The amusing thing about Wee Daftie’s very early risings at the moment is that she did the exact same thing this time last year.

I say amusing, I mean interesting as it is definitely getting less funny every day. I generally pride myself being a pretty laidback human but I did find myself very much on the wrong side of bed this morning. Not connected to anything in particular but I hard running on a short fuse when I have to keep it all together for the sake of my Small Human.

A cereal stealing Small Human at that.

Fortunately for me, and the grey grumps above my head, we had plans in the morning to meet up with a couple of Mammy Mates and their wee ones at softplay.

We went to the one up at the Commonwealth Pool, which we had never been to before. It’s always fun exploring somewhere new. It’s a bit of a distance away for us but Wee Daftie loves a good bus so we sat at the back and pointed at all the cars and buses that we passed along the way.

First we play, then we dine, now we hide!

After lunch, we took a gigantic walk home. Once upon a time, my girl would sleep for hours in Caboo. These days, she will only fall asleep if she is properly tired and it’s never for long. Still, I wanted to get as many of my steps in as possible on the walk home so I figured we’d see how far we got before we might need to take a bus.

We made it all the way home (with a short stop for cake).

Not going to lie, I am very proud of my effort today. Not only did the epic walk smash my steps, it also completed changed my mood. As did the gorgeous chat with one of my Mammy Mates, who walked most of it with us.

The day started off super rubbish but ended so nicely. Her wee face though. It’s enough to get anyone through a bad day.

Let’s just hope for a lie in tomorrow!

Happy Mother’s Day! Last year, I wrote a long and embarrassing (for her) Ode to my Mammy because she is literally and figuratively the best. Honestly, I could, and would, happily write the whole piece again but I think I’ll give her a break this year.

Though, just so you know, she is amazing and I wouldn’t be me without her. Today though, I thought I would talk about my second favourite Mammy. Me! What? As RuPaul always says, “If you can’t love yourself, how can you love any body else?”

My Small Human. Not pictured are her tiny fingers poking me in the belly.

Mother’s Day is important to me. I mean, I am more than a Mammy. I am still a friend, a daughter, a sister, a “girlfriend”, very employable and routinely hilarious but I definitely love this role. It’s been over a year and a half now and, despite all the challenges, I think it’s a good fit. I didn’t think I’d hate it but you never know how you are going to react to a situation until you are in it.

The main reason why this day means something to me is due to the unconventional nature of my relationship with my Big Human. We don’t have an anniversary. We have no idea what date we could even pretend was the start of who we are. We could make one up but that would be weird. What we do have, however, is a glorious little person that we made together and are raising together.

Wee Daftie is not the reason we are together by any stretch, but her arrival certainly pushed us both onto the same page. We went from super casual to full-time family in a matter of weeks. And it’s awesome.

So, for me, Mother’s Day is not really about me necessarily but celebrating that yes I am a Mammy and I get to do the Mammy thing with my best friend as my parenting partner.

My Humans. They’re pretty great.

Unfortunately, my Big Human is still away with work. He’s been away for about 6/7 weeks now (I’ve lost count) so we weren’t able to spend today together but he did manage to send some tulips and gin. What a fella.

Flowers and sweet potato and cacao pancakes for breakfast. A good start to anyone’s day!

Daftie woke up really early again this morning and just wanted to spend the morning reading books. Which, being that I get up when she does and I’m not a fan of 5am, was a-okay with me!

She has started this really cute thing where she’ll suddenly say, “Bedroom!” and start walking towards our room. When we get there, she wants lifted up so that we read books, snuggled up on the bed. All the books. Repeatedly. It’s very sweet. And a super relaxing way to spend a morning.

Bet you wish you are as cool as me.

After lunch and a mega nap, her not me, we took a huge walk. After the grim and grey foggy morning, the afternoon was a gorgeous warmth and brightness in the air. We knocked out 7,000 steps in just over an hour so I finished off the rest of the steps at home after bedtime.

What a day!

Happy Mammy’s Day to all the Mammies out there doing their thing. My Mammy is still the best. Sorry. But really, not sorry. Cos she is.

So before we go any further, I want to be honest.

As much as humanly possible, I want to achieve my steps by walking outside, taking adventures and travelling about with Wee Daftie. The thing I need to be honest about is today, I had little to no motivation for walking outside. And there were three very important factors.

1) Wee Daftie had an unsettled night last night. Poor dote woke up twice by 2am and then had a big bout of sleep crying at 4:50am. It took a while for us both to settle back down again so by the time we got up properly, I was already knackered!

2) It has been steadily and unrelentingly peeing down from the heavens all day and I do not like walking in the rain.

3) Six Nations Rugby. My beloved Ireland against my former future husband, Greg Laidlaw, and the rest of the Scottish team. The match was being shown roughly in the ballpark of naptime so I knew there was no way I would make it out anywhere until the match was over!

