All the answers in life can be found in Peppa Pig

We had a breakthrough with the water today! Or so I thought...

Dinner-time comes around, and I duly offer a drink, cycling through the options of squash, water, milk... So accustomed am I to the answer always being squash, it didn't really register that she'd asked for water. The indignation when I gave her a beaker of squash!

She: "Mummy! That's not water!"

Me: "Sorry dear-heart, it was automatic."

She: "No mummy, it was orange squash."

Me: "Erm. Yes."

So I change it for water, and this time the beaker is accepted graciously.

She: "This is a glass of water."

Me: "Yes."

She: "Now shut your eyes."

Me: "Uh, okay..." [Closing eyes and hoping for best]

She glugs from the beaker...

She: "Now open your eyes."

Me: [penny drops] "Ah! Magic! Look, some has vanished!"

She giggles in delight, and we repeat the above for about 20 mins, until the contents of the beaker has vanished.

For those of you unaquainted with The Pig, I would direct your attention to that fine episode "Talent Day", featuring Pedro Pony's 'magic trick' of disappearing water. Et voila...

Peppa Pig does seem to set the 'schema' for many of her concepts about life. I'm sure she wouldn't be nearly so keen on jumping in muddy puddles, were it not for the declaration in so many Pig episodes that "everyone loves jumping in muddy puddles!" Sadly, although there is one episode where Mummy Pig clearly states that Peppa has to have boots on to jump in puddles, that part of the message seems to have been lost...

But at least the Pedro Pony trick got her drinking the water, which was an improvement on the previous day's dinner-time conversation which ran thusly:

She: "I want some plain water please."

Me: "Right, I'll just get you some."

Returning with water as instructed:

Me: "There you go."

She: "No mummy! Plain water!"

Himself: "Mummy's just run that from the tap, it is plain."

She: "Can you take the lid off please?"

Me: [In tones of suspicion, having been down this road before] "Why? Are you going to drink it?"

She: "No. It's plain water, mummy. Water for plain with..."

Me: [light dawns] "Oh. You mean playing water? Ah. No. Wait for bath-time..."