Cheeky girl

Beth has been getting very inventive of late in her quest to get her way. She’s always been a bit like this but is using the power of the pen to do her dirty work now!

On Saturday she kept saying excitedly that Alvin and the Chipmunks was on the telly that night. She’s usually pretty good about these things because she pours over the TV guide when we get it. It wasn’t on though. She kept arguing that it would be on and in the end I brought up the TV guide on the Internet to show her that no, it wasn’t on that night. Beth kept saying “it is on, it’s in the TV Guide.” I suggested that maybe it had been down before hand but then they changed their mind and decided to play something else. Then Paul realised that what she had been writing in the car was in fact her changing the TV Guide. She had crossed out War of the Worlds and written over it with Alvin and the Chipmunks!

A similar thing happened on Sunday. We were going to Bev and John’s house for a barbeque with friends of theirs that had a little boy a year older than Bill. Last time we went to the movies we saw an ad for a movie that was coming out called The Fantastic Mr Fox. It’s not actually coming out until January but Beth had in her head that it was coming out in November and that we were going to see it on Sunday. Grandma and Grandpa’s house just wasn’t going to cut it! When we got to their house I looked up the movie guides for her and showed her that no, the movie wasn’t out yet. Her answer was “but I wrote it on the calendar so it must be true!”  I think she’s must have been  watching The Secret!

She’s actually very good at using her imagination when it suits her. If you try and get her to do any homework  there’s not much hope unless it’s something she’s really interested in. When she’s writing about something she enjoys she puts her whole self into it. She made a sign for her bedroom when she first moved in there. She drew herself and Minka, Bill and Bridie. She wrote on it “No boys or brothers, no sisters or little girls. Only 10 year old girls and dogs allowed.” She put crosses through Bridie and Bill and ticks for her and Minka. It took her a long time too but you could tell who they all were, she’s got a good eye for detail.

When at my aunt and uncles house one day I asked Peter and Margaret if they had any chalk. They got some out and I got her doing drawings on their paving of the Mr Men and Little Miss characters. You could tell which was which down to their freckles and the way their eyebrows slanted. She remembers everything like that. Before she could read we used to sit and read the Mr Men books and she would make me test her on the 50 or so pictures that are on the back of each book. She knew who they all were and what colours they were and would recite them endlessly. Now that they’re back in vogue and revamped she’s found a new love for the Mr Men characters, in fact I’ve bought her a Mr Men annual for Christmas. (I always have fond memories of my childhood Christmases when every year I would get an annual of some kind, usually Rupert the Bear. I loved how there’d be games and lots of stories and puzzles.) I think Beth and Bill, now that he can read, have this love of books too. Hopefully Bridie will follow suit.