Like any good father I planned to keep my daughter away from boys until she was at least 35. Fate however sometimes has other plans, as a recent trip out to Loch Lomond with friends from NCT proved. They have a young boy just a few days older than the supreme being. And when he met up with Emily it was all gooey eyes and cuddles from the word go. Not quite what a protective father had in mind, but at least I got to be there to chaperone and ensure nothing untoward took place.
Love at first sight?
Emily showing off her local knowledge of Loch Lomond
And there you have it...my attempts to keep boys away thwarted
Safely back with Mummy
Anyway, once my sensitivities had recovered, it was lovely to see two tottie wee things (pronounced toattie in Scots), toddling alongside Loch Lomond enjoying some unusually nice weather. Emily clearly loved her day out and spent the rest of the evening giggling on her return home. Like a teenager giddy with love she was...really not what her father had in mind.
Emily is currently full off babble. It's really lovely to hear her endlessly babbling away to herself, and at times it seems just like real words and sentences. Early morning she can often be heard chatting to wee Rabbit in her cot, and in the library she has taken to wandering round attempting to read a book out loud. Now if only we could understand a word that she said, we might move on to conversation, but for now it's just enjoyable listening to the divine rambling's of a supreme being.
Praying to big Rabbit that someone understands her soon
Whilst Emily babbling is most definitely funny, it also represents important developmental milestones in speech, motor, cognitive and social development. Babbling develops in stages, each stage indicating steps to speech. Apparently, the last stage of babbling development is the integrative or jargoning stage. Complex babbling combines with a few real words to form what is called jargon. Intonation develops, so that we hear nonsense gibberish that has the sound of comments, questions and commands. This jargon is well-coordinated with gestures, body language and eye contact, so that the toddler seems to be speaking in a language of their own.
All of this is most certainly true of Emily. It's amazing how she can tell us exactly what she wants without uttering a single understandable word, a habit I have often found to be employed by many a spindoctor.
Videoclip: The supreme being issues her daily decrees
When not being entertained by our daughter's little homilies, we've been out and about enjoying the lovely weather that seems to have landed on the UK just now. We've just celebrated our second wedding anniversary with a trip back to our wedding venue at Gargunnock House to see the snowdrops once more, and attempt for the third time to walk up to the waterfall behind the village. This year we got closer than ever with the waterfall in sight but were forced to turn back due to brutal winds and driving rain. Emily didn't seem to mind though as she had fallen awkwardly asleep in the backpack.
A rare sighting of a somewhat damp Daddy with comatosed daughter partially hidden
Emily showing the locals how to play pool at the Gargunnock Inn
