My daughters are not allowed to bother us in the morning until 7pm.
That is the rule.

It doesn’t apply so much to D-little Redhead at the moment, because she’s still in a cot and I have wisely not yet taught her the ninja skills needed to climb her way out.

But that other cheeky monkey …

It’s almost summer here, so the sun’s waking early, and so is D-Girl.

I bought her an analogue Dora The Explorer clock. Partly to teach her the time. More importantly, to teach her what time she is allowed to come down stairs and bother us in the morning.

But she’s impatient. And clever.

Yesterday morning she came downstairs with a calculator. She tried telling us it was a clock. And on the “clock” she had (impressively, I might add) punched in “7.21”.

“See daddy, it’s after seven o’clock…”

It was actually 6.21am. She’d taken the time and added an hour.

How clever.

Nice try. Go back to bed, now, please, thank you..

This morning she came down at 6am with her Dora The Explorer clock. She had wound it forward to seven o’clock.

“See daddy, it’s seven o’clock…”

“No. It’s six you’dbettergobacktobedo’clock!”

She left.

But she just sat outside our door.

How do I know?

Dora The Explorer ticks and tocks quite loudly around the clock.