“Hey, Dashie. Dashie, wake up.” I said, gently rousing her from her nap. She rolled over and looked up at me, smiling. “Are you ready to make a new fort?” She nodded and rubbed her eyes wearily. I picked her up and carried her into the living room, placing her on the floor, next to a large pile of boxes.

“Are we using all these boxes?” She asked, looking at the tower of cardboard that stood before her.

“Yes Dashie, we're going to make you a fort even better than before! This time with bridges and everything!” Dashie seemed to like this idea, and ran into the closest open box and peered out of it. I took the largest box to hand, and started cutting out openings for doors and windows.

“How's this for the ground floor? Too big?” I asked, but knew nothing could be too big for Dashie. She looked at the windows I'd cut, and prodded the box with her nose.

“Can I have a window here please?”

“Of course you can Dashie. Stand back so I can cut it out!” She walked backwards and watched as I took the scissors to the box and made another window. I smoothed off the edges so it wouldn't be sharp, and risk it hurting Dashie. She liked the new window, and ran back to it, poking her head through it and looking inside.

After a bit more cutting and moving, the ground floor was made. I cut a hole in the other side to make the ramp to the next floor. I put the box aside and Dashie began inspecting it. While she did this, I took the larger boxes, and stacked them so it was a higher, second floor. I cut a few more door and window holes for Dashie, and then joined it onto the first box, which Dashie was still climbing around in.

“How's this looking?” I asked, as she climbed the ramp between floors and poked her head out of the higher windows. She had a big smile on her face as she looked down from her little tower.

“Hehe! I like this!” She said, as she pulled her head back inside and ran to the next window I'd made, poking her head out again. “Booo!” She giggled, and then pulled her head back in, running to the lower window and poking it out down there. “Booo!” she said again, giggling, and retreated back into her box fort.

“Okay Dashie, come out now, I need to cut some more holes and then make the house sturdy for you! Otherwise it might tip over.” She slowly came back out the fort, and sat down, looking at it happily. I cut one or two more windows so she could see what she was doing once inside, then I taped it all together, and stuck it down to a wooden board I had to hand. This way it wouldn't tip over, no matter how much Dashie ran about inside.

“Hey Dashie, would you like a little flag on the roof?” I asked her, so she could feel involved in making it still.

“Yeah! I want a flag!” She nodded and jumped about happily, flapping her wings.

“Okay then, Dashie. How about you go get your art tools, and draw a flag up for your fort? I'll finish up here.” She darted off to her room, and brought out her little art box and put it down on the floor next to me, she then went back to her room and fetched some paper.

She sat down and started colouring, while I went and got a stick from the garden to make the flag pole. I sat down next to Dashie, who was still drawing intently.

“What's the flag going to look like then?” I asked her, as she coloured in a section In blue. She spit out the crayon and looked up at me.

“It's a secret Daddy! You'll see when I'm done!” She giggled, and went back to drawing. I left her alone to draw it, I didn't want to crowd her. I looked back at the fort, and felt as nice as it looked, it was a bit bland. Just some brown cardboard boxes. I went into my bedroom and got down the paints and brushes I had bought for Dashie when she got a bit older. I brought them back out to the kitchen, and  fetched some small tubs to put paint in.

I poured out a few basic colours into the tubs, so Dashie could get to them easier, and opened the pack of paint brushes. I turned round to see Dashie had finished her flag, and was looking at it proudly.

“All finished then?” I asked her. She looked at me and nodded.

“Come see Daddy, you'll like it!” She sat down next to it, and watched me walk over. I bent down to look at it. It was a drawing of Dashie and me stood in the garden, with a rainbow behind us. I loved it so much.

“Now it's our fort, we can share it!” She said, jumping up and down.

“It's lovely Dashie! Lets put it on the roof!” I picked up the drawing and attached it to the stick, before taping it to the roof where Dashie could see it. She sat down and looked up at it, a great smile on her face.

“How does that look?” I asked her.

“Looks great! Daddy and Dashie's fort!” She giggled. I reached down and petted her head, she rubbed back against my hand.

“Okay Dashie, I've got one more treat for you. How would you like to add some colour to your fort?” I went to the kitchen and put the paints on the floor in front of Dashie. She looked at them confused, and sniffed them. She bent down to try and drink them.

“No Dashie! These are paints, we use them to colour things in, like your crayons. You don't drink them, they're dangerous and would make you ill if you did!”

“Okay Daddy.” she said. I got a paintbrush and dipped it in the paint, showing her how they work. I then painted part of the wall and Dashie smiled widely when she saw the brown box became a bright blue.

“Can I have a go? Please, please!” She jumped up and down.

“Of course Dashie, that's why I got them, for you to use! Here's a paint brush, let's paint the outside blue, shall we?” I gave the brush to her and she placed it in her mouth, and dipped it in the blue paint. The brush was heavy for her to hold, and heavier still with the paint on it, but she managed to carry it to the box. She rubbed It on the side and giggled as the box became blue before her eyes.

“Hehe! Bwue!” she said while holding the paint brush in her mouth. We kept painting the outside like this for a while, I did the high bits while Dashie painted the lower sections. She decided to paint it in blue, red and purple. The end result was a vibrant, colourful fort. Dashie spit the paintbrush out of her mouth onto a sheet of paper.

“I like my new fort, thank you Daddy!” she smiled and gave me a hug. But I knew we weren't done yet.

“Now Dashie, the outside looks really nice, but someone needs to paint the inside too. Do you think you can manage that on your own?” I asked her, and she grinned.

“Yeah, I can do that!” She then picked up a smaller brush, dipped it in the purple paint and carried it into her fort. I watched carefully as she did it, making sure she didn't swallow any of the paint. After about an hour of Dashie painting the inside with a bit of my help, the walls were done. She came back outside and put the brush down.

“All done?” I asked her. She shook her head.

“Not quite Daddy!” she then walked over the a shallow tray of green paint, and jumped in, getting paint on her hooves. Dashie ran back into the fort and began running through all the rooms, putting little hoof prints on the floors. She soon finished up and jumped back out the front door again.

“Done!” She giggled. She sat down and looked at her fort. It looked wonderful, and Dashie clearly liked it a lot more than the last one, as she couldn't wait to go back inside and play. I had to stop her as the paint was still wet.

“Come on Dashie, let's get you washed up so you don't walk paint everywhere else, and then once the paint is dry on the fort, you can play in it.” She looked at her green hooves, and giggled. She liked having green hooves it seemed.

“Can I leave my hooves green Daddy? I like them green.”

“Sorry Dashie, but the paint won't be good for you if we leave it on there. Come on, let's get you clean.” I picked her up and carried her to the kitchen sink. I ran her a bath again, and scrubbed the paint off her feet and hooves. I had bought water soluble paint for this exact reason, so it wouldn’t take much to get off. I knew she would be a messy painter.

Once washed up, I cleaned the paints up while Dashie sat down, looking at her fort again. She sniffed the paint and got a bit on the end of her nose.

“AAAACHOO!” She sneezed. I turned round and saw a red nosed Dashie sat on the floor, rubbing at it. I grabbed a wet cloth and wiped it off again. “Thank you Daddy!” She said again, and decided to leave her fort alone until it fully dried. I came back over to her after cleaning up and sat down with her on the sofa.

“Can we read a book, please?” She asked. I nodded, and as I did so, she hopped to the coffee table, picked up a story book and dropped it in my lap. She then cuddled up to my arm and we read the story together, with Dashie learning the words as we did so. Next Chapter: The Racing Game Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 40 Minutes