Champion?

Reuben just asked Miriam who her friends are. She said Peacock, Monster and Spider (Reuben's 'invisible friends'). He said "but Peacock Monster and Spider are scary". She said " Peacock, Monster and Spider isn't scary - they are my friends". They've both started playing with them (although not constantly like Reuben used to).

Miriam became a 'big girl' about the time she could first talk, then decided about a month ago that she was a grown up (although she says it with a dr instead of gr). Now it seems time to move on again - last night she asked "am I a giant?".

Miriam proudly announced to all who would listen "I've done a wee"
Tim: Where?
M: In the potty
T: Well done
M: And then I tipped it on the floor
T: That's not so good
M: I'm a big girl
T: Big enough to do a wee in the potty, but not big enough to pour it in the toilet
M: Big enough to pour it on the floor.

Miriam has started climbing everything - she can climb the trees in our garden (to out of our reach on the odd occasion when we don't stop her before that). She does it really naturally - more so than some of Reuben's friends. Tim once saw her standing on one branch, swinging off another, landing on a third, then swinging off another branch on to the grass. It's amazing to watch, but frustrating because it means we can no longer leave her in the garden without being closely supervised. She also climbs up the wall on the landing (the wall is the height of her fingertips) and up the bars which were put there as a safety measure before we came! Unfortunately, she can't climb back down again. We're going to need to do something about that one!

Miriam continues to have vivid dreams - the other night she squealed really loudly, then cried. I went through and she said "The butterfly hurt me". I comforted her, but she wouldn't settle until I lifted the mosquito net up and shooed the butterfly out. Then she lay down and went straight to sleep. The following night once she got up in the morning she asked me if I wanted to see what they'd done to the stairs. I came and looked and she pointed out how they'd cut off one of the steps and thrown it away and painted the wall black. She still seemed to believe it.

Miriam has started constructing never ending sentences in English - with 'and then'.... 'and then'....'and then'.

Miriam's favourite French phrases:
'je connais...'
'je sort/ je cours/ je cache'
A vos marc...pret...partez
Regard ce canard (/lapin/giraffe/poule/voiture etc) 
Je cleaning ca
Henriette, tu mopping la?
(tu veut jouer dans la maison?) non - en dehours  / non - dans abre 
(ou est maman?) Maman est maison
and lots of other things many of which we can't quite understand.
She sometimes says Reuben or Miriam with a French accent, which sounds very amusing.

Reuben told a friend of ours that his remote controlled car was broken. The friend (who's much better at fixing things than us) offered to have a look and see if he could fix it. Reuben said "No - My Daddy couldn't fix it and he's forty!"

Reuben had a glowing school report (in marked contrast to the previous one). He engages, works well, reminds the teacher of anything she has forgotten etc. He was marked down on French vocabulary because he didn't know the words for squirrel or kangaroo.

A man in the street was being friendly to Reuben and said "Tu est un champion!", Reuben didn't react well (as he often doesn't to strangers), the man persisted several times to insist that Reuben was a champion. After a bit Reuben got quite cross and said emphatically "I am NOT a mushroom!".