Pretending

Me - Ella, the landlords are visiting on Saturday morning. You know what that means, don't you?
Ella - Yes. It means we have to pretend that we keep the house tidy.

Reading

A couple of weeks ago Ella started bringing readers home. It was a great moment when she read a book to me for the first time. And I loved listening to that hackled, stuttering reading without any intonation whatsoever. I could tell she was truly reading as opposed to having memorised it because she struggled with the word "here" on every single page.

She's been bringing books home regularly since and her reading is coming along in leaps and bounds. What a fantastic milestone! Even more fantastic because they don't really understand what a magical gift being able to read and write is. But she still enjoys it and feels very proud. So she should be being one of the first in her class to "get it".

But the proudest moment for me was when we were at the RSPCA the other day and she pointed out a sign with a cute puppy dog on it. I asked her to read the sign and after concentrating and sounding out the first word, she read: "Woof, woof, woof, woof".

Not exactly Dostojevski, but a huge step towards greater independence. If only all signs were in dog language, she'd be there already.

 

Honest

Ella - Mum, you know I love you for so many reasons. And one of those reasons is because you give me money and battegongs [= bakugans].

Things I would've never expected to hear my child say

Opening the front door for a friend last night:

Ella - Hi Mikki. [Casually] We're just killing some baby mice. Do you want to come see our other mice?

Child abuse

Ella had to take some medicine this morning. A powder consisting mainly of salt dissolved in a bit of water. She errggh-ed and yuk-ed for ages until I got fed up and walked out to get ready. When I came back the cup was empty and she was rummaging through the fridge to find her recess snacks.

Me - Ella, did you drink your ALL your medicine?
Ella - [silence]
Me - You didn't did you? Did you pour it in the sink?
Ella - No, I did not pour it in the sink.
Me - Did you drink it all.
Ella - ... Yes.
Me - I don't think I believe you. Tell me the truth Ella. Did you drink it or pour it out?
Ella - I did drink it.
Me - I still don't think I believe you.

And I had to leave it there because I could not prove that she was lying.

Fast forward to tonight.

Me - Ella, tell me honestly now, did you drink all your medicine this morning? I won't get angry if you tell me the truth.
Ella - No, I poured it out outside.

After that followed a few conversations about me not being able to believe her anymore now and that it would take a while before I could again.

Me - If you always tell me the truth every time now, I'll believe you again. But you must never lie. If I get cross over whatever it is you've done, so be it, you'll just have to deal with that.
Ella - But never hit me for no reason!
Me - [laughing out loud] Have I ever hit you? And for no reason? Imagine. 'Whack! What did you do that for? No particular reason.'

We'll see how we go with the lying. It's a tricky one. I always thought that lying should be regarded as worse than whatever they're trying to hide. But that implies that if they choose to tell the truth it cancels out the bad thing they're supposed to have done. It confuses me. So I think all I can do is appeal to her sense of morality... And develop a better bullshit radar!

Cancellation

I don't know where she gets these from...

Me - We have to go visit Kala (friend's dog) because she's very sick and she won't live for much longer.
Ella - Is her life going to be cancelled forever?

Staying alive

Ella - And mum, something important in life is...
Me - What?
Ella - ... that you still breath. You have to breath.

If it weren't for Ella's survival tips, I would've probably dropped dead by now.