King of cuddles

I've got the best job in the world.

For some reason, my 3 children are all total snuggle monkeys. They like nothing better than to climb into our big bed in the mornings for some hug time.

A few nights ago, I finished reading the latest chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to Thomas, his choice of bedtime reading, and tucked him in. He asked that I lie with him for a minute to chat and cuddle. He said that he just loved hugging me, he was 'the king of snuggling mummies.' We always have the best discussions at the end of the day. We discussed, as we so often do, life, death, birth and growth. Thomas is jealous of his best friend J. whose mum is pregnant and wants to know why he can't have another brother or sister, after all, J. already has a little brother.

He also informed me that he will love me for a trillion years. I told him that we wouldn't exist for that long, but he said he'd love me anyway even when he's dead. So the questions started about what it's like to be dead, and I said that no-one can know, but it must be like how it was before you were born, except the people still alive remember you and think about you. So he started on about what he remembered from before birth and decided it wasn't a lot.

He wanted to know how he managed to grow inside me, so I told him about how my food was used to make all the bits of the growing baby, just the way the food he eats now gets changed into bits of hair and blood and bones and all the bits of growing boy.

I'm sure that the main way in which he and Lady learn, is from the many conversations we all have about everything under the sun. I don't know the answers to many of their questions, but we always know where to look for them. And anyway, Gordon's quite good at that science and ting. (Boast time, he just was awarded an NIH grant.)