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Consequences

The 'she-revision' was of the Geographical type yesterday and the lesson learnt was that consequences have both advantages and disadvantages - one undoubted disadvantage being the time spent this morning trimming a new piece of lined paper to insert and glue carefully into the homework notebook, so that the disadvantages of migration from a LEDC to a MEDC could be included.

Littlest learnt a whole different set of consequences today -

There are obvious advantages to having a clutch of older siblings - someone big to take your side when one or other parent is being bossy; shoulders to ride on when your little legs are tired; someone else to take out the rubbish bags, empty the dishwasher, clear the table, walk the dog; someone with fashion sense to parade in front of your impressionable girl friends; someone to fix your bike, to teach you the cello, to sneak chocolate out of the larder with, to sing and play piano with, to cuddle up to in bed, to watch films with and to read you bed-time stories; and someone to pick you up and give you a squeeze, when you fall over, or just feel 'all jingly-jangly' and don't know why.

There is one big disadvantage, however - the problem of being Littlest, of trying so hard to keep up, so hard to do everything that everyone else is doing, and failing in spectacular fashion, when your head and little frame implode, swamped by a tide of tiredness that makes you cry until you can't remember why you are crying, and then cry again because you simply need to sleep. This disadvantage collided with Littlest while out shopping this afternoon. She was inconsolable. Until we got home, and Four-legged-friend, understanding nothing about inconsolable girls, wagged his tail at her and slid