As a treat after our not so amazing night’s rest, I made us a yummy and healthy smoothie for breakfast. And yes. That is her hairbrush. And no. I can’t explain it either!

Despite the continuous rain, I knew I was important for us to get a bit of fresh air so I decided we should take a trip to Ocean Terminal. We didn’t really need anything picked up but it’s big space full of escalators so I knew Wee Daftie would have a great time. The plan was, I would strap her into the Caboo, walk as far along the way as possible and then catch a bus if the weather became too much.

Warm and dry before we left the house. We did not look this pristine when we arrived home.

In between running up and down the escalators and trying to visit every shop, we discovered there was this group from Ayrshire with a whole bunch of owls. Like a petting zoo but with only one kind of creature. Wee Daftie was utterly fascinated. It was a bit surreal to have these 7 or 8 small “ow-wuls” randomly flapping around Ocean Terminal but it was also such a joy to see her so enthusiastic.

Weirdly, I was actually pregnant when this happened. I just didn’t know it at the time! That was a good day.

Once we arrived home and had lunch, Wee Daftie had her nap and I watched the rugby. It was great. It was even greater when she woke up in time for one of Ireland’s tries and cheered. Admittedly, she probably was cheering because I was cheering but I like to believe she knows class when she sees it!

Wee Daftie and Turbo’s homage to Dirty Dancing. I would make the obvious “Nobody puts Baby in the corner!” joke but I wouldn’t want to be predictable.

Steps bolstered with a living room dance party (Langhorn Slim will always get her moving. It is hilarious) and then finished off with Leslie Sansone after Wee Daftie’s bedtime.

Another successful day. Fingers crossed for sunshine tomorrow!

Some days, like last Thursday and Friday, don’t go to plan. And then some days, like today, are so much more than what you had planned.

Last Friday, the snow disrupted our usual class and scuppered a planned walk with one of my Mammy Mates and her little boy. Today, however, the sun was shining, the air was dry and we had a full day of fun planned!

Bus selfie!

Every Friday, since my Wee Daftie has been 3 months old, we have gone to Monkey Music. It’s a great music class which is so much more than just singing rhymes and doing actions. The beginner baby classes focus a lot on hand eye coordination, tracking, social interaction and then as they get bigger, they learn about rhythm, stopping and starting, high and low, so many wonderful things. It’s been a class she has enjoyed since we first started and still likes it today.

After running about the class like an idiot, clapping her hands like a pro and banging her drum like Animal, we set off to the Botanic Gardens for a wander and catch up with my friend that I missed seeing last week. (Darn you snow! *Shakes fist towards the sky*)

We had a really lovely afternoon. The weather was perfect for walking, nice and warm, no horrible breeze knocking Small Humans over into mud – though they both managed to do that all on their own – and plenty of sunshiny goodness.

Wee Daftie made friends with more birds today. No swans this just but lots of ducks and one sweet little robin.

What made today so lovely, was watching Wee Daftie chat with her pal. They were far too adorable. There was an amazing moment when her pal was lagging behind so Wee Daftie turned round to him, held out her hand and told him to catch up.

Now. She obviously didn’t those use exact words. She kind of just said, “Glah jah bluh eh.” but I like to think she was more eloquent. Whatever she said, he understood and came trotting up to take her hand.

Ridiculously cute.

Speaking of cute, check her trying to take her cardigan off. It did not go well.

After a fab walk, a lovely lunch and some of the sweetest toddlers chat you’ll see today, my girl and I set off for home. We walked halfway home and managed to hit our target by the time we reached the front door. Total success and, for once, totally to plan! (With added toddler brilliance)

Happy International Women’s Day!

Women are awesome. I should know. I am one. And what better way to celebrate women than by taking your toddler to the dentist!

I’m still frequently amused by the fact that I do things like this now. I mean, it’s one thing to take Wee Daftie to a mums and tots group or one of her classes or meeting up with my Mammy Mates for coffee and play. It’s quite another to be doing proper parenting things like dentist appointments, doctor’s visits, thinking about schools. Makes me feel like a proper grown-up! Almost.

Today I will mostly be wearing as many ugly patterns as I can muster and a Small Human on my back.

We walked to the dentist in gorgeous sunshine this morning. It’s so crazy to think that this day last week I was trudging through the snow, battling winds and scooping Wee Daftie’s boots out of the snow when she “accidentally” kicked them off. Today I had sunglasses on! Beautiful walking weather.

After the quick visit, in which my girl was fantastic – totally unphased by some man poking about in her tiny mouth – we went for a wander down the Waterfront again. This time, there was no snow or frozen patches of water. There were however swans!

Wee Daftie had a grand old chat with the bigger of the two “Ducky!” before we headed home for lunch.

