Today has been momentous. After months of 'assisted' walking, and weeks of 'I can't believe she's still not letting go', tonight the supreme being finally cut loose. It was the bizarrest thing. I came home from work around 5.50pm, did the usual storytime and then she decided, (and I mean SHE decided), that tonight was the night to walk. By 6.20pm she was doing a few steps, by 6.24pm I clocked tonight was different and called Mummy through. By 6.27 it looked like this...
Videoclip: Taking it in her stride
A few minutes after that there was no stopping her. It was like she had been walking all her life. She tottered round the whole flat looking pleased as punch, and by the end she was running. Oh how life just changed...Thank god she hasn't learnt to properly stand up yet but watch this space!!
Tonight I am one proud Daddy. 1 year and 17 days and my girl is strutting her stuff. Life truly is amazing...Love it :-).
Looking back a year ago, and the blog seems to report we were tramping round Glasgow in the rain with the supreme being. A year later and it appears not much has changed in that respect, except the supreme being is slightly larger and the tramping is becoming less dynamic as the weeks go by.
Emily is still demanding her daily constitutionals come rain or shine, only now she's beginning to demand that she actually walks some of it rather than getting carried, driven or pushed. The emphasis of our walking activity has started to become much more about the quality of the walk and nothing to do with quantity. Last time we were in Banchory I managed to sneak out and climb 5 munros and walk 40km in a day. My recent vision of my future that's unfolding before my eyes, is more that if I manage to climb 5 steps and walk 40m it'll be classed as a major achievement for the day.
Thankfully though, the daughter is still loving the bike seat which means we can at least make the park. And the park is full of ducks to be fed and leaves to be tramped in - new found pleasures in my life.
New joy at the discovery of feeding the birds
Can I have some bread too please Mummy?
Heaven is tramping in leaves
And what to do after a hard day's tramping in the leaves? Well, I like to remember that we also had a life pre-arrival of supreme being, and so we recently invited our good friends D and Khen over for dinner, along with their children Ndu and Nnenda.
It's kind of special for us when D comes over, as it was just about three and a half years ago that D introduced Tanya and I to each other. Tanya had been at university with D, and I had worked with her in Nigeria, and 'allegedly' she had always thought we would be very suited - not that I can argue much with that allegation. So to celebrate their visit, I recreated our 'first meeting' meal of pounded yam and egusi soup - a Nigerian speciality. Not sure D and Khen were celebrating quite so much when we expressed our gratitude by generously allowing them to show off their pounding yam technique. Come to dinner at ours - we'll make you work for it. That'll teach them to matchmake...
(Seriously though - thanks D!!!)
Nothing like making your guests sit on the kitchen floor and work for their dinner
Flashback to 3.5 years ago (with small addition in the lime green bib)
Many of you know that Emily's birthday is the 2nd November, and might have been wondering why there hasn't been a '1st Birthday' post up to now. Truth be told, Mummy and Daddy are slightly unconventional, and decided that the supreme being would never notice if her birthday was celebrated a week later when all the family just so happened to be getting together anyway.
More important than this was the fact she had been inundated with 1st birthday parties to attend recently, and, somewhat conveniently, actually had an invite to one on her birthday. Free party? Someone else organising and clearing up? Sounded like a good excuse to postpone for a week if you asked us. Not that Emily did ask us, as her language skills haven't progressed that far yet. Poor thing. We took her silence as tacit consent. Maybe next year she'll be able to ask for a party on her birthday. Besides, by the time she's learnt to read this, Daddy will probably have long given up his blogging career and all evidence of her party being a week late will have been lost or forgotten.
Still, a week late we did muster up a family gathering with Gediks, Gurneys and Rookes in attendance. Emily's 372 days were flanked by this years new addition Shay who was nearly 100 days at the younger side, right up to my parents who have over 60,000 days between them at the more senior end. The supreme being coped with the mayhem very well, mastering that important birthday skill of opening presents and eating cake at the same time. She even won the pass the parcel.
Happy Birthday Emily. And thanks for the best year (plus one week) of my life!!
New birthday jacket with new (secondhand) birthday dress
Practising the look that gets Daddy to do anything I want
Daddy now successfully bent to my will
Videoclip: The family mustered up a rousing 'Happy Birthday'
(Photos/Video reproduced courtesy of Big John Photography)
Halloween is normally a time when children dress up in costume and travel from house to house hoping to get treats (often in the form of sweets) from households. This tradition in Scotland, where it is known as 'guising', pre-dates trick or treating and records go back of this practice as early as 1895.
Armed with this knowledge I was looking forward to our daughters first Halloween. We even managed a costume for her (second hand of course). However, one thing I hadn't counted on was just how much Mummy loves her sweets. And so the evening went something like this...
18:00 - Daddy arrives home from work.
18:10 - Mummy explains that we have already had one lot of 'guisers' round.
18:20 - Knock at door. More guisers.
18:22 - Mummy suggests they sing 'Twinkle twinkle' to Emily.
18:24 - After successful singing Mummy goes off to get sweets.
18:25 - Mummy explains to said guisers that they will need to share limited sweets between them as there aren't many left. Guisers depart. Daddy's suspicions are aroused.
18:26 - Daddy enquires as to why after only two lots of guisers we are running out of sweets. Mummy, after some prompting, confesses that she might have eaten 'some' of the sweets on the basis that we didn't get many guisers last year.
18:30 - Mummy realises there are only 2 sweets left in the packet.
18:35 - Mummy tries to send Daddy out to buy more sweets. Daddy refuses on the basis that it was Mummy who ate all the sweets for the guisers.
