I Try?

'Later..' was one, 'You're boring' is another, and the latest edition to Clarissa's phrasebook is; "I try?"

My granny and grandad had posted me a parcel filled with crafty goodies that I could do with Clari over Easter. So we spent the morning getting stuck into them - making a mobile and colouring in some finger puppets:

'Tina' the rabbit.

Clari particularly liked the finger puppets, and we made up a lot of stories with them. Feli, the au pair before me, had posted Clari a box full of things which arrived on the same day, so we used the empty cardboard box to make a theatre for the fingerpuppets to perform in. I made a prop-house with open and close shutters and doors.



Pretty badass if I do say so myself

Clari has a pretty short attention span, so soon this was boring for her and we went into the garden. I helped her make a 'kitchen' and hunted around the garden for foodie bits that she could keep in it. She then made a 'soup' (aka. a potion) and wanted to find more things to put in it.

She wanted to climb up the bank of the garden and walk along the wall that ran alongside the house. She'd just seen Bronson trot along it and then jump down to join us. This wall was well over one and a half times me. And narrow. And wet. I looked up at it and visualised a tiny Clari slipping and just falling down to the floor, faceplanting the concrete. That wouldn't be so good.

"I climb the wall?" she said.
"No Clari."
"Why not?"
"Because it's too high."
"But I don't have vertigine (vertigo). I'm not scared."
"I don't care Clari, it's too high up and you might fall down."

Pause.

"I try?"
"No Clari."
"I try?"
"No."
"I try?"
"Clari, I said no."

"Just a little, up to here..."
"Get down Clari. I said no!"

She screws up her face in anger and frustration.

"When I go next in garden again I will go all the way to the end."
"Whatever you say Clari, just get down."