Chitter chatter...

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

Talk like the animals...

Emily is currently rapidly learning words. Everyday she picks up and understands new ones, and everyday she has a conversation presumably using them. I say presumably, as most of the time we don't have a clue what she is saying, but it's still very cute listening to her babble.

Her love of books is reaping great dividends in this respect - and from herons to helicopters and vultures to volcanos, the supreme being is starting to recognise a whole host of things. And once she's learnt it, she loves to point it out again and again and again and again and again.

Like many a minor deity, the supreme being has a particular penchant for animals, and she is particularly keen to know what all the different animals sound like. Where she can't replicate the sound, she makes do with actions. This is ironically proving to be particularly challenging for Mummy and Daddy. I have been particularly dismayed that we have consistently failed in our animal noise repertoire - does anyone actually know what sound a hippo or a rabbit makes? So much for parents knowing everything. By 14 months our daughter is already outfoxing us...

Out searching for animals to talk to...

Videoclip: How to talk like the animals...

Her language skills have also meant that Emily is now able to understand basic commands. Take the cup to Mummy, go and find Rabbit, fetch Daddy a beer from the fridge... that's the sort of level we are operating at. Nothing fancy but able to cover the basics. She particularly likes to practice her fetching and carrying with the Gang of Four (now actually renamed the Famous Five with the addition of Bear), and we can while away many a happy hour passing these five friends back and forth. Now if I could only train her to actually do it with beer and the remote control - now that would be useful.

Videoclip: Famous Five go fetching and carrying...

Ghosts of Christmas past...

Coming down from the festive period is never easy. To counteract that this year we decided to throw caution to the wind and keep the tree up for an extra week or so. Besides, Emily loved all the lights, and keeping an increasingly demanding Supreme Being happy is always a winner.

And illuminating the tree for longer seems to have kept us all cheery through the first fortnight of January, which were as usual very dark in Glasgow, and this year particularly stormy. Seeing Emily rush into the lounge every morning pointing to the lights to be put on brings a smile to my face every time. Let's just hope the superstitions about Twelth Night aren't true!

Whilst we were down visiting my brother at Christmas my Mum gave me my Grandmas chair from when she was little. I have really fond memories of my Grandma, so much so it was one of the reasons we picked Emily as a name, after the lovely lady. Grandma Emmie was a tad mischievious though and had a great sense of humour - a bit like her young namesake. So much so she naughtily scratched her name onto her chair when she was a small child. So there you have it, young Emi gets to sit on old Emmie's chair, and it already had her name on it. Carved in over 100 years ago. To top it all the Supreme Being now fits perfectly into the cardigan my sister started knitting before she died, and finished by my niece some years later. It truly was the Ghost of Christmas past...

Ghosts of Christmas past...

Around this time children often start to say their first few words. Our lovely daughter is so far a lady of few spoken words, although she seems to understand many. In fact when I say few, I mean one - she can say the word "No". The technical name for a child's fascination with the word "no" is "toddler refusal" - and apparently toddlers say "no" simply because they can. They've just found out that they have a will, and they want to exercise it. It's the start of a developing independence.

It really is quite amusing though. To hear someone so tiny come out with such a forthright and strong stance on things makes me smile every time. She really is developing her character, and I have no doubt she will be quite formidable when the time comes. I personally believe that this strength of character comes from Mummy. Remind me to stay out the way though if there is ever a battle of wills between the two of them - the Unstoppable Force meets the Immovable Mountain - should be one for a ringside seat!

Videoclip: A father's lot in life...

A festive grand tour...

Happy New Year everyone!

The last 2 weeks have been a wonderful whirlwind tour visiting friends and family. We had a delightful Christmas in High Wycombe with my family, and also fortunately got the opportunity to catch up with some old friends which was equally excellent. The festivities were full of sumptuous food and hospitality from the Southern Rookes, and I was really proud to see them all being very much part of their local community by leading the work at their local Foodbank, and my niece also sharing her muscial talent at the local hospital. Big thanks to them all for a brilliant time.

Emily indulged this year's festivities with a particular fascination for Christmas trees, opening presents and developing an appetite worthy of those a number of years her senior. Her commitment to eating has to be admired, and included falling asleep in her high chair whilst still trying to cram in another morsel of turkey. Face first in her dinner - that's the classy kind of girl we're bringing up.

