Our place is a mess… I guess you could say we’re redecorating. Anyway, after about 5-6 days of not having her toys easily accessible, Thaïs got creative. Here’s what she did when she felt like going for a drive:
This is just one room… I’m too embarrassed to show you the rest, but they’re pretty much in the same state!
All that driving must have really tired her out…!
In an effort to encourage Thaïs to be independent, we had bought her a couple of plastic stools so she could reach the taps to wash her hands, brush her teeth, etc. by herself. Now I’m beginning to wonder about the wisdom of it all. Yesterday, when I realized that she had been missing for a while, I went around the house looking for her. I found her in the kitchen, standing on her stool at the sink. I had opened a new bottle of dish washing liquid the previous day. The level had now dropped to the half-way mark. There was a bowl in the sink. It had some a lot of liquid mixed with water and the scrub pad and sponge were soaking in it.
Me: Thaïs! What are you doing?
Thaïs: I’m washing my hands.
Me: With the scrub pad?
Thaïs: No… I was washing my bowl with that. The bowl was dirty, mummy… I’m just helping….
Well, I guess it’s the thought that counts!
There’s a new quiz show on TV. Actually I think it’s more like a competition where you have to send in the correct option by SMS. The question changes every week or so.
Last week’s question: ‘Which animal is also known as the Ship Of The Desert?’
The answers: 1) Horse 2) Ass 3) Camel
The first time Thaïs heard the options she was shocked. She knows ‘ass’ is on the list of ‘bad words that she must not use on other people’. Eyes wide, she asked, “Did he say ‘Ass’?”
“Yes, he did. But in this case it’s allowed because ‘ass’ is another word for ‘donkey’.”
“Okay,” she said, and there were no further comments.
The next time she heard the announcer she stood up and at the top of her voice she yelled out, “Option 1, Horse; Option 2, Ass; Option 3, ASSHOLE….!”
===000===000===000===
Another advertisement for designer bath fittings shows a man soaking in a tub, drink in hand. Then he gets out, wraps a towel around himself and walks past what I assume is a designer bidet and a designer commode. Thaïs watches the ad, then asks, “Now why didn’t he sit on the pot? Is he feeling shy?”
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!
I’m finally feeling well enough to post again. I’ve been down with the ‘flu for the last 4 days. With my clogged sinuses and throbbing brain, everytime I sat down in front of the computer it felt like my head would explode. In the midst of this all, I had my insurance exam to answer. How I managed I’ll never know, but I did and I’m glad it’s over. I should know the results in a couple of days, but if I don’t mention the exam again, you’ll know I failed it! 
And now, here’s something that happened yesterday:
I walked into the TV room where Thaïs and Mario were sitting and found Thaïs scowling and rubbing her eyes. I asked her what had happened.
“My eyes are burning. Daddy farted.”
A few seconds later my eyes started burning too. I’m not kidding. This really happened. It must have been some fart!
Thaïs: Look Daddy, I’m playing the piano with my foot!
Mario: Yes.. like Jerry Lee Lewis.
Thaïs: Who?
Mario: Jerry Lee Lewis.
Thaïs: Oh.
A little while later…
Thaïs: Look at me, Tana. I’m playing the piano with my foot… like… er… like… Jelly Loose!
Took Thaïs to her first carnival parade yesterday. She did enjoy herself for the first hour or so… until she began to feel sleepy and started dozing on Mario’s shoulder. Well, not exactly…
Unfortunately I lost all the pictures because of some problem with the memory card in the camera. That was so disappointing. There were some really good pictures in there. So much for Olympus xD picture cards. And I thought Olympus was a reliable name in the market… BAH! This is the second time I’ve had problems with the card. I formatted it the first time it happened and thought things would run smoothly. I guess I was wrong. I wonder if this sort of thing happens with all so-called brands? If not for my camera phone I’d have absolutely no photographic memories of this ‘mile stone’. The picture quality isn’t that great, but it’s better than nothing, I suppose 
Thaïs caught me putting away some er… unmentionables… the other day. OK… OK… they were sanitary napkins. “Whose are these?” she asked me.
“They’re mine,” I said.
She put out her hand. “Can I have one?”
Knowing full well that downright refusal would be a big mistake, I gave her one. She looked at it, turned it over and said, “But it’s… it’s like… a diaper! You’re using diapers!? Why? Because you’ll mess your pants?”
She had a good laugh after that.
Correction… we all did!
A few days ago I had to go into town to get some work done, and I decided I’d be able to get more done if I left the little one at home with Mario. So I waited for her to fall asleep in the afternoon and I slipped out.
Unfortunately, it took me longer than I had expected to complete all my chores and Thaïs woke up while I was still out. The first thing she usually does when she wakes up is look for me. And that’s exactly what she did. She poked her head into each of the rooms and bathrooms calling out to me and at the same time asking Mario where I had gone.
Fearing a tantrum, Mario told her I had gone next door and that I’d be back soon. Thaïs looked at him for a few seconds as if wondering whether to believe him or not. Then she went to the balcony and looked out.
She came back in. “She’s at the neighbor’s?” she asked Mario, double-checking.
“Yes,” he said.
“But she’s taken the car. It’s not outside… I think she’s at Grandma’s house…!”
(BTW, there was no tantrum. She played happily till I got back.)
I was clearing up Thaïs’ playroom yesterday and thought I’d ask her to help out. Now I do get her to clear up her mess occasionally, and she obeys, but on each of those occasions there had been just a few toys lying around so it wasn’t too daunting a task for her and she’d manage to get the room cleared up pretty quick.
Yesterday, however, was a different story. It seemed as though she had dumped the entire contents of her toy chest on the floor. And since she wasn’t playing in the room any longer, I thought I’d get the place cleared up. I groaned looking at the mess and decided to get my revenge. “Thaïs,” I called out. “Please pick up all your toys and put them in the toy chest. I’m coming back into the room after 10 minutes and I expect the mess to be cleared up. If I see any of your toys on the floor, I’m going to throw them out. Do you understand?”
“What? Throw them out? Where?” she asked.
“In the garbage.”
Her eyes widened in shock. “I’ll tell Daddy,” she threatened.
“Please go ahead. And while you’re at it tell him to come in here and take a look at this mess.”
She looked around the room. “Err… no. He’s busy. Don’t disturb him. But I need them… I’m still playing, Mummy.”
“You can’t be playing with all these toys at the same time. Come on now… start clearing up.”
After a little more coaxing she agreed to clear up the room. I went back after about 10 minutes. My dear daughter had indeed started clearing up. The only difference was, all the toys that had previously been on the floor were now piled up on the table, the couch, and her mini easy-chair. Her toy chest was still empty.
“But Mummy, you said no toys on the floor…!”
