A century of the supreme being...

Well this is the 100th post on the blog. I had no idea that I had written that many until I went to write this one. And its all primarily down to one person - the supreme being herself. Here she is almost 3 years ago...

Day 2 of life...

So Emily is now 35 months old, and well on track in terms of her development. She amazed me the other day with a picture of an elephant and completing a 40-piece jigsaw with only a little prompting. She's also developing physically and getting much braver by learning to climb and balance. How children learn so much and so quickly is absolutely incredible to see. As adults we don't have anywhere near the same capacity to learn. 3 years ago she could do very little for herself, but now, although she still has much to learn, its fascinating how many life skills she has started to master.

 Most definitely an elephant...

 Pleased as punch post-jigsaw completion

 Getting so much braver

Videoclip: Discovering hopping

Still loving the outdoors

 This has to be one of the best views from a swing

Grandma and Grandad paid us a visit last weekend and we had a delightful time. With trips to Fintry, Schoenstatt and Campsie Glen; lots of coffee, cake and other nice food; and some gentle walks and great fresh air; a wonderful time was had by all I think. We even discovered just how much Emily likes rugby!!

 Playparks bring out the child in us all

 The senior Rookes with Rooke junior

 Competitive poo-sticks

Embracing the Scottish air

Videoclip: Passionate for Scotland

The Dog and Dragon...

The Revenge of the Autumnal Dragon

The end of September saw the fine weather continue as we headed up to Banchory for what is becoming an annual trip to Nana and Baba's for some fine food, relaxation, baby sitting and a spot of munro bagging. And once again we had our annually wonderful time. Highlights were a trip round a magical, fairy wood; the horse welfare centre; tramping through autumnal forests; a trip to the allotment; and Mummy and Daddy getting a cheeky night away in the van and a spot of munro bagging. Thanks once again to Nana and Baba for looking after us amazingly well.

Searching for fairies

 

Horse love at the Welfare Centre

Mummy and Daddy's escape

Spooky shadows

 

 Nana and Emily enjoying the fruits of the allotment

 

 One, Two, Three...Wheeee!

And then October came with incredibly the sun still shining. Its not shined everyday but there's been some great days and lots of time spent in the garden. The supreme being has been getting her head round the seasons and has been really engrossed in watching the leaves change colours and start to fall. We've been blackberry picking and enjoyed the apples from the garden. We've discovered new play parks and paths round Kirkintilloch. We've swept up leaves and put up our Dutch nesting box. It's been great finding more out about our new community, and watching Emily discover and learn more about the world around her. Her speech grows all the time, she counts beyond ten and every other thing is "Why?". There's lots to be thankful for this autumn.

How d'ya like those apples?

Videoclip: Conquering The Wibbly Bridge

Videoclip: Man's best friend

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside...

Summer this year has been a very Scottish affair. July and August were pretty much a let down with windy days, mediocre temperatures and too much rain. The start of September however was very different. Suddenly the sun appeared :-)...and we decided to make the most of it and head off to the seaside in Dumfries and Galloway. After a quick hours Google research we picked a tiny village called Rockcliffe with a campsite about 300yds from the sea. And so Mummy and Emi arrived at Daddy's work in the campervan on a Friday afternoon, and off we all zoomed (well chugged) down to Scotlands south coast, arriving in time for a quick evening sojourn to the beach following a tasty fish supper.

 Rockcliffe

 Early evening beach combing

 A very excited supreme being

 Seaweed spotting

And so a lovely evening turned into an even lovelier weekend. Rockcliffe is a bit of a hidden gem and we had a wonderful short break with the sun splitting the sky the whole time, and the supreme being just giggling and laughing all the way through. Saturday involved a walk along numerous beaches and paths to nearby Kippford, passing some beautiful Victorian villas and cottages along the way. Kippford was playing host to the annual Flounder Tramping contest which was quite a sight as a hundred or so people squelched around in the mud for hours trying to catch a fish. We had a delightful picnic on a shell covered beach, before ice creams (both Mummy and Emi having two each), and some lengthy games of poo sticks on the numerous burns heading to the sea. All this topped off with a glorious sunset.

