Amy has never been the kind of child to disappear and be quiet and get into trouble. More often than not if she goes suddenly silent and I rush into find her, she will be sitting quietly on the couch surrounded by her books, reading to herself, or sitting at her table, pens all around, colouring in. Which is why I didn’t worry when she was quiet the other morning, I assumed she was reading, drawing, having a tea party – anything but this:
She decided her face was sore and she needed a nappy cream facial. Then she might have decided to move onto a quick foot massage and I caught her just as she was about to “put the muti* on her sore knee” or make an almighty mess of her clothes! She was very apologetic but also managed to justify her actions by saying she “needed to use the cream”. Who am I to argue!

*muti is a South African word for all purpose medicines. So for example if you have a cough, you take some muti, if you have a headache, you take some muti, if your knee is sore, you rub in some muti. Its one of those words that just doesn’t have an equivilent in most languages and I am sure will prove confusing as Amy grows up, but its a word I use commonly and so shall she!