I carried her to the appointment so that we would make it on time but we walked home together. She did so well. I’m always impressed and surprised by her stamina. She’s only wee but we walked, albeit slowly, for the best part of an hour and she only asked to be carried once. The weather was lovely and we were in no hurry so it was an absolute pleasure to have a dawdling walk home.

Our evening walk was a simple affair down the pier.

The wind was barely blowing and the sun was low and warm. The buoys and boats were bobbing on the gently rippling sea. It was perfect evening walk and we hit our steps before we made it home. Delightful.

This International Women’s Day, I choose to celebrate the women of the future. And this little woman in the making has a bright one ahead of her.

Every Wednesday, we go to a little playgroup just up the road from us. Every Wednesday, I get us up, strap her into her trike and we head up for a couple of hours play.

As much a I love my Caboo, the playgroup is up a really steep hill and pushing her in this is infinitely easier. I can carry her for literal miles but hills are such a bugger!

It’s a tiny group. The first three weeks we went, there was only the two of us and the volunteers! In general though, there are about 5-6 families who we regularly see and Wee Daftie has left quite an impression on the volunteers. I think Margaret is her favourite though. Wee Daftie routinely walks up to her, takes her hand and leads her on a little tour of the room. The second poor Margaret sits back down again, over she runs to start the game again.

After playgroup, we took a big, long walk home. One thing occurred to me today as I was working out the longest route home. It is so nice to be doing my best to find the longest way home. Or which bus stop is furthest away. So often we all look for the fastest path or the shortcut or easiest route. None of which is bad but there’s been something really enjoyable about taking the long round.

We finished off our steps with a pre-dinner walk. Someone had eaten all the blueberries so we needed to pick up some fruit for tomorrow’s breakfast. Can’t think who could have eaten all the blueberries…

Here we have a Small Human on the search for Booblees. She first stalks her prey by sneaking up to their natural habitat, the fridge, shouting “Booblees??” at anyone who will listen.

Then she will look willfully at the nearest Mammy she can, repeating the call, more earnestly now, with added gesturing and pointing, “Booblees?”, hoping that her hypnotising calls will lure the Mammy into helping with the hunt.

The hunting ritual usually ends with the long suffering Mammy relenting and producing said “Booblees”.

Like a sucker.

Much like yesterday’s unique take on softplay, this morning’s venture to the National Museum was also an unusual success.

It wasn’t the first time we’ve been, it won’t be the last, and we did have a great time while we were there. I just couldn’t tell you one solitary thing about the exhibits as all my Wee Daftie wanted to do was climb up and down the staircases. I enjoy how independently minded she is but 20 minutes of climbing up and down the same 30 steps isn’t as exhilarating as one may think.

She had a great time though, despite a couple of odd looks from Non Daftie Wranglers.

Once I finally dragged her away from the stairs, we had a run about in the learning zone. It’s a really lovely space for kids to interact, play and learn. Last time Auntie Numbnuts took her, she had a ball running over the musical flooring but this time, she was fascinated with the big Chinese dragon on the wall. She loved turning the handles and watching him jig about a bit.

Cotton dress and wellies, all set for Glastonbury!

After we had exhausted ourselves, I treated us to lunch out. There’s a fab cafe called Hula that does really yummy healthy food. We shared a portion of puy lentil soup, a super green chia seed smoothie and some sourdough with hummus and roast veggies. Well. The plan was to share but I’m pretty sure she had 90% of the soup and more than half of the smoothie!

She really does love to share food. And by share I mean take and not give anything back.

We finished off our steps with another pre-dinner walk. The majority of the day had been a bit dreich (my favourite Scottish word. It is glorious) but the evening was dry so we did a lap and hit our target, just in time for dinner. Result!

Some days, you gotta do what you gotta do to get things done. As much as humanly possible, I want to set aside time in my day for walking these steps as I think it’s important to take the challenge seriously. It’s good for me, it’s fun for Daftie, it feels like I’m fundraising well and it’s nice to walk with purpose, even if it’s only around the block.

There will be some days where we have classes to get to, playgroups to attend, washing to do, food shops to get done so I may not have the luxury of heading out for a nice big walk during the day. Today, for example, I had a few things to do around the flat and we were meeting one of my Mammy Mates and her little one for softplay in the morning. Now. Don’t get me wrong, softplay with Wee Daftie is a workout all on its own but I chose further bus stops both there and back just to make sure I was giving it my all!

Not content with merely stealing my breakfast, she also took my spoon. Beware of a dual wielding Daftie.

We often visit this particular softplay on a Monday morning as it’s usually nice and quiet. Well. Quietish. No venue aimed at Small Humans could ever be called quiet.

This morning was pretty manic though. We reckoned everyone else was also escaping the cabin fever of the stormy weekend by letting the littlies blow off some steam.

