Babies are gross and weird. I say this with an unbridled love and affection but they really are.

I am mainly basing this on Wee Daftie, of course, but there are some general things that all babies will do. Eat dirt. Leave ridiculously stinky messes in their nappies. Smear anything vaguely viscous across their face at any given opportunity.

It’s paint. I swear.

I was reminded of this virtue of babydom when Wee Daftie started dropping lumps of her tuna fishcake into her yoghurt, gave it a good stir (“Stoor!”) and gleefully kept on tucking in. I’m seldom stunned into silence, and believe me there is very little dead air in this Daft household, but not a word was uttered til she finished up! Bless her.

I am so thankful for how much my little idiot enjoys her food. This time last year, we were only a few weeks into introducing solid food to her. She has done so well with weaning but I haven’t taken it for granted that it will last.

Admittedly, she doesn’t have much of a choice in the matter. I love to cook, and cooking healthy, so she’s always around when food is being prepared. I think it’s taken some of the mystery out of it so it’s interesting but not scary. It must be super weird to be handed some broccoli and be expected to know what to do with it!

Now she’s getting bigger, I’m trying to get her involved. The imaginary cooking demonstrations in our kitchen now have a sous chef. She’s really good at stirring (“Stoor!”) and trying to eat batter.

I keep waiting for her fussy/flinging/fighting food stage to appear but it really hasn’t. There’s still time for her to become more selective but, for now, I’m just going to enjoy her creative eating habits and A+ stirring (“Stoor!”)

Horray! It’s 9:30pm. We have arrived, explored, unpacked, had dinner and put Wee Daftie to bed. I am sitting in an incredibly ornate and eclectically decorated living room, known as the Long Room, in Springfield Castle, Limerick. And we have done it. My little idiot and I have walked our legs off – as well as the legs of my Mammy today – for the past 31 days and have, at last check, raised £400 for Cancer Research. I am beyond grateful. I am beyond delighted. I am beyond exhausted!

Us at Stirling Castle.

I forgot to take my notebook with our running total out of my bag before we put Wee Daftie to bed so I’ll do a proper update tomorrow with final scores and averages! Most days were about 11,000 but some days were well over! Come wind, rain, sleet, snow and shine, we never missed a day and am I such a proud Mammy of my Wee Daftie.

She’s so elegant.

Quick recap of today. We had a big drive to do in convoy from Dublin to Springfield Castle this morning. My Mammy lead the first leg and my Big Human was head of the second.

We took a very interesting route via some long and winding country roads to the Castle thanks to our navigator, Google, but made it here in the late afternoon with just enough time to have a small explore, unpack, make some dinner, catch up with my Mad Aunt Hil, my cousins and their families and for Wee Daftie to drag not only my Mammy but also two of her other relatives the length and breadth of the grounds.

I think between them, Wee Daftie and her Nana did the 10,000 steps between them before dinner. Really should have invested in a toddler proof pedometer for her…

Oh look. Daftie climbing stairs. How unusual.

Having such a long drive today did mean that I needed a post bedtime walk so Mammy and I took a late evening trek around the grounds. Luckily, we didn’t need to go too far as it’s dark and there aren’t a huge number of lights to guide our way but we hit our target and made our way back for some well deserved R&R!

Thank you so, so much for walking with us this past month. We have honestly had so much fun and I am just thrilled with what we have accomplished. I will post again with facts, figures and many photos and fun times from the coming week. There will be 23 adults and children here, running amok for the next week so no doubt Wee Daftie will cause some havoc!

And I promise we will still be doing plenty of walking.

The perfect visualisation of how we’re both feeling after our marvellous month!

Awake bright and early this morning for our big adventure.

I say bright. I don’t. I mean it was rainy. I say awake. I don’t. I mean not sleeping. I say early. I mean a time beyond when I am happy to be functioning. Still, needs must and we made it to the airport in plenty of time for our flight and for Wee Daftie to ingratiate herself on as many people as possible.

Daft Family Adventurers waiting for a plane!

