beckity

The memorable moments of my life, no, the testing times of my life, I have anchored with references that will always whisk me straight back to that moment. Ten days before my 21st birthday - the sudden death of my beloved Nangran. I can picture the box room of my university shared house. Sitting at the desk, bursting into tears, the draining and sudden shock of the knowledge I would never see her again. Eight weeks after the birth of my first baby - the calm voice of my mum telling me her leukaemia diagnosis. Sitting again, following instructions, in the flat we rented at the time, shaken and dizzy. The horrifying prospect of having to navigate my new role as mummy without the steadying presence of my own. When Dadd outlined his own medical challenge, prostate cancer, 95% chance, biopsy results soon, the most common form of male cancer, very early, treatment options, I was already marking the spot, holding on to the moment - one week before my second baby's second birthday. ...

It's pretty amazing when a baby starts doing things that indicate it will not stay a slobbering short-sighted wailer forever. Sitting up, rolling over, crawling, walking... they are all greeted with pride and wonder, but discovering language has to be the most exciting development of all. Seeing a child grasp the power of words, even before she has many, is just awesome. Molly is nearly 21 months old and words are finding more and more importance in her world. She has her favourite labels for her favourite people. Mama! Tata! Elzie! But she has also mastered the art of copying sounds. Molly, can you say sausage? Sausssesh! What about chicken? Shikken! The truly incredible thing though is seeing how Molly is making sense of her trilingual context. We are so used to Elsie switching from one language to another - coming home from school and carrying on her play in French, then welcoming her Daddy home in Polish and telling me about her day in English. With Molly though, at...

It's our pride and joy. It's what we spend much of our time talking about, planning and experiencing. No, not the kids, the garden. 13 September 2013 13 September 2014 13 September 2013 13 September 2014 13 September 2013 13 September 2014

Molly is 18 months old. She has burst into our lives and made us sit up and take notice. Molly has a new word. She could have chosen no, non or nie. Instead she found her own way of telling us to get lost. Nuurr. 'Come on Molly, time for a new nappy!' I say, cheerfully. 'Nuurr!' comes the response, followed by a cheeky grin. 'Time for your pyjamas Molly', we coax. She looks at us with a degree of pity in her gaze. 'Nuurr' she disagrees, confirmed with a strong shake of the head. 'Molly, come and brush your teeth.' Marek suggests, showing her the brush. Molly flashes us a big smile and runs to the opposite end of her bedroom. 'NUURR' she shouts, ending with a squeal. The next six months could be fun...

'Fankoo mummy' says Elsie quickly, not paying attention. 'THank you' I correct, exaggerating the amount of tongue between my teeth. 'Th, th, th' I repeat. Elsie brings her lip under her top teeth. 'Fffffffff' she says. 'Fffffffank you.' I try again. 'Stick your tongue out.' Elsie obliges. 'Now trap it between your teeth. Th, th, th...' Elsie gives it a go, but once she starts to think about the word and not her tongue in a strange place in her mouth, her old habit creeps back. 'Fank you!' 'Try again Elsie, tongue between your teeth.' I encourage. She's done it before, why has she forgotten? Elsie is bored with this exercise, and suddenly an idea strikes. 'Dziekuje!' she says brightly, her eyes shining with her brilliance.

A year ago, the view out of our window looked like this: I just took this picture out of the window - exactly one year on. It's a pretty radical transformation when the two images are put together like that. Very cool. You know what the other cool thing is? It's exactly three years since Mum had her stem cell transplant. The fact that she is still around to witness our taming of the wilderness outside and my descent into full-blown infatuation with gardening and generally growing things, makes our successes all the sweeter. Two other things that have grown like weeds since this time last year are also celebrated on this day, Dzien Dziecka, or children's day. It's not a Belgian holiday but celebrated in Central and Eastern Europe: it's a communist hangover but I like it. Then: Today: It makes me so happy seeing these two growing up and growing together. The whole job of preparing little people for life is a daunting busin...

'Mummy?' 'Yes, Elsie.' 'Look at those flowers.' 'Where?' 'Those two. They're cuddling each other.'