 The Supreme Being 'Christmas' look

 Present opening whilst squatting...not an easy task to master

'Merry Chistmas' from all the Rookes

Jogging off the excesses

It was then back to work for a few days before heading East for what's becoming a regular Hogmanay in North Berwick with Tanya's sister and family. This years celebration involved a somewhat wild party (on account of kids not adults), an obligatory spot of malt, watching the North Berwick Loony Dook, homemade steak pie, and walks up the Law and to the beach. Emily continued to take it all in her stride and particularly enjoyed pointing out plenty of boats and lighthouses, which are possibly her second and third favourite fascination after Christmas trees.

 The Loony Dook

Emily wanting to join in on the action

The return of John Gurney "Man of Steel"

Celebrating New Year with steak pie...boy was it good

And so 2013 came to an end. It was an absolutely fantastic year. It might not have topped 2012 for significant events, but it certainly has rivalled it for wonderful memories. Having Emily in our lives is a constant joy, and being able to share that this year with so many brilliant people made 2013 another 'annus mirabilis' for us. It makes me realise that the most important thing in life is how you live it. Let's hope 2014 brings more of the same for all of us. 

Wishing you all a fun-packed and wondrous year to come - big love Nigel, Tanya and Emily xxx

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

We're off to stay with my brother and family for Christmas, but just before we go...

 

Have a good one and hope to catch up with you all soon!!

The challenge of Christmas-ifying the house...

For those of you reading last year you will know that I love Christmas. The rules of Christmas are that it can't start till after my birthday in mid-December, but as soon as possible after that the tree goes up.

Last year the supreme being was pretty much oblivious to the whole affair. Christmas happened for her in between naps and feeds, and there was little to view apart from some blurry lights and faces. Come to think of it, that sounds pretty much like my Christmas most years, so am not sure if I should have raised her expectations any higher this year.

All that said I was determined to try and infuse my festive spirit into our family once more, and we set off on the great annual ritual to collect "The Tree". It was going to be the start of Emily's first Christmas proper and I was convinced it was going to be a magical event. Reality often has other ideas however...

Problem 1 - Van still in garage, need to resort to car to collect somewhat large tree.
Problem 2 - Weather miserable, pouring rain and brutal north wind.
Problem 3 - Emily very late for nap, loaded with cold.

Emily looking decidedly unsure at Daddy's Christmas gusto

You can probably see where this is heading, but in short we arrived at chosen tree depository with me dashing out to choose tree, then trying to squash it fairly unsuccessfully in the boot with seats down (mainly due to poor preparation by myself), Emily starts screaming at massive input of green pine needles into her life, Mummy agitated by screaming child, boot refusing to shut, Daddy getting soaked, finished off with drive home in miserable silence etc etc etc. All in all a roaring success.

My Christmas spirit is not so easily defeated however and, one power lunch later, Emily was down for nap and I coaxed Mummy into Christmas-ifying the house. And she was soon in the spirit. So much so that by the time the supreme being woke up, she got out of bed to find a whole new world of fairly lights and tinsel created in the lounge. She even managed to continually point at the once terrifying tree with total delight.

 Mummy back in the festive spirit

 Emily determined to help out

 

Wanting to wear the fairy lights

And so a total Christmas nightmare was averted. In fact, a few carols and a glass of mulled wine later, and the whole morning's disaster was forgotten and Emily's first Christmas proper began. Now bring on the rest of the festive season...

Finally ready for the joy of Christmas

House Training...

They say it's important to teach children to help out from an early age. With that in mind the supreme being has been learning how to tidy up after herself. I should stress that there has been no coercion involved in mastering this feat. She wanted to do it...honest. Next week she will take on stowing the dishwasher and laundry.

Videoclip: One less job for us to do

Scribbling is amazingly freeing. It is good for letting frustrations out, like physical exercise. They say scribbling is good art therapy, you should scribble without reason and with abandon. Emily has just completed her first scribbling masterpiece. It's a wonderful creation...just a shame it was on the wall and not paper. Note to self: Toddlers get up to all sorts of things when you are not looking.

 Graffiti - the early years

Loving getting all the books out...not so sure about putting them back

Her new found walking freedom is also giving her so much excitement. It's also giving us a new added dimension in worry as she totters around pulling and pushing at everything she can reach. On the plus side its good for our fitness levels as we are constantly running to try and catch up with her. I suspect this is only the start however, and the reality is we will now spend the next 20 years trying to catch up with her. For now though, there's just another important note to self: Toddlers can move at an alarming rate.

Videoclip: Making a run for it...