A lot of my walking today was done through airports and preparing for our trip to Limerick tomorrow. Mammy and I did manage a good, big – and a bit soggy – walk after lunch.

Mammy had an appointment in Deansgrange so Wee Daftie and I bundled up to walk her there, wander for a bit and then pick her up when she was finished.

We saw a heron!

There’s a really lovely park that runs behind my old primary school so we took a turn around there. It’s so funny but I used to spend a lot of time here with some of my friends after school but I had forgotten so much about it until we had our explore today.

I genuinely had forgotten how long the wee stream was, even though we used to cycle the length of it in the afternoons.

It wasn’t until we walked towards the tennis courts that I remembered they existed!

Even though Wee Daftie is still too young to remember or pick up on much about where we are, I absolutely love showing her different parts of where I grew up each time I bring her home to my folks’ house. So I was absolutely in my element, showing her bits and pieces from my childhood.

Silly selfie with my Mammy after her appointment, on our way home. And 5 minutes before the rain really starting chucking it down!

It’s been a long day but a very good one. Now to have a good rest in preparation for our drive tomorrow. Fingers crossed Wee Daftie running rings around all of us, and Nana up and down the stairs, has tuckered her out enough to give her a good recharge for the next leg of our adventure.

How surprising. She’s asking for Booblees.

Super short catch up today as we’re in the midst of packing for our First Family Holiday (!) tomorrow.

My wonderful Mad Aunt Hil celebrated a Big Birthday earlier this year so has organised a week long break away at Springfield Castle, Limerick for a whole heap of our family. My poor Big Human will the thrust into the throng of not only my folks, my sister and her family (all of whom he has met) but also my Mad Aunt, Wee Daftie’s Graunty, three of my cousins and their families – none of who he has met. So it will be a fab, if slightly mad, week ahead of us.

My attempt of a cute selfie with my Wee Daftie.

We had a quiet morning as I was feeling a bit under the weather. It was to be expected though. I’ve been on the go continually while my Big Human has been away working but now he’s back I’m able to slow down a bit as I have my parenting partner back to take on the whirling dervish that is Wee Daftie. Historically though, whenever I stop, I get sick. So having a lazy morning to let me catch up did me the world of good and prepared me for my afternoon playdate with my Mammy Mates and their littlies.

And it means I’ll be 100% for our big adventure tomorrow!

Attempt two of a cute selfie was worse than the first!

After spending the afternoon running around my friend’s garden, Wee Daftie and I had a huuuuuge walk home which pretty much accounted for all our steps today. Not quite all – and running about the garden helped, stopping Small Humans from chucking themselves down some rickety steps, – but a fantastic effort at any rate.

Such a pretty view from Granton Cresent Park, overlooking the Edinburgh Riveria.

So it’s another successful day of walking done. Some successful packing finished. And off for an early night (after I dye my hair) in preparation for tomorrow.

I hope everyone is prepared for the first Daft Family Adventure overseas. Dublin here we come!

We have a playgroup we go to on a Wednesday morning. It’s super tiny but really lovely. One of the ladies who run the group had sent me a message earlier on in the week asking us to bring in a decorated egg so the littlies could push them down a hill.

My Wednesday morning, after breakfast, was spent with Wee Daftie covering us both in Sharpie. And the egg. Mainly us though.

Hello? I can’t hear you. I’m talking on an egg!

Wee Daftie had a great time not rolling her egg anywhere. We all went out the back and the other little ones had a great time throwing, rolling, pushing, chucking their eggs about. Wee Daftie wandered around the garden, holding on to her egg and taking on of the volunteers for a walk. After about 10 minutes of this, she finally clicked on to the fact that the egg was actually a projectile.

Didn’t last long though before she went back to clutching her egg and exploring the garden.

And away she goes!

The Big Human’s mam came over for lunch so that they could spend time together after his big trip away and before we head off on Friday.

It was clearly super exciting for my little idiot as she had a mild aversion to sleep at her usual time so we went out for a bit Caboo walk after my Big Human drove his Mam home.

