Travelling in the car along the motorway, Georgia remains unusually silent for quite a while, and then she asks
G: Mum, do you know what police dogs do?
Me: Hhmmm….what do they do?
G: They look for bad people, thieves and all that, by smelling them.
Me: Oh, do bad people smell different?
G: I DON’T KNOW – but dogs can smell them!
So there you are – bad people, you’d better behave – Police dogs can smell you.
As we had a couple of minutes before getting ready for bed, I offered to read Georgia a story. Any story that she wanted. So she picked up the Monsters Inc. Guide, turned to the front page and this is what we read….
As we get to the bottom of the page, she notices the scrawled signature by Henry J. Waternoose, President & CEO, Monsters, Inc. Curious she asks,
G: What’s that? (pointing to the signature)
Me: That’s called a signature. It’s a special way of writing your name, so only you can do it.
G by now looking dubious, looks at the signature again, then points to it and says,
“But anybody could copy that!”
Now that I’ve told you about our policy of ‘No can’ts‘…
Picture this, it’s peak time, rush hour in London, and we (Georgia and I) are rushing to our train on the Underground (Tube).
I’m loaded with a gi-normous hand bag, containing all accounts of pointlessness, I’ve a large scooter on a shoulder strap on the same shoulder as my handbag.
In my other hand I have a large shopping bag, and because we stopped off at the British Museum, where G made a kite (of willow and craft paper), we have that too – all 3 feet of it!
And then we arrive at the never-ending escalators, except of course, there aren’t just 3 people on it (like in the picture) it’s teaming with suits and ties, fashionistas and tourists!
And because I’m out of hands, our conversation goes something like this…
Me: Right, you hold on to your kite and the hand rail and step on. I’m right behind you.
G: Can you hold the kite?
Me: No, look at what I’m carrying already!
G: OK then, can you hold on to my hoodie?
Me: No, I can’t, look I am holding on to all these things.
You can imagine what comes next…
G : Mum, we DON’T say CAN’T!
You could say, I asked for it! 😉
Overheard Georgia on the phone with Mama (grandma) yesterday…
G: Do you know what day it is today?
G: It’s Burnt Wednesday or something like that…
Then to me, “Mum, what day is it? Like Burnt Wednesday or something?”
Can you guess what she meant?
On the evening of the second day of this year (2011), we were travelling back along the M4 from Cardiff heading East when we saw the traffic alerts signs displaying “Animals in Road”. Now this is quite interesting because in all our years of travelling along the M4, we have never come across a message like this…
An on-going obsession in our household is with babies, so Georgia pretends to feed, change, dress and basically anything you do with babies, she does with her Dorothy (a.k.a Thumper). So although it was not surprising this conversation took place, it was still nonetheless very sweet.
Georgia looks at me very intently and then says:
G: Mummy, when you were a baby, and you grew up, did you just decide to have a baby?
Me: Umm…yes
G: Well, I’m going to have a baby too!
Me: That will be nice….
G: Carys’s mummy works in the playgroup. What does she do?
Me: She manages the playgroup and looks after the children.
G: What about you? What is your job mummy?
Me: Hmmm….what do you think my job is?
G:To look after me!
G: Mummy, when I am big, can you buy me an open-seal car?
M: Yes of course, I would like one too.
Do you know what an open-seal car is? Can you guess?
A convertible of course!
Georgia is fascinated with gadgets and basically anything that looks as if it may make life a little easier. She has been impressed by the walk-in baths, the ones with the doors on the side, and fascinated by walking sticks.
So one day as we were getting ready to get in to the bath,
G: Mummy when I am old, please can you get me a walking stick and the open-door bath?
I just burst out laughing….but what a lovely thought.
It’s amazing how Georgia’s english grammar is almost always perfect. We have never attempted to teach or explain to her why we use past tense or present tense – she seems to have picked it up perfectly.
This is evident in the use of : Brang…
As Georgie would say, I brang this baby here today.
After all, if the past tense of sing is sang and the past tense of ring is rang….then why not the past tense of bring be brang!