Little Madam has been saving her Easter Egg money this year (what with Little Nutter’s dietary needs where chocolate is concerned, most people do the sensible thing and send money at Easter and ask us to buy Easter Eggs for the short people in our house.)

But Little Madam had A Plan. This involved the application of what Darling Wifey calls “the deferment of gratification.” This is something that girls can do, but real men can’t.

Apparently, when faced with the prospect of a treat, a girl’s brain continues to work. She still has willpower, and is able to resist temptation, evaluate, deliberate and calculate. In short, she can say “no” when offered enough chocolate to make her sick, and opt for a perferred treat later on.

Very strange.

Anyway, I digress. Little Madam abstained from chocolate this Easter, and took her money to the Warner Brother’s shop, where she bought her very own Mystery Machine and set of Scooby-Do action figures.

The second that Little Nutter saw it, Thomas the Tank Engine was dumped, and those pesky kids were kidnapped! To our astonishment, Little Nutter began to play with the figures, positioning them in tableau vivants of scenes from the Scooby-Do movie. (Available at all good shops; recommended as an inhumane instrument of torture.)

So it seems that even though Little Nutter cannot comprehend or participate in human social interaction, he is quite capable of a sort of displaced mimicry of it.

This is good. This gives us an opportunity for education and development. Tomorrow, Fred and Daphne will be learning how to use the toilet properly.

But today, we had to drive to Sheffield (again!) to buy another Mystery Machine.