Small Allies

I was pottering in the spare room last night, waiting for the children’s bath to run, when the Small Girl and her Very Small brother came wandering in. It’s a relaxed time of day for us – I usually put the stair gate up at the top of the stairs, and they dash about happily (and often bare) playing and, in the case of the Very Small Boy, flinging objects over the top of the gate and down the stairs, where they land with a satisfying crash.

“Mummy, what’s that?” asked the Small Girl, pointing to a dismantled baby play-mat balancing on the top of an ever-expanding pile of “things to go up in the loft”.
“It’s a play-mat, sausage. It belonged to you when you were a baby, and Baby Pie used it as well - but he’s too big for it now”.
“I remember that!” she cried, and turned to her Very Small Brother, who was tugging forcefully on the wires at the back of my computer.

“Pootle, you used to have that when you were a baby!” she said to him and, as she turned to leave the room, added over her shoulder “you were a nightmare when you were a baby!”. And shaking her head thoughtfully, she wandered off to check on her bath.

After the children were bathed and changed and sleeping peacefully in their beds, I thought about their relationship with each other and about how they are growing to enjoy each other’s company, play together and appreciate each other. And I drifted contentedly off to sleep last night, thinking about how lovely it is that each gets so much from the other.

My contentment was short-lived, however: somehow, during their pre-bath playtime, the two little fiends had managed to set the alarm on our clock radio to go off loudly at midnight. And five hours later, the Very Small Boy was wailing to get up; unfortunately it was my turn to rise with him.

Two hours after that, the Small Girl joined us downstairs, and the Very Small Boy’s delight at seeing his sister was obvious: he dashed across the room shouting “eh, eh!” and flung his arms around her waist. Half asleep, the Small Girl returned his cuddle and, while I fixed her a milky drink, the two of them wandered off with their arms about each other to find some toys to play with.