It was my sister-in-law's birthday last Friday and part of her present from the kids was an enamelled handmirror that Niece Senior was rather fond of. Sharing is not a big part of either of the nieces' vocabularies but on spying the mirror Niece Senior promptly suggested that she and mummy could share it.
Of course she did. What's mine is hers and what's hers is hers....
Whilst Niece Senior is honing her 'gimme, it's mine' skills, Niece Junior is preparing herself for starting nursery in January. She's into her numbers. Recently she was happily working her way through a counting book announcing that there was 1 chicken on the first page, 2 horses on the second page and so on. When she got up past 10 she floundered and declared that there were 'lots' of ducks on that particular page.
Niece Junior doesn't like to be wrong and instead of just admitting that she doesn't know she provides a 'cute' answer and then gets annoyed when it provokes mirth in her audience.
Colours are a minefield for Niece Junior. She gets the names of colours muddled up - blue is pink, red is yellow and so on. Niece Senior thought she would help her little sister to learn the right names for colours pointing out that the colour of grass was green, bananas were yellow and a particular toy was blue.
The lesson over bossy Niece Senior seemed pleased with the progress her pupil had made. This called for one final test:
'What's this?' asked the 5 year old teacher pointing to a green cup on the table.
Niece Junior eyed the plastic cup warily and then declared, 'It's grass coloured.'
