Sunday, January 25, 2009
More role-play
Tasha: What do you need to ask Daddy?
Rosemary: I just need to ask Daddy.
Tasha: OK. Shall we call him on the phone?
Rosemary: No. Can I go upstairs to ask him?
Tasha: OK.
[exeunt, stage left]
Chris: Hello, Rosemary.
Tasha: Rosemary had something she wanted to ask you.
Chris: What did you want to ask me, Rosemary?
Rosemary: Daddy Pig?
Chris: Yes, Rosemary.
Rosemary: No, I'm Peppa Pig.
Chris: OK, Peppa. What did you want to ask me?
Rosemary: Daddy Pig. [points to Tasha] Is Fairy Godmother Mummy Pig?
Chris: Um. What? OK, yes.
Tasha: [rolls on the floor laughing for five minutes - much as Mummy Pig might do, in fact]
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Dorothy!
For some reason, Rosemary has taken to calling me Dorothy. Her pink spotty dog is called Toto and Toto is my dog, though Rosemary looks after him by sleeping with every night. Sometimes, she’ll use it to try to get me to stop lecturing her about something:
“So, Rosemary. Remember that, when you go to sleep, you’re not going to call out. You’re not going to get out of…”
“No, Mummy. You’re Dorothy.”
“OK. So, you mustn’t get out of bed. You mustn’t…”
“No, but you’re Dorothy!”
“OK. Well, Dorothy needs you to stay in bed and look after Toto. And you have to be quiet, so you don’t wake Toto up.”
Sometimes it’s easiest just to play along.
In an interesting development, apparently Chris is Charlie. We shall if this catches on.
Monday, January 12, 2009
“I tried to strangle a little girl”
This is what Rosemary announced to us over lunch today.
“You tried to what a little girl?”
“I was strangling her”
“Why did you do that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ah. Were you trying to give her a hug?”
“Yes, I was.”
“And you were hugging a bit too tight?”
“Yes, it was too tight and she cried.”
“Did you stop strangling her?”
“Yes, I did stop.”
“Did someone ask you to stop?”
“Yes, one of my ladies.”
A bit later, we decided on a few more leading questions.
“Did you play nicely with the other children?”
“You weren’t nice?”
“No.”
“Were you horrible?”
“Yes, I was horrible.”
“Why were you horrible?”
“Because I tried to strangle the little girl.”
In the end, Chris phoned the nursery school to check. Yes, she was trying to give a girl a hug and the little girl was getting upset and Rosemary didn’t realise. She let go as soon as one of the adults asked her to. And she played very nicely with all the other children. Phew!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Happy Birthday Daddy
Yesterday, we went shopping for presents for Chris. Of course, we had to get the obligatory cup, which Rosemary wants to buy for everyone's birthday, Christmas and Thursday afternoon. But, when we were in the RSPCA shop I suggested we go through to the book room to see if I could find any books for Chris. I thought she was just looking for books for herself in the children's section but, within about 10 seconds she'd come to me holding a small book. "Maybe Daddy would like this? I think he likes books like this one, doesn't he?" It was a small, thin book with the title Goblins Attack. While it is probably not anything he'd be inclined to read (as far as I know) I was so impressed that she recognised (presumably from the picture) that it was a genre that Chris enjoys, that I had to buy it.