Keeping a supreme being energised is no easy feat. They need an incredible amount of nutrition, despite being still pretty tiny. Emily is no exception and can put away a fair bit of scran when on top of her eating game.
Caught in a filthy chocolate act
On an average day her daily Hobbit-like diet consists of:
First breakfast: 3 Weetabix
Second breakfast: A third of Daddy’s breakfast of muesli/fruit & fibre plus anything else she can get her hands on
Mid-morning snack: A whole nectarine plus some toast
Lunch: Two slices eggy bread
Mid-afternoon snack: An ice cream plus few handfuls of grapes
Dinner: Adult salmon portion (plus some of Mummy and Daddy’s), potatoes and any greens that end up in her mouth by accident. Followed by upto 4 yoghurts for pudding
The joy of ice cream
Now the more observant amongst you might notice two things. Firstly, the calorific content of the above is not far off what an average adult consumes. It’s incredible, God knows where she puts it all but put it away she does. Secondly, it is a trifle carbohydrate based. Vitamins are not high on our daughters agenda. Indeed most things green are routinely ejected from the plate, so a cunning use of the blender to infuse vitamins into various dishes is required. She also doesn’t drink milk since Mummy put her boobs into retirement, so the yoghurts seem to give her the calcium she needs.
Still, we shouldn’t complain. She is wonderfully happy, particularly when fully fed. And all that food gives her the energy she needs to run round all day and enjoy life to the full. Now if only we could keep up, then all would be fine…
High as a kite and
purple coloured, post bramble picking/eating
And so the great Glasgow summer continued in a similar vein. This meant we were really starting to clutch at straws to keep the supreme being entertained. Suggested recipe for success below:
1. Take one supreme being to local Home Bargains (avoiding rainshowers)
2. Empty pocket of change
3. Allow same supreme being to buy bucket of straws with change
4. Return home (avoiding rainshowers)
5. Empty straws all over house and improvise, improvise, improvise
Glasgow has a good summer once every 7 or 8 years. That might not be a scientifically proven fact and meteorologists might dispute it, but I have been in Glasgow for about 15 years and there have been about 3 good summers in that time. And that is a fact. The last good one was last year, which was a glorious summer all round in Glasgow, which normally prides itself on being the wettest city in the UK.
So this year had up to August been posing somewhat of a dilemma to my evidence-based theory on Glasgow's (not) sunny season, by being a lovely summer for the second year in a row. Impossible the sceptics cried! And so it seems the end of the Commonwealth Games may yet have proved those same sceptics right. August this year has brought with it some more familiar weather, and so we have dug out the wet weather gear and merrily gone back to splashing through the puddles of the great Glasgow summer. The only problem now we have a toddler is that it takes an awfully long time to go anywhere, rain or no pouring rain...
Videoclip: Splashing in the rain
Drying off post-splash
And so
sadly we have to find new ways of entertaining ourselves indoors as well
as out. But in every threat there is an opportunity, and so we have been
trying to explore the supreme being's musical creativity. Now, Mozart made his musical debut when he was 4 and Chopin aged 7, but as a supreme being Emily is set to beat them all, mastering the trumpet and singing her first duet all by the age of 21 months. Not to mention her love of percussion. Drums, bells, xylophone and tambourine - all of these have been mastered and she is currently developing her own one-woman band. So you can imagine our house - a joyful cacophony everyday.
Make sure your instrument is clear of blockages before playing
And off she goes...Dizzy Gillespie stylee
Videoclip: Debut singing from Mary Poppins
And after a hard day's puddle splashing and musical practice? Nothing can beat a good old fashioned nosh-up and giggle session...Wonderful. That's how to spend the great Glasgow summer.
And so sadly the Commonwealth Games draws to a close in Glasgow, which means I pick up my proverbial blogging pen once more. It's hard to sum up how
we all feel post-Games, but suffice to say it feels a bit like the best
Christmas season ever has just ended, and you know it isn't going to be repeated ever
again. Still, Glasgow really did itself proud and we all loved every
minute of it.
Our 'Commonwelfie' - taken during some gripping athletics
The final days saw us return some hospitality to the Gurney's as they
came west to sample some of the Commonwealth feel good factor, in what turned
out to be not so feel good weather conditions. The kids all stayed up
far too late, joining in the ritual screaming at the athletics on the telly, and
Emily became absolutely besotted with her cousins Abbie and Rosie,
particularly Abbie. This culminated with Emily getting up far too early
at 5.45am, with her first excited word for the day being 'Abbie'. A word that was repeated much over the few days...
Travelling trouble in triplicate on the train
Competing for the 'Hide and Seek' Gold medal
It was great watching Emily interact with her cousins. She wanted to copy their every moves and followed them round everywhere. Her attempts to be a young lady were very cute, doing everything they did but not quite correctly. Although saying that, she does most definitely manage to out eat them both. She even presented Abbie with a Commonwealth medal in a somewhat haphazard fashion. Poor Abbie, but she did tolerate her wee cousin's affections very well.
Abbie's Gold medal presentation
And the final few days of our Commonwealth extravaganza saw road cycling and
athletics top the bill, alongside numerous trips to the live zones at
the BBC, Merchant City, Kelvingrove Bandstand and Glasgow Green to soak
up the atmosphere. And following the celebratory closing ceremony, there seems to be a unanimous opinion in the press that Glasgow truly delivered "the standout Games in the history of the movement". Whether that's true or not I don't know...but I do agree with Prince Imran in his closing speech when he said "Glasgow - you were Pure, Dead Brilliant!"