One of many cottages with a view to die for

 Beach delight - part 1

 Glorious sun on Rockcliffe's sands

 Walking on water

Flounder tramping anyone?

 Flounder trampers in action

 Lunch on shell beach

 Local street art

 Sunglass heaven

Looking towards the Lake District

 Parked up amongst friends

Not a bad view from the bedroom window

The next day saw more of the same with beach games, rock pooling and ice cream eating a plenty. Our summer holiday had seemed a long time ago but this was just the tonic before we head into autumn. And as we say every year, we really must keep more weekends free for van trips away...not sure it ever happens in reality (well, its the thought that counts), but we'll definitely be back to explore more of Dumfries and Galloway...

 Catching fish

 Daddy...you should have seen the one that got away

 Beach delight - part 2

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside...

And on return, a masterpiece about our lovely weekend

Facepainting, fables and the festival...

Rabbits are the facepainting de rigeur

August was a fun packed month with lots of socialising and new adventures. The supreme being is growing up so fast, passing her 30 month check up with flying colours (albeit at 34 months - ahem - Mummy has never been very good at time-keeping). The nurse was particularly impressed by her vocabulary. The highlight of which has to be in the block-stacking exercise when Emily said "Careful...you need a steady hand" as they approached the top of the tower. I personally think it's the many, many, many, many hours we have spent on story time. So much so, she is now reading stories to us. Might as well hang up my books...

Videoclip: Storytime

She's also graduated to a new bike seat which she loves, particularly as she was quickly outgrowing her old one. Thanks to the visit from Finn - he kindly donated his old front facing seat - Emily can now continue to look forward whilst being cycled round the neighbourhood in traditional supreme being style. Next step a sedan chair methinks...

 

New bike seat in front of still lovely new house :-)

And then there was the festival. Kirkintilloch apparently has the 'Canal Festival', which with our expectations being set at small town fete, we hadn't really banked on how good it was going to be. The town was completely mobbed, with thousands of people flocking from round about to join in the fun. We had a lovely weekend and there was loads for kids to do. So if you fancy visiting with your youngsters next year then book in now for 2016... 

 Festival headgear

 Recreating the flying trapeze

Strange folk were abroad

 Chilling in the den after a hard day at the festival

 

 Videoclip: And then there was the drummers...

 

 

Chloe, Auwa and the Gruffalo...

Hello - Supreme Being here again :-) I just wanted to tell everyone that my big cousin Chloe and her friend Auwa (Laura) left yesterday. I am a bit sad because I LOVED having them to visit. They played with me lots and lots and lots, and I let them put me to bed (normally I make Mummy and Daddy do that).

NBF's - Auwa and Chloe

We did loads and loads of really fun stuff together including much den building, chocolate eating, face painting, lots of chasing, picnic munching, Ikea shopping, show watching, story reading, group singing, CRAZY dancing and not enough sleeping! It was so, so, so much fun :-). I hope they come back soon...

 Cousins :-)

 My first ever face painting

 Cheeky monkeys

Videoclip: CRAZY dancing

And then to top it all off I went to see a wonderful show with Daddy that had one of my favourite writers in it - Julia Donaldson!! I was so excited and it was so much fun. She even read a book that I hadn't heard before - Jack and the FlumFlum Tree. I liked it so much that I made Daddy buy the book and get Julia to sign it. She talked to me and told me to look for the little boats on every page. I think I have now found them all. Anyway...she is really cool :-). She finished her show by reading the Gruffalo...and do you know what? The Gruffalo actually came out to say hello to us. So, you see... there really is such a thing as a Gruffalo.

 Ticket, stickers, book, rabbit and a massive grin

 My prize possession

The magic lady