Emily is at a gorgeous stage discovering the world. Everywhere we go she points things out and wants to know what's going on. Her yearning to learn more and more about the world is so much fun to be around, and I am loving imparting my fatherly wisdom to the supreme being. Her 5-word spoken vocabulary ('Mama', 'Dada', 'bye-bye' Texan style, 'dah' for yes, and her emphatic 'no') does not seem to stop us having in-depth conversations about the way things are, and she patiently sits just absorbing everything that I tell her, and then proceeds to fill in the gaps with her melodic babble. This is how I spend my lovely weekends. It's also the antithesis of my working week - where nobody sits absorbing anything I say, and everyone just babbles when they're not supposed to be saying anything. Hmmm, maybe I should introduce the supreme being to my workplace.
Many of this winter's rainy days were spent frequenting Glasgow's Kelvingrove and Riverside Museums, and Emily has really started to love them and know her way around. So much so, we thought we would focus on our daughter's education and recently ventured out with a trip to the Science Centre to add into the mix. Emily seemed to love the day, although I have to say her parents seemed to enjoy pressing all the buttons probably more than she did. And, this parental engrossment nearly caused a wandering toddler to slip away unnoticed on a number of occasions.
Parental Warning: Keep a close eye on your child whilst pressing buttons.
In short though, Emily is going through a delightful stage experiencing the joy of discovery. Long may it continue as I definitely have lots more to tell her and I hope she continues to enjoy listenting to my babble...
Using her supreme powers to defy the laws of gravity
Thermal Daddy and Daughter
She know's her way around so straight off to see her favourites
Being a supreme being is not as easy as it sounds. There's the constant demands to be placed on others, having to be fed, changed and watered at regular intervals, and of course a regular series of exciting activties to attend every day. Sometimes however, it can all get a bit much and you just want to get a bit of kip. Unfortunately, the desire to sleep can often coincide with other activities. This can have particularly interesting consequences when combined with the need to eat. We've christened this unusual combination 'Sleating'. It's a skill. A fine art that only a supreme being can master...Mummy and Daddy can only watch in awe (whilst videoing the whole sleating experience for posterity - how cruel).
Preparing for a sleating session
Videoclip: A master sleater at work
And yes. She did manage to eat her whole dinner like that. Talented? That's my girl.
I love a good surprise. So for Tanya's birthday this year I surprised her with a short break to Crail, a lovely little fishing village in the East Neuk of Fife. And after the last few months of dark, dreary and damp days it was a well timed opportunity to head to the sunniest part of Scotland.
The first part of my plans involved sending Mummy to the posh spa at the Old Course hotel in St Andrews for the day whilst I was left in charge of the supreme being. Given my highly advanced fathering skills what could go wrong I hear you cry? Well...quite a bit it would appear...
First off there is nothing surer to start the day with tears than waving goodbye to Mummy. As I watched Mummy gleefully disappear into the spa in the rearview mirror, I got to listen to a hysterical supreme being who seemed convinced that I was stealing her from Mummy forever. It was a long 3 minute drive back into St Andrews. Undeterred though, I managed to get Emily out between sobs and attempted to distract her with the beach and a bracing 25mph wind. This seemed to be working well until, possibly unsurprisingly, the wind blew us both into a muddy puddle. Things weren't going my way as the tears started again, only this time with the addition of mud.
The saving grace I figured would be a trip to the aquarium to see fish, seals, penguins and all sorts of other swimmy things - a recipe which was bound to be successful as Emily loves sealife. Fate however is sometimes cruel, and as we descended into the bowels of the fish house, I got a sinking feeling that this wasn't going to be straightforward. As we emerged into the pitch black Amazon area, camouflage netting and gigantic flesh eating fish surrounded us, causing the daughter to instantaneously cling onto my leg like a limpet whilst whimpering loudly. It really wasn't going according to plan.
Hasty action was called for and, after discovering no amount of coercion could detach her from my leg, I scooped her up and sped across a couple of continents into the daylight for a viewing of the seals. Hooray!! It started to work...all sobbing eventually ceased and we had a wonderful rest of morning going round and round the fish tanks (but keeping a wide berth of South America). And, following a successful lunch with Mummy and another not so successful departure from Mummy again, we even enjoyed an afternoon in the Botanical Gardens. My Dad skills weren't so bad after all!!
Enjoying lunch with a seaview
Quality beach time Scottish stylee
Looking cute for Daddy in the Botanics
From there the weekend could only keep on improving. More surprises were planned for Mummy with lunch arranged and an overnight visit from the Gurney's the next day, a trip through the Magic Door to see more Glingbobs and Tootflits, and then an unannounced visit for both Tanya and Layla when their parents arrived to take us all out for a gorgeous lunch on the Sunday. A great trip for all and maximum brownie points for Daddy to boot!
Promenading with big cousin Abbie
Off searching the woods with Aunty Layla
The excitement of the Magic Door
The best part for me about adventuring for a weekend is getting to spend quality time with Emily. She definitely thrives amongst all her family and always seems to take a big developmental leap. She even learnt how to say 'bye bye' with a Texan drawl whilst we were away. The only downside to this is that she then wanted to say 'bye bye' to every dandelion, stone and twig. It took a fair while to leave Crail at that pace...
