The new regime

The Yardleys of Sydney have had a great Christmas week off together - it has been wonderfully relaxing to have very few plans and even fewer golfing commitments (and that's just Alice). Father and I have taken the opportunity to put Young Alice through her paces and have been introducing some discipline into her little life. Results have been variable.

The new administration has introduced:
1. The dreaded sandwiches every day for lunch, with Alice sometimes eating as many as two.
2. The phrase, "Alice, you have two choices..." is a constant refrain, in an effort to stop her running riot/sulking/having tantrums when she doesn't quite want to follow orders. Alice usually manages to choose the option that we prefer, as long as we remember to make them both viable options. "We're leaving the park now. Alice, you have two choices - you can either get on your bike nicely or stay here on your own". "Stay here on my own", was the response that Pater elicited.
3. Eating all meals together, (no work means we are all at home for meals). The girls at Nursery had also asked us to get Alice used to sitting at the table until everyone had finished eating, so we have been working hard at this one. Alice has taken to this with gusto and in fact was mortified when Little Friends Jack and Amba took off as soon as they had thrown their peas on the floor when they came for lunch last week. "But Allie still going?", she cried.
4. Walking "just a little bit further" when we are out and about. Alice has got quite used to being carried, after all that knee walking and is unwilling to lose the habit. However, she is as eager to be praised as her mother, so can sometimes go for a good few metres, only to stop, applaud herself loudly and to exclaim, "Well done, everyone" before raising her arms in the air to be ferried about again.

So far, so so.