Its the end of February and my wife is off on her usual monthly business trip to Germany. Naturally this means I do the crèche run – no problem.

Well today on the way home Maeve showed off her new comprehension skills regarding what people say. I know that the crèche have been undertaking word-and-picture flash cards recently because my wife mentioned it and Maeve has been using more and more words like “shower”,”bath”,”fish” and so on recently. Well as I said we were driving on the way home – Maeve in the back – and I said “What is Maeve doing?” to which she replied in clear English “Picking Nose”. True enough when I was looking in the mirror she was well engrossed with that task. A little while later my 2 year old said “Where’s Mommy?” to which I replied “Mommies in Germany for a few days”. A few seconds later Maeve used for the first time the one word that can cause no end of problems – “Why”. “Why” she said … “Because mommy works for a German company” …. “Why” …. “Because she needs to meet people in Germany” … “why” …. and so on. It’s fantastic Maeve understands the meaning of the word “why” and has an inquisitive mind; but I can see that there are going to be some long conversations as she gets older that I need to do some planning for – especially for those uncomfortable questions about why she cannot do something (drink, drive etc) whilst we can.

The clock is ticking and the ticks are getting louder.