Animal farm?

I have to say this job leaves precious little family time, or even time for me with M in the evenings. When M travels the children sleep in with me, which they love and find wildly exciting, I slightly less so, especially at 5.15 in the morning when A decides to wake us up by saying "Hello Evviebody" and then "wee wee poo" which rather jolted me into consciousness until I remembered this was her name for Winnie the Pooh.........

Obvious, but interesting, how a two year old's acquisiton of language is so guided by their immediate environs, and by what their mother says. Such that one of A's favourite sayings when we first arrived was "got it" as she clapped her hands together triumphantly once more, in the firm belief that she had swatted yet another nibbling mosquito. (yes, a neurosis bordering on the obsessive as I try and squish every potential dengue carrying beastie) Or "bash it mummy, bash it" whenever she saw a spider, particularly the little jumping ones, which in fact we ignore (too many) I keep explaining we only 'bash' the "really big ones" (tally 5 so far)

She also can confidently say, and point out, elephant, monkey, squeal (squirrel), gecko (and cow, to be fair, they are on the roads everywhere) but show her a picture of a horse, pig, sheep and she has no idea. She knows now, we've done some intensive training so as not to alarm the grandparents when home on leave, and taken on country walks and asked what those white fluffy things in the field are, and she looks blankly back at them............