Treasuring your children's youth

“Bed onna floor!” she gasped, looking down at the foot of her mum’s bed... “So luffy!”

LOLA, my sister’s youngest, has come to visit for a few days. She’s four — not “free-an-a-huff anymore, juss four” — and if, at free-an-a-huff, she was quite sure of her supreme reign in everyone’s affections, at four, she’s more.

It’s like having a small, smiling queen to stay.