My Wee Daftie had a great time ignoring all the ball pits, slides, climbing apparatuses in favour of running about the tables and chairs. Luckily, her wee pal was more than happy to play chase so the two of them ignored the point of the building and made their own fun running about in circles.

Maybe next time I’ll just bring her to an empty warehouse.

Poetry in motion!

After a really fun morning, a good lunch and an hilarious event when Daftie insisted we went and read books in bed (at 2:30pm), we had another little walk before dinner to finish off the steps today.

I’m really enjoying our little post-nap/pre-dinner walks at the moment. We just took my favourite circuit, her tucked up and chatty in the sling. It’s such a simple pleasure and I hope we can keep them up after this month is over. Steps done. Now just to decide what we do tomorrow!

Homemade chilli and rice for dinner tonight, delicately scooped into her half empty yoghurt pot and then funnelled into her gob. So gross. So weird. So clearly my Wee Daftie…

That awful Small Human of mine decided that it was appropriate to lick my nose this morning. I had scooped her out of her bed, taken her sleepy bag off, helped her carry several stuffed toys into the living room when she looked at me with her big blue eyes, stuck out her little pink tongue and made purposeful contact with the tip of my nose.

I have never heard her laugh so much. What kind of monster am I raising?

The weather being what it is, I decided we were better to head out earlier in the day. So once we finished our pancake brekkie – apple and blueberry – I got us both dressed, bundled her up into her splash suit, boots, hat and almost onto my back when that familiar sense of foreboding descended upon me. Yup. The unthinkable had happened.

One of the most time consuming things about toddlers is getting them dressed. Worsened only by adding in a nappy change.

A more successful take two!

Once we had undressed and redressed, we took a wander out over to Victoria Park.

It’s really lovely big space that has two playgrounds and plenty of room for a Wee Daftie to chase after doggies and shout at boirdies. It’s about a 30 minute walk away but I made the walk longer by following my instinct to walk a path I hadn’t been down before.

Despite the fact I had no idea where we were going, I trusted the signposts along the way, my feet to carry us and the fact that my sense of direction actually isn’t terrible.

And I am so glad we ventured down this way! It was so beautiful. The path was perfectly clear, the embankments each side were covered in gorgeous white snow, wintery green ivy and perfectly felled tree stumps.

Daftie really, REALLY, enjoyed shouting down the big tunnel we walked through. The poor man walking his dogs ahead of us kept turning round to see what was going on. Sadly, he didn’t actually see the tiny person I had strapped to me until I overtook him so I’m pretty sure he thought some utter psychopath was trundling along after him.

We were joined in the park by one of Wee Daftie’s Official Unofficial Aunties.

This gang of glorious gals are my sisters in Edinburgh. I don’t get to see my two amazing actual ones as often as I’d like so I am so thankful to have these other awesome ladies around as much as I do. Both my girl and I are better for having them in our lives.

After a good run around the park, a cheeky coffee and some epic stair climbing at my American Sister’s house, we absolutely smashed our steps target well before we made it home in time for lunch. Result!

Four days done, 27 to go!

Look at how pretty they are! Perfect breakfast of champions. Well, Dafties.

We took the opposite approach to yesterday’s walking and went out at the earliest opportunity, rather than the latest. (Technically we did both but that’s neither here nor there)

We could have waited another day to go and pick up a couple of essentials but then I remembered that I always make pancakes on a Sunday so figured I should probably get more milk. What would a Sunday be without pancakes? Exactly. Pointless.

We had much more success getting her onto my back this morning. It was almost flawless! (Until her hat fell off)

I have been a Sling Mammy since before she was born. I just knew it would suit me to carry her – and I am so thankful it suits her too! It makes shopping trickier as I realistically can’t carry that much as I am not, in fact, a pack horse. But it has given us so much freedom. And it is a heck of a lot easier on the bus!

Peek-a-boo!

We clocked up a good chunk of steps by just trekking out to get milk, bread and blueberries. (Booblees?)

Another soupy lunch, more running about the flat chasing a multitude of balls, a big nap (her, not me) and then out for another walk before dinner.

Seems the good folk of Granton were feeling creative today!

Daftie started out walking with me this evening. We went out the back, had a good rummage through the snow, shouted at the “Boirdies!” for a bit and then headed off down the road.

Now. I do pride myself on having a good stock of patience within me but it does take a lot of strength of character trying to coax your Small Human away from only wanting to walk back and forth across the street. There were piles of snow, some cleared bits of pavement, a weird wee paved ramp leading up to an apartment block. But no. She just wanted to walk through the gross slushy, blackened driven snow. Odd creature.

Cannot breathe for laughing. That face though.

Reached the 10,000 mark on the walk back to the flat for dinner. Get in!

Three for three. On a roll!