Hello, Emily here...due to the fact it's all gone a bit strange in Glasgow. Mummy and Daddy have been absent for the last 10 days or so due to something called the Commonwealth Games which appears to be happening. Consequently Daddy hasn't been bothered to update the blog and has given me the computer to do it myself instead.
It all started about 10 days ago when we went to Victoria Park, only to find it full of people at something called the Queens Baton Relay. I didn't really know what it was about but by the time we headed home, Nana had appeared, and next thing I knew Mummy and Nana had headed off to the dress rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony leaving me to the mercy of Daddy's 'putting me to bed' skills.
Nothing to see here Mummy, look at the ducks!
And then it all really started. All I know about what's been going on for the last week is that everywhere we go on the bike there are thousands of people where there never used to be any; the house is full of lots of visitors talking about sports and places I haven't heard of before; there are people doing weird and wonderful things on the telly (which also seems to be constantly on - bonus); oh...and Mummy, Daddy, Grandma and Grandad seem to every now and then burst out in spontaneous shouting at the people doing the weird and wonderful things on the telly. It really has all gone a bit strange.
One bonus in all this excitement is I have managed to get myself on the BBC. What seems to have happened is that Mummy and Daddy took me to see some people hitting a ball against a wall. Seemed a bit pointless to me but everyone else seemed to be enjoying it. Anyway I took the opportunity to make my TV debut.
Not really sure what I am doing here
That's me up the top!
Grandma and Grandad have also been staying. They came to watch something called Lawn Bowls but seemed to also like sitting in the deck chairs at the make shift beach. It was here that Mummy introduced me to Team Anguilla - I wasn't too sure about that, but I did like all the boats that came along in a thing called a Flotilla.
It's sunny in Glasgow!
Not too sure about Team Anguilla
Over 250 boats came down the Clyde
Daddy has also got particularly excited when he and Grandad got last minute tickets to the Rugby Sevens. That made me quite excited too, so I decided to take his tickets and do my own song and dance.
Videoclip: Special rugby song and dance
Videoclip: Daddy and Grandad join in the singing
Mummy and Daddy also keep getting me out of the house very early no matter what the weather is like. On Sunday we went to see some people running very fast. I tried to keep up but despite all my practice the ladies were a little bit faster than me...
Lots of running people
My favourite bit so far in all this chaos has been the appearance of a little green man with purple hair. It's a bit like Christmas when Father Christmas is everywhere. This little guy is a bit less scary though and is called Clyde.
Me and Clyde
And there we have the story so far. Not sure when business as usual will resume but this blogging malarkey is tougher than it looks. I hope Mummy and Daddy return to normality soon but in the meantime I have learnt that 'People Make Glasgow' apparently. Whether they do or not I haven't got a clue, but I do know that there are an awful lot of them in Glasgow just now. Just hope they don't all want to stay here...
"Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it."
A A Milne (opening lines to Winnie the Pooh)
Emily's Edward Bear is her Rabbit...well, two Rabbits to be precise...Big and Wee Rabbit (we thought quite hard about their names).
From left to right: Big Rabbit and Wee Rabbit
She drags the Rabbits round with her wherever she goes, gripping her supreme beings fingers tightly onto them whenever the going gets tough. When she’s tired, she'll need them to get to sleep.
When she’s separated from Mummy, they reassure her. When she’s frightened
or upset, they comfort her. When she’s in a strange place, they
help her feel at home. When she's wanting to play, they get lobbed across the room. Clever things these Rabbits. And very tolerant.
Happy Rabbits
Sleepy Rabbits
Sulky Rabbits
These special comforts are called transitional objects, because
they help toddlers make the emotional transition from dependence to
independence. And if you read the last post then you'll know we need all the help we can get with this (in)dependence transition. So the Rabbits are a great help...except when they escape. Which does happen from time to time. They've got lost in shops, museums, other people's houses, and last weekend they even made a dash for it from the bike. Funny as this may sound, it's not quite so funny when you have to cycle half way round Glasgow trying to find them again. Still, Emily loves them and that's all that matters. So there they are...Meet the Rabbits.
The supreme being is growing fast. It seems like every day she is learning a new thing to do or word to say. It's truly wonderful to see. In tandem with this though is a bizarre yearning for both complete independence and dependence at the same time. It's like you can't do anything for her, but you have to do everything for her (particularly if you are Mummy). One minute she's away off exploring, purposefully heading in the complete opposite direction to where you want her to go and is not for turning; the next she's physically attached to Mummy, refusing to let her more than a 10cm distance away. The former means it can take us hours to go anywhere or do anything...come to think of it, the latter pretty much amounts to the same thing too.
Expressing her independence
Discovering the world through a tube
This yo-yo behaviour can be pretty tiring, particularly for Mummy. It must be tough keeping your cool with a two and a half foot supreme being attached to you whilst you try and take a shower one minute; then the next minute that same supreme being runs for the hills as you try to get her dressed. It's no wonder I sometimes return home from work to find a slightly frazzled wife delighted to be turning our beloved daughter over to me. I'm not always much use though...Daddy might be the best thing today, but by tomorrow it can be a different story as I appear to turn into the devil incarnate. Who'd have thought that something so cute could create a complete maelstrom around her. Still, she loves her time on the bike with me. A saving grace for all of us this summer...
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