The girl is utterly infuriating, she spends the day crabbing and pushing you away, then whining and clinging when you leave the room. She is never satisfied, wanting “more! more!” of anything you give her. You are counting down the hours until naptime. And then, in her highchair eating lunch, as you are trying to get the dishes washed so when she finally sleeps you can have a much-needed cup of tea, she says, in a quiet voice, apropos of nothing, “Tiny tiny mouse.”

And you love her all over again.