Was playing and singing for Neve tonight (Simple Twist of Fate and Shelter from the Storm in an Open D tuning, if you must know) and she wouldn’t let me stop: “More ding-ding, my daddy!”
Author: alex
Neve nostalgia
Is beginning to bite already. She is so adorable and funny and loving at the moment and the emerging language thing just adds to the effect. I really hope I remember her in this phase.
Yesterday, she kept standing up on her chair during dinner and shouting, “that is tam-po-line” while pointing down the garden. Later, it was, “that is gonga click,” referring to the star hairclip she was wearing. At bedtime: “no giu, Daddy – sit here”.
Tell her we’re having pasta for dinner, or that we’re going out in the car and she’ll yell, “Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah” at a phenomenal volume.
There’s much more but, predictably, it fails to be recalled on request.
squashes and beans
Planted out the courgettes and cucumber in the bricked-in beds at the top of the plot. No support at the moment; must add some cane later for them to clamber up.
Planted out the beans: two rows of the Italian bean (Fiocco) and two rows of the French (Blue Lake).
Back in the greenhouse, I repotted several of the San Marzono and Inco tomatoes. Left some of them in the trays, as they were a bit small and, anyway, I have plenty.
Also planted the clematis down by the fence by Anabel’s house.
happay-doo
What a lovely chatty girl Neve is. “Happy Doo”, as she kept singing on her birthday. Complete with candle-extinguishing puff after the last line.
Other stuff that Neve says:
“ciao-ciao my daddy”
“no sit heeya daddy”
“daddy bear [beard] – yeeesss
Mummy beer – noooo
Lola beer – noooo
Me beer – nooo”
(many variations of the above)
“tedaaa!” (ie tadah!) – said when almost anything is accomplished or revealed, with accompanying open-armed flourish
“Shuuz daddy, on”
“up! daddy. up!” — telling me to get up (probably to giver her a snack
Daddy jump!
Nani! Nani here! [tapping pocket]
Mention the word aeroplane and she’ll stick her arms out and make engine noises.
Mummy na-na ba-BO! [if she sees Isa lying down. Also said of Lola, Daddy, whoever]
She gets excited when she sees Tony from next door. “Look: Tony! Tony!”
She’ll wave goodbye and shout, “ciao ciao!” to anyone who comes to (well, leaves from) the door.
She’s potty-trained now — has been since Good Friday, though the excremental aspect took longer to stabilise than the widdling, which was sorted by day two. She took the whole thing very seriously and got very upset when needing a poo. Not sure if that’s because she was more aware of the feeling and freaked out by it, or that she was frustrated trying to control the mechanics of it. Anyway, she has it now: “Papa’: cacca!” she said to me the other day. So I put her on the loo and she did a poo. Hurrah!
She loves jumping on the trampoline and is very good at it. A natural. She loves playing with her cuddly toys and especially, at the moment, the washable, vanilla-scented baby (“be’be'”), taking it everywhere, putting it to bed. She loves to eat (“yum-yums”, “‘nack!”, “wova!” [uova], “dabta!” [pasta, her favourite]) and gets very excited to see things cooking; loves to help Isa prepare stuff.
first courgettes planted in allotment
Planted three courgette plants in the allotment today (in the 1st bricked bed next to the old shed).
Strange to see the soil looking dark and moist after yesterday’s rain. That’s possibly the first real rain (more than a ten minute shower; and we’ve hardly had any of those) we’ve had for eight weeks.
Excitingly, I also witnessed a rat fight this morning: a big, healthy-looking pair of grey rats in the run between the neighbours allotment and the bramble patch.
Potatoes coming along well — almost as well as the weeds.
Gonga! Gonga!
We’ve finally worked out that “gonga” (most commonly heard as “gonga, gonga!”) Means star. Possibly from “twinkle, twinkle”.
Her word possibly started as “gonka”; not entirely sure.
more taties
Planted seven rows of Rooster this morning (second bed from back, left (2 rows) and right (5 rows)). Only 30 plants in all: they’re short rows.
Last of the purple sprouting
Land ahoy!
Well, soil at least. Inching past in a succession of barrows under the purported guidance of an increasingly stooped man. Yes, it’s the obligatory decking project — well, what else would you do with a sweltering bank holiday weekend?
We’re replacing the two walled flower beds outside the back of the house with a deck, and I’ve been barrowing the too-good-to-waste soil round to the allotment. Ouch. Actually, I started the week before the bank holiday — I bought an angle grinder and cut down the railings, then started removing some of the brickwork. Over Easter, I got pretty much all of the earth moved; with luck, this coming 4-day weekend will see me getting the foundings level and the frame started. There’s a bit of concreting to do, too — something else I’ve never done before.
Tony and Peter have been helping. Peter came round with a large percussive/rotary drill which drilled into concrete as if it were butter and got out one of the railing supports which was deeply concreted in. And Tony has been pondering ways to approach the construction and offering advice, much of which, if taken, would extend the job by some months, though it is generally good advice.
Of course, just doing the decking would have been too simple and relaxing, so we decided to use the same weekend to potty-train Neve. After all, there’s nothing better able to take your mind off the unstoppable momentum of a few hundredweight of soil than a hysterical almost-two-year-old running around clutching her bum and shouting “cacca!”
more potting
Planted crystal lemon cucumber seed in pots, one tray of Inca F1 plum tomatoes. And some chives between the garlic rows and in the side bed at the front.
It’s possible (he adds some months later) that this is also when I planted the french and italian beans (in pots).