Three-word sentences

She now says
"I like (s)nack!" - I think this was her first three-word sentence as spoken to me (and therefore official).
"Nana make huu-huu." (susu, milk)
"Mama make umm."

Are you spotting a pattern?

She's definitely picking up more words now. She can finally say 'Amy' to Amy at nursery, although Tarnya says she still won't say it when Amy asks her to. I think she's picked up daddy's clever knack of winding people up. She says things like 'Martha's pushchair' - actually 'ma-aa ush air' but close enough.

And she still orders me to 'Mama, dat dere' as she pats the sofa. (As in sit on that there piece of cowhide, mama.)

Izzy's little loves
She loves Felix. She luuurves little Felix. Half the time the sentences she volunteers to me concern Felix. 'Lick-lick aa-aa, Mama. Ra-ra aa-aa.' Which translates as Felix and Tara said 'Aa-aah' in nursery today. And if you ask 'Oh, were they being little monkeys?' She happily nods yes. Sometimes on the way to nursery I hear a forlorn sigh, then a plaintive 'Lick-lick, Mama... Lick-liiiick.' So funny.

She's also started to try to sing a bit. She can definitely do the 'quack quack' bit in Five Little Ducks but recently when I've sang Baa Baa Black Sheep, she'll try to sing the first line too. And she'll kind of mutter bits of set-set-set to herself. 'Se-se-se... bom bom... onnne, twooo, boom!'

And to my surprise the other day, when I was counting fingers with her, she volunteered the numbers four, eight and nine before I said them aloud. In the right places too. Wow. She IS a genius.

20 mths+

Carseat palava
I know it's been a while since I've blogged and that's because nowadays I try to get about eight hours sleep which is hard because our daughter doesn't seem to require many more than 10 hours each night! The upshot of it all is that I've now 90 per cent decided we are going to move to be closer to work. This has partly been because, until I started bribing (reinforcing good behaviour), we were having twice-daily battles to get her to into her car seat. Ha, I say we but I mean ME.

Alex did help one day by playing the good cop when I threatened to leave her at home (ie saying 'OK baby you stay at home with Daddy, alright?' which he knew would make her wail and cry for me).

Anyway the bribing worked brilliantly. I offered her M&Ms if she would get in and she not only got in, she got in herself! Ever since then, she only has to catch sight of the little bag in the car to climb into the seat, it's fantastic. I think she's even learned to count to three because that's how many she can have and she usually knows to hand the bag back after three. (I usually wait for her to eat them so she doesn't choke, mom.)

I've also found out her favourite colour is nannow (yellow) because when there's a choice she will only eat yellow ones. More recently I think she just likes the thrill of running her hands through them. Part of me hopes she gets sick of them so she's not eating M&Ms most days. Part of me worries how the heck I'm going to get her to sit down if the bribe loses its efficacy.

Part of the problem is that she wants to drive the car of course, which I usually let her do, for about 15 minutes when we first get in, on the way home, and part of it is that she wants to sit in the big people's seats. Not in her car seat. God only knows why when her seat can recline so far for her to snooze! She can now put a seat belt on if you pull it out for her, and put the key into the slot. I only hope we get a car requiring a security number before her feet reach the pedals.

Home sweet home
Our lives have pretty reasonably totally changed in that a hot day out on the weekends for me now is walking down the high street and maybe picking up something new for the garden. Our oriental salads are coming up a treat and the lettuce Alex planted is turning a deeper shade of green, even if it doesn't appear to be growing any new leaves (garden centre plants, eh?)

But slugs decimated my beautiful pea shoots and as revenge today I planted a beer trap. I only hope it works otherwise I'm sure the courgettes will go next. I've also put down broken egg shells around the plants. Am considering moving everything back into pots and going on a super terracotta pot-buying spree. Anyone got more suggestions? Don't really want to resort to slug pellets yet.

Yes, the gardening bug has bitten so bad that I am considering making raised beds at the entire end of the garden and actually going to collect the advertised free manure from some stables nearby to put in it. Only the certainty that Izz will throw herself in the horse crap as soon as we put it down is stopping me from doing this. Am certain it would benefit the five or so tomato plants we have though.

The second part of my plan for domestic goddessness is also proceeding afoot ie training Izzy to do the housework before she realises it's work haha. I bought one of those Pledge dusters a few weeks ago, must really remember to break them out for her to er play with. Show me a happier maid.













Uh oh her highness, having woken thoroughly from her nap now is demanding we go downstairs. I think it might be time for dinner (rice, peas and steamed egg tonight as poor daddy is at work). Back later.

Quick guide to other pictures:












Boo does Japanese tourist look, harasses daddy on walk by the river, insists on opening the front door herself.





.







Is getting into cooking, haha. Pours about five packets of pork into the shopping basket (never taking her shopping after work again, too high a rise in blood pressure) - Uncle Qiang would be so proud of her inherent Chinese nature. Insists on helping me pound toasted sesame seeds for current Japanese food phase - then pours cup of water into pestle, ruining seeds.













Demonstrates her Iron Chef technique with wooden knife and velcro veg.










Boo at her own cooking range, with pots and pans from Ikea - so cute! Now also insists on buttering and marmite-ing own toast.










Rolls around on ground with boyfriend Sam. ("Ham, mama, haaam.") Rolls around ground by self in tantrum over too big sunhat. Generates plenty of laughs from passers-by, only shamed into standing up by laughs from neighbour and peer Daira.










Is trapped by evil daddy in playground apparatus.

About Alan Johnston
I know this is baby's blog but every little...