare sighting of Daddy Rooke caught on camera with his mate and young

 A fledgling Rooke out the nest and enjoying the sun for the first time

Two Rookes with a particularly brightly crested Lockett bird

The Southern Rookes migrated north

Four female Rookes

Loch Ard with Ben Lomond in the background

A white Easter...

As if we didn't have enough snow adventures earlier in the year, we decided to head to up north to Banchory for Easter, and spend a few days with Nana and Baba. For those of you that don't know where it is, Banchory is a lovely little town in Deeside - in between Braemar and Aberdeen. And yes, that's the same Braemar of "coldest Easter on record" fame, with a glorious minus 12.5 degrees celsius recorded this year. And yes, it was pretty chilly...

Tanya struggled to find Banchory in the snow

As previously posted - we love grandparents, and it was great to be pampered for a few days by Nana and Baba. Emily really enjoyed herself too, and seemed to have a developmental leap meeting all the Banchorians, as she was shown off to all Nana and Baba's friends. We got to go on some stunning snowy walks, as well as eat lots of lovely food and even managed our first night out without Emily. All in all it was a grand old Easter - just hope we get invited back...

Emily featured as trip leader

Quality dad-daughter time

Family meeting in the snow

 Breastfeeding Eskimo style

Emily loved spending time with her grandparents

Video clip: The giggling girl had a great time