Moments after leaving the house.

Not even ten minutes down the road. The magical Caboo strikes again!

We went for a lovely walk for just over an hour, along the Crammond foreshore and around past the big supermarket. I have just worked out that I am able link my two favourite walks together into one fab big one which was an excellent discovery! It’s a flat walk, only one small incline, so it is perfect for walking with Daftie – Caboo or no Caboo.

Pretty blue sky, pretty glistening water, pretty excellent walk.

Steps hit before dinner, which was lovely as Auntie Numbnuts was coming for tea so it meant we were able to have a fun dinner together and some hanging out without unwalked steps looming above me!

3 more days to go! Horray!

Sorry to say but this will be short and sweet day.

My Big Human returned from his latest work trip this morning so a whole heap of nothing exciting happened today. Apart from his return that was exciting.

Wee Daftie was very pleased to have Daddy home and showed her appreciation by following him around the flat all day. It was actually really refreshing to see my little idiot dragging my big one around instead of me.

If you see this hand reach out, don’t trust it. You will be dragged in literal circles and be made to play ball forever. Forever. And then 5 more minutes.

Seeing as he’d been away for 2 months, my priority was for the three of us to have some nice relaxing time together. However, cancer doesn’t give you a day off just because your Big Human returns so I knew what I had to do.

While Daddy Daftie had some downtime, Wee Daftie and Not So Wee Daftie headed out for a big walk before dinner. We took a lengthened version of our usual pre-dinner walk and smashed through a whole heap of steps.

I still had a few to finish off after dinner so I popped out for a quick trip around the block.

More money raised for Cancer Research, more steps added to the grand total and my Big Human came home all add up to a very good day indeed!

Oh my goodness. Only 5 days left to go! This is incredible. Aaaaaand we broke the £300 mark last night, just after I posted the blog. Horray! Just five more days to get a few more donations and boost the total Total!

No reason to share this aside from it is hilarious. I sent the connecting video to my Mammy who in turn captioned it “Sleep Walking”. My Mammy is so clever.

So today the weather was meant to be quite nice again so I planned ahead, packed us a wee picnic and took us off for a walk along to Crammond.

I am getting really good at attaching her to my back these days.

We stayed at the grassy/beachy bit today rather than heading to the more woody/muddy bit that we traipsed through a couple of weeks ago with Auntie Numbnuts.

The walk along is pretty flat so it didn’t take long to get there at all. When there was a big space of grassy stuff, I set Wee Daftie free and we had a wander about.

The first thing she did was, literally, run for the hills.

She took the lead and I followed along. She took me by the hand and together we went up the grassy hill and along beside the road.

Today was another insight to the real tunnel vision she can have at times. On one hand, it was ace as she dragged us along a ditch. We have rules and we have things that we do/don’t want Wee Daftie to do but we also want her to explore and investigate and walk through ditches. She saw it, she climbed into it and dragged me along with her.

On the other hand, things were less fantastic when she really wanted to go trespassing in the golf course and I wouldn’t let her. I used my words to explain why we couldn’t but she only really had one word to say back to me and it was shrieked back to me “Noooooo!”

Ditch walking Daftie.

Luckily, the protest was short lived when I took her by the hand this time and ran us both back down the hill. We then found a bench and watched the planes go by while we had some of our picnic.

Speaking of aeroplanes, she has an amazing eye for spotting planes but also pointing them out and telling me that she was seen them. However, she calls them “Man.” I don’t think she’s ever seen Superman but she is definitely seeing “Boird! Man! Superplane!” Or not…

Uh oh. There’s a Daftie on my back.

Steps brilliantly achieved before we got home thanks to all the hill running and ditch walking. What more can we ask for?

Praise be for the clocks changing! Guess who didn’t wake up at 6am this morning? These Daftie Gals had a “lie-in” today. A lie in is a very different thing when you have your own Small Human to look after. You can still have them but they do tend to happen at a time when normal people get up.

