Namine, being a headstrong and willful child, can be quite, as my sister puts it, ‘tudey. But that attitude, far from being a bad thing, is what has made her so strong. And, of course, she employs her determination in more than just sassing off.
After dinner, Namine and I sat at the dining room table and worked on some schoolwork. Well, I sat with her while she did schoolwork. She decided to work on a color by numbers worksheet, which had, attached to the front of it, a half page on which to write her name. She needed a little help with the M and lower case N, but other than that, she did it all on her own, and very well. In my humble, non-educator opinion, anyway.
When Namine was done writing her name, she moved on to the color by numbers sheet. I only had to explain what color each number represented, and after that she colored on her own. When it was time for her bath, she insisted on working on it until I had her tub ready.
After Namine’s bath, and after she’d taken her medicine, it was time to brush and floss her teeth. Brushing always goes pretty smoothly, but she’s never liked flossing. She’ll cooperate, but she can get a little sassy. So tonight, with every flossing between teeth, she said – not loudly, not painfully, but just so I knew she didn’t like it: “Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.”
I said, “Namine, I know it doesn’t feel the greatest. But we need to keep your teeth clean.”
So the little smartass looked at me, still flossing her teeth. “Yay. Yay. Yay. Yay. Yay.”
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