Neve has contracted some random throwing-up disease. Every couple of days, she throws up once or twice. And she’s been complaining of an ouchy belly quite a lot.
She is remarkably good at throwing up: that is, she is not freaked out by it and just gets her bowl, throws up in it and then goes back to playing, or goes back to sleep. She does need someone to appear with a wipe to perform ablutions, but that’s it.
It has been going on for three or four weeks now, though. I wonder might it be symptomatic of something else.
Tag: neve
planting with Neve
Neve and I popped over to the allotment to plant some more seeds. She was very eager. We quicly dug over some of the unprepared land; enough to sow a row of (Boltardy) beetroot (next to potatoes) and a row of beet spinach. Then we sowed a couple of clumps of basil in the centres of the two fours of tomatoes. Then we went to get some water and Neve stuck her hand in some nettles – an incident which plauged her for the rest of the day. I showed her how to use dock to salve the sting.
Later we ate more of the earlies in a spanish omlette.
lullaby
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!”
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.
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.
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.
‘Warda, Papa: jarmas!
Says Neve, pointing at her pyjamas. And then, “Lola – jarmas,” pointing at Lola’s. She’s starting to string sentences together, often in a mix of english and italian. She might ask for help opening a cupboard (hol, papa – apri), or grab your finger and pull you to the bottom of the stairs to tell you that “mama up heeya!” Some sound she has yet to master. “c”, for example. If you take her out to common to witness the bovine phenomenon, she’ll point excitedly and shout, “warda! Hhow!”
sprung
Spring has, I mean. When I arrived in Italy, the cherry trees were bare; now they are full of blossom. The days have gone properly hot and you can sit outside in a t-shirt and be too hot. Hurrah.
I have a new pair of glasses, courtesy of Grazia who got me the eye-test and then the lenses and frames and, as usual refused any payment. She also gave Isa a pair of Galliano sunglasses and Lola a pair of funky pink ones. I did manage to pay for Cesarina’s new lenses (100 euros), but it’s not much of a victory.
In other news, Isa went out with Elena one night for a drink and a chat in Treviso; and she’s off out tonight with Susi and Grazia. Sunday, we’re off to the Grazia’s for lunch. Saturday we’re having hare for lunch, or dinner. Tuesday, we’re having Lola’s faux birthday party, as per her request, at which event we’ll cook Nonna’s goose. But only in the literal sense.
I bought a new DVD player for Dedi, to stop us going completely mad trying to get the old one to work. It has the added bonus of allowing you to plug in a USB stick and play video, music, pics. I may watch Young Frankenstein on it later.
I also turned the wireless network on on Giada’s router so now I can get proper InterWeb at Cesarina’s house. It reaches all the way to the kitchen, though the signal is a little weak (would be better if the router were in Morena’s front room). Had to move from WEP to WPA-PSK to be able to connect Dedi’s laptop, too, but that was a fairly minor bit of fiddling. I always thought a wireless net would be fine between the two houses; years ago they said they’d tried it and it didn’t work; perhaps it was some other aspect (than the signal reception) that was the problem.
What else? They’ve turned the fields next to Claudio into a Prosecco vineyard (except, it can’t really be Prosecco ‘cos we’re not in the right region). All owned by the guy down the road I once did some translation for.
Neve is just totally adorable. Lola is pretty adorable, too, but is getting a little spoilt and we’re probably being a bit too soft. Quindi: caprici.
There’s more… but it is failing to come to mind. That’ll be the wine, of which, of course, I am drinking a fair bit: I have my reputation to live up to, after all.
hee-ya
Lola, when just starting to speak, used to say “dis, dis” and point with her finger while her thumb stuck out at right angles to it.
Neve says, “hee-ya, hee-ya” while indicating the seat on which you should sit, or the plate which you should fill with food, or the shoes you should be putting on her feet. In fact, in the latter case, she would now say, “shuz, hee-ya” (I can’t quite get the phonetic rendering of her version of “shoes”: the vowel is somewhere between an “oo” and an “u”). And, if wanting second helpings, it would be “mo, hee-ya”. Of course we’re all saying it, Lola included.
Neve is utterly lovely — I wish I had more time to blog about her. Or, indeed, at all; with both Neve and a new house added into the mix, time has not been plentiful.
Neve is very independent these days. She loves to have company but will happily play by herself while someone is around. She’s gotten more into her cuddly toys and dolls recently and will often be found walking around with one or more in her arms. Or she’ll be taking care of her baby, or on of the rag dolls (Alba or Aurora); maybe putting a nappy on or putting it to bed.
She loves to climb up on chairs to get to stuff and will drag or push one into place to reach the worktop or the sink or whatever. She’s mad keen on the sink and will spend ages “washing up”: filling things with water, emptying them into each other, refilling them.
Often, she wakes early and I’ll take her with me, still in her sleeping bag, to make the morning drinks. She’ll help me open the fridge, take her milk out and unscrew the lid, help hold down the coffee dispenser while I fill the moca, get her bottle from the cupboard, remind me to get the echinacea… It’s a great ritual.
slightly less delightful
In the meteorological sense, that is: it started to rain as I stepped out this morning. Neve and Lola remain as delightful as ever. Though Isa may not be agreeing at present as Neve woke at 06:00 this morning and would not be cajoled back to sleep. And, by the time I left at 06:40, Lola was also awake (Neve having kindly taken her her rice milk. It’s going to be a long day…
Neve can now say, “Mama,” and “Dada,” and “Lola” — the latter in her own special way which I am unable to transliterate. She also, like Lola before her, like to do “Cheers!” (“chszz”) with her beaker. Seems quite civilised, you might think, until you see her grabbing fistfuls of
cottage pie and smearing the contents in and around her mouth.
Hearing her shout for her food is quite something. If the food is not ready when she expects it — say you put her in her chair and then go to dish out her food — she’ll be shouting Mama or YumYum and jumping up and down making excited noises. Much delay and she’ll be crying, shouting. During a meal, every time something new is brought to the table she’ll be pointing excitedly, wanting to try. If it’s something she knows she likes, the excitement is intense. When she finishes and wants more, she’ll hold out her empty bowl: “yum-yum, yum-yum!”