The solution is within you[r hand]

“Cookie! Cookie! Cookie! Cookie! Cookie!”

We are in a coffee shop. Emma has a blueberry Italian soda, I have a calorie-rich chiller, and the tots are sharing a couple of enormous oatmeal raisin cookies between them.

“Cookie! Cookie! Cookie! Cookie! Cookie!”

Anna wants a cookie. She is not loud, but she is, er, focussed. Emma, who is sitting beside her, responds.

“Anna, you have a cookie.” Sure enough, clenched in one chubby fist is a chubby-fist-sized chunk of squashed cookie. The other hand points with increasing desperation at the plate with the cookies in the centre of the table.

“Cookie! Cookie! Cookie! Cookie! Cookie!”

“Anna, baby, look in your hand.” Anna scarcely hears, and certainly doesn’t register. She doesn’t need to look in her HAND. Look at that PLATE! Look at those COOKIECOOKIECOOKIESCOOKIES!!!

“Cookie! Cookie! Cookie! Cookie! Cookie!”

“Anna. Anna – Look. In. Your. Hand.” Emma taps Anna’s fist. Anna drops her gaze from the plate of cookies to…

Oh! Well, would you look at that?! There’s a cookie in my hand!!!

Silence descends.