Sibling love

When the Boy Wonder arrived home from school he asked for a cookie, and I offered him a dark chocolate ginger biscuit. "Mmmm," he said appreciatively after taking a bite. "Spicy. Can I have another one?" "Finish that one first," I said, "and then we'll see." At this point R appeared. "I'm going to have another one of these," the Boy told him. "I'm not sure about that," said R. "You'll have to discuss it with Grandma." "I have discussed it with him," said B with dignity. "Grandma says I can have two [extending two fat fingers and a thumb, and peering at them closely] but not free. Because free would be too many. Wouldn't it...?" - turning Puss in Boots eyes towards me. "Yes it would," I said, ignoring the implied plea. "Two is quite enough."

After his two biscuits B went off to look for the rest of the family, and found his Daddy in the playroom with the Baby Brother. "I want him on my lap," said the Boy, so G arranged them both on the sofa, hovering over them to make sure nothing went wrong, and I trotted off and fetched my camera so I could grab a few photos. In no time at all the Boy was directing the photo shoot, to the great amusement of all the adults, and periodically checking my shots in the viewfinder to see if I was getting them right. In an ideal world this one wouldn't have included B major's jazzily socked foot, but he'd taken the baby's hand on his own initiative and I thought it was more important to capture the moment than to set up a perfect image.