Guess what, it’s a Monday and I’m writing this from the comfort of my lounge.

Hello Long Weekend!
So glad you’re here. Please stay a while, happy to have you anytime you want to visit again. Like next week maybe?

Today I’m sharing a blast from the past. Well, the more recent past that is.

This conversation occurred with Miss Charlie not long after I’d become “The Nanny” (quotation marks here because yes, I get how that sounds). The relevance is that I was still getting to know her; the wild, crazy, unpredictable ball of energy that is Miss Charlie, age 6.

At the time I was all: Who. Is. This. Girl?? … she’s crazy!

Now I know: you’ve-just-got-to-smile-and-go-with-it.. “smile, nod, ahuh, cool!”

I’d love for you to give me your take on this.

• Is this real?
• Did she really do this?
• Or is it just a charming, funny, but totally made up story to bring laughter to the likes of newly employed and naive nannies?

… The jury’s still out on that one.

The Hobo Skipping Rope

Miss Charlie came bouncing home from her first day back at school yesterday.
By bouncing, I mean that she was quite literally, jumping up and down with excitement.
Excitement mixed with intense anticipation to get started on the (just announced)
‘Jump Rope for Heart’ fundraising competition happening that term.

In between quick gasps of air and with her head rising 20cm in the air
with each of her sky-jumps, she filled me in on the details.
Although, she was quick to point out a major flaw in this competition;
a competition that naturally as a middle child (major competitive streak),
meant that she’d of course just have to win (her words, not mine).

She says to me that she needs to ‘practice her skipping to win the competition’.
Yep, logically speaking, I can see how she’d need to do this. Practice makes perfect.
(Though it looks as though she’s already doing this,
based on the already noted observations of her jumping up and down on the spot)
..but you know, I could be wrong.

So I say that ‘we could go out to the garden and jump up and down until our heart’s content‘,
(patting myself on the back for that “heart” line – being Jump Rope for Heart and all).
To which she replies:

“I can’t because I don’t have a skipping rope anymore.
I used to have one but I sold it to some hobo!”

So there you have it. A couple of things here:

1. she was jumping up and down sans skipping rope
2. she seemingly thinks she can’t practice without a skipping rope, despite (from what I can tell) doing just fine on her own without one
3. she supposedly sold her skipping rope to a hobo

Disregarding the morality of supposedly ‘selling’ something to a hobo as opposed to ‘giving’ it, a more pressing thought formulating in my mind at the time was:

How does she even know the word “hobo”, let alone use it correctly in a sentence? And yes, as I said, she’s six.

Miss Charlie, age 6