Thaïs is normally extremely polite. She says ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ with no hesitation. Getting her to say ’sorry’, however is another matter entirely. It takes a lot of coaxing which sometimes doesn’t work. So we just threaten her . Unfortunately for us, she is not easily scared. Needless to say, we’re still working on that one. The coaxing, I mean.

Another thing we’ve been trying to teach her is to not interrupt people when they’re talking. To be fair, we have had some success on this front.

Here’s what happened yesterday. Mario and Thaïs were arguing about something. Mario said something to her, she said something back to him, and it went on. Suddenly she wags a finger in his face and says, "Daddy, stop talking. Don’t interrupt me. I’m talking now. Wait till I finish."

Practise what you preach, Mario.

The best part of it all? She’s only three years old!