My daughter is two years old. Two years old, and four months, to be exact. She is exactly like my second youngest sister, complete with frothy curls, sparkly eyes, and a cute little gap between the two front teeth. They also share more impishness than is possibly good for them. :) It is interesting to see the reincarnation of my second youngest sister in my only daughter. (This sister is 14 years younger than I am, so much of the imp's life has been viewed by me as a much older sibling, and from the distance of living away at University, then in my own home later on. She is a treasure, with a big heart. And vocal cords that put any opera singer to shame at full forte.) My sister has always been able to charm almost anything out of anyone. All the neighbours back 'home', where I grew up, doted on her and acquiesced to her every wish and whim. They sent her home from visits with onions from the garden in brown paper bags, because that was her favourite, and what she asked them so prettily for.

My daughter is starting to learn how to do that. She asks for "Snack, please... CHIPS!!" while fluttering her sparkly hazel eyes and grinning her gamine little grin. And when it works (snack requests or any other sort of request), she does a little dance as little girls do, and claps her little toddler hands, and bounces up and down, thus making her curls dance. And when that doesn't work on me, because I've had a couple of decades practice at refusing such coquettish young ladies, she brings out her words. "Momma! Come!! I need it a snack, please!! Can I hab some bread and 'tella (nutella)?" Her defiance is downright verbal, and often sends her father and I into silent laughter. "Yes, it IS a toy!" was an emphatic response to my request that she stop pushing the wire dog kennel across the kitchen floor, because it is not a toy. Other favourite responses of hers are fairly typical of a tyrannical toddler, but I do laugh at the emphasis, and seriousness with which she demands our compliance to her whims.

But my favourite demand of hers lately came when I asked her to please wait one more minute, as I was almost finished speaking on the phone. "MOMMA!! Stop talking on the phone!!" (Except talking sounds like kalking.) (This was a phone conversation with my mother, who lives 1800 kilometers away, and thus is not readily accessible for a regular morning coffee date.) I replied that I was almost finished, and would she like to say hello to her Grannie on the phone? "NO!! Take that off of your ear!" At this, my mother burst into laughter, and she is still giggling at this turn of phrase, several days later...