Guess how much I love you

This is a book I keep meaning to buy having read it many times in the bookshop. It is such a sweet heart-warming book, and it won’t fail to make you smile. It is all about little and big nutbrown hares’ attempts to express how much they love each other.

‘I love you all the way to the moon,’ says the little hare.

And big hare replies (spoiler alert!!!), ‘I love you all the way to the moon and back!’

Now being a reserved child myself, I would pinch my fingers tightly to demonstrate how much I loved the asker. My little angel on the other is fond of telling me she loves me hundred, hundred, hundred times (hundred being the biggest number she knows).

The other day, while we ate dinner, she said, ‘Mummy you know I love you.”
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘And you love me,’ she said.
I nodded.
‘Then why do you become angry with me sometimes?’
‘Err,’ I said trying to formulate an answer but failing (many were the answers I could give, but all seemed rather lame).
‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I’ll try not to get angry again.’
‘You don’t have to be sorry mummy,’ said my little angel. ‘We’re just talking.’
And for the second time in a few seconds, I had no answer.

How much does my little angel love me? More than I deserve.

The Tiger who didn’t Come for Tea

I remember Judith Kerr’s The Tiger who came to Tea, from my own childhood. I wasn’t very fond of it then, but I thought I ‘ought’ to get it for my little angel; after all, it is a classic I rationalised. So I did but it didn’t go down well.

First off, little angel couldn’t enjoy the story as with each turn of the page she was convinced Sophie would be eaten by the tiger. Then next came all the questions: how could the tiger drink all the water in the tap and what would happen if Sophie never had a bath ever again? Then we came to crux of the matter: what would happen if the tiger came to our house?

‘Will he eat me?’ asked little angel.
I groaned internally, the book had opened a scary new front in her imagination.
‘No,’ I said. ‘He won’t eat you.”
‘He might,’ she said.
‘No he wouldn’t,’ I said trying to make light of the matter. ‘That would be so silly.’
‘What will he eat then?’
‘You can share your snacks with him,’ I said.
‘No!’ she said. (Little angel doesn’t do sharing.) ‘I don’t want the tiger to come to my house and eat all my food!’
I looked at her thinking now was a good time to tell her about the importance of sharing and the importance of honouring the guest – but she had already resolved the problem:
‘He can go to nanny’s house,’ she offered.
I smiled. ‘That is a great idea,’ I said. ‘Nanny will be so pleased.’