I guarantee she’ll be up with the birds tomorrow.

Traditional Sunday morning breakfast in the Daft Family Household. Today’s flavour of pancake were blueberry and apple. Delicious!

It was another dry and bright morning so we went to the playground up the hill after brekkie. We took a slightly longer route together there as I had a letter to post. I was going to post it yesterday but I didn’t think there was a postbox on the way to Inverleith Park.

There are three.

At least I now know, right? Right.

Wee Daftie usually loves the swings but today she was happiest, you guessed it, climbing up and down the steps to the slide. Am I really that surprised? No. No I am not.

I love how independently minded toddlers can be. Nothing was stopping her from what she wanted to do. And what she wanted was to climb steps and not go down slides.

I promise you I’m not exaggerating when I say she sat here for 5 minutes, kicking the slide, chanting, “Ready…two…” and not going anywhere.

She did also love the tunnel.

After the park, we headed home for lunch, a lovely chat with her cousins and my sister and then Wee Daftie had her nap.

We finished off our steps with a walk before dinner. We took our usual route, just in reverse this time. All in all, a chilled out and successful day!

One week to go! Seven more days! And to celebrate that, Wee Daftie and I had a very active morning and then a supremely lazy afternoon!

The morning was bright and warm, with only a slight breeze from the wind. Perfect park weather.

I had promised Wee Daftie a trip to the slide earlier on in the week so it was just a matter of deciding which park we would go to this morning.

This is the playground closest to us. It’s really great but kind of on a hill and not very far from home. Which is generally a plus but not super useful when I need to walk as far as possible.

I also thought it would be fun to bring her favourite ball and playing ball on a hill with a toddler seems like a recipe for disaster!

Action shot!

Daftie invented an amazing new ball game. It took me a while to get a grip with the intricacies of the rules but it seemed to be a cross between rugby, football and yodelling.

Essentially, Daftie would walk around in circles carrying the ball and then shout, “Cassh!” The ball would then be flung forward, with both of us chasing it. If I got there first, I had to kick it to her. If she won, she would pick it up again and run in the opposite direction. I could win what I assume are bonus points when she would call, “Ready…two…” and I would have to kick the ball over her head.

Made sense to her!

Steps easily hit by the time we arrived home. Wee Daftie uncharacteristically fell asleep, and stayed asleep, in the sling so we had a late lunch when she woke up.

The TV isn’t often on in our house but every now and again, we have a snuggle and some Disney or the animated Julia Donaldson stories. My little idiot seemed a bit lethargic and snuggly after lunch so we cuddled up and watched a film together.

Super enjoyable Saturday. Now to try and have an early night to prepare myself for the clocks changing tonight. I say try. Not sure how successful I will be but I will definitely try!

We had a fairly standard Friday today. We were up bright and early, had breakfast and went to Monkey Music. I think I talk a lot about how much we both enjoy this class so I won’t harp on about it again.

Blurry action shot of the swiftest Small Human in town.

Let’s just say that Wee Daftie had a total blast. She was having so much fun running about at the end of class that I decided it would be unwise to put her straight into Caboo. Imagine if you will, an octopus fighting its way out of a straightjacket. That’s pretty much what it’s like trying to get Daftie into the sling when she has other ideas of what she wants to do.

So I decided we’d walk. I did put on the Caboo as I knew she wouldn’t make the whole walk home but I had no idea how far she’d attempt. Especially after her marathon step climbing exploits on Tuesday.

It may not look like much, but Wee Daftie happily walked from the white dot to the gold medal before asking for a carry. (and gapes – grapes – but I could only assist in one of those things)

Home in time for some stories, lunch and then our regular Skype with Nana and Papa. Daftie had a great time showing my Mammy her forehead, while claiming it was, in fact, boirdies. (It wasn’t. It was her forehead)

What do you do at the end of a busy day? You make muffins, of course! And then eat the batter.

Steps finished off in the house after I put Daftie to bed. Good day had by all. Now to try and not eat all the muffins we made.