18:36 - Mummy panics that there aren't enough sweets for guisers anymore and suggests satsumas instead. Daddy explains that this is 2013 not 1913 and kids expect sweets.
18:37 - Mummy panics further and suggests Daddy does early bath for the supreme being and that the doors get locked.
18:38 - Halloween ends in the Rooke household. Obviously early ending due to small baby needing to get to bed and nothing to do with sweet shortage.
You can see it might not be quite what I had in mind. Never mind, Emily looked very cute as a pumpkin and did enjoy prancing round in her costume....
Every supreme being needs some loyal followers, and Emily's arrival to Turkey for the first time saw her quickly gather her own merry band. Little did we realise before we set off to meet the family quite just how much Turks love children. Particularly ones that look quite cute with blue eyes, like our very own daughter. Everywhere we went over our 12 days on the border of Europe and Asia, the supreme being was met with cries of "Maşallah" - a term of joy and thankfulness, as well as one of protection from the evil eye - and people wanting to pick her up, take her photo or just generally give her some attention. And that was from total strangers, never mind about the fuss made of her by the family. But she loved every minute...Glasgow will seem quite dull from now on in.
First flight excitement
Our flight to Turkey was the start of the adventure, involving a sprint across Schipol airport to make our connection with seconds to spare (although our luggage never made it till the next day). Emily took to flying very well, giggling her way through take off and landing, as well as ingratiating herself to all the passengers by parading up and down the aisle and grinning to all.
We were met by Aunty Afifa - to whom Emily became immediately infatuated with, before braving a short drive in the mayhem of Istanbul's traffic to meet the rest of the clan. It seemed like half of Turkey (and some of Iraq) had come to greet us, and I was made to feel truly welcome which was wonderful. The supreme being was in her element - being passed from one relative to the next - each time a total fuss being made of her. She was of course delighted.
The following days were spent meeting all the family at a more leisurely pace, with much delicious food eaten and great conversation and laughter had, as we celebrated Kurban Bayramı (Eid al-Adha) with them. We ventured out into hustle and bustle of Istanbul and around, with trips to the Marmara Sea, Bosphorus and the family's summer house in nearby Sapanca. So a massive, massive thank you to all the Akarsu's, Cinol's, Topcu's and Gedik's for their very generous and geniune hospitality. We had a brilliant time...
Promending on the Marmara Sea
Holding court for the family
Admiring the view over Istanbul
Breakfast in the sun in Sapanca
Dipping one's toes in Lake Sapanca
Mummy and the lovely Aunty Afifa
Heading off on our own to "old" Istanbul
And so we set off for the rest of our trip. We were due to spend a few days in Istanbul centre and then a few days on Büyükada, one of the Princes' Islands just off the coast in the Marmara Sea. For those of you that haven't been, Istanbul is a place sparking with life and steeped in history. It's phenomenally busy, with gridlocked traffic, but on the border of Europe and Asia it's hustle and bustle infects you after a while and you can easily become entranced by it's charms. It's old world sites are some of the wonders of the world and we passed a magical few days soaking up the vibrant atmosphere.
Arriving at night - Emi soaking up the culture
Sultanahmet (Blue Mosque)
Aya Sofya - built in the 6th century!
Frantic fishing on the Golden Horn Bridge
Setting sail to Büyükada (but not on a boat quite so large)
Büyükada is the largest of the Princes' Islands, although at 2 square miles it's still possible to explore it all on foot. No cars are allowed on the island, which bought welcome relief after frenetic Istanbul, and many people get around on bicycle or by horse and carriage. Everyone wants to welcome you in Büyükada, and the supreme being continued collecting followers all over the island. We ate more gorgeous seafood, explored the coolness of the forests, got wowed by the island's villas and admired the views back to sprawling Istanbul. Emily loved watching the horses going by, became absolutely besotted with the islands ubiquitous cats and, best of all for me, grew to love storytime with Daddy. Magic stuff... marred only by our bags getting lost again on the way home.
The view back to Istanbul from the island's highest point
Horse watching
Lunch decisions...always tricky
One of many millionaires houses
Not a great beach...but still, on the beach in October
When not walking, the supreme being travels in style
It's been one week since Emily's bid for freedom in Banchory. People say that once they start walking there's no stopping them, and the supreme being's certainly been practicing her independent steps very hard. She's been going further and further each night, and tonight reached ten of her tiny paces. She loves her new found ability to mobilise and it really won't be long now before she'll be off good and proper.
We're off to Turkey in a few days to introduce the supreme being to the relatives over there and squeeze in a bit of sightseeing and downtime. Am not sure how much of the latter we will get though as she'll be running us ragged anytime now. Baton down the hatches, the supreme being is nearly mobile!!
Today is Emily's 11-month birthday. I can't believe that in a months time she will be one years old. Whilst on one level this time seems to a have flown in, when I try and revisit all that has happened in the past 11 months, it feels like we have taken only the first few steps on a very long and momentous journey. Whatever the reality - I wouldn't change any of it, and hope as we move closer to year 2 that we keep going with the same zest for life that we have now.
Day 1 and 11 months on - nothing like a wee nap.
Our most recent adventures saw us travelling back up to Banchory for a spot of 'R and R' with Nana and Baba. The supreme being was once again instantly taking things in her stride and settled right back into life in Royal Deeside. Nana and Baba treated us all like royalty and even allowed Mummy and Daddy a trip out to 'Go Ape' - much fun. Good food was eaten, lovely walks had, and best of all wee Emily took a definite step on the road to going solo with her first steps unaided.
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