All getting a bit much....

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.

The convivialities of Crail...

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...

Video clip: Saying 'Bye Bye'

Not what a father had in mind...

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.

Videoclip: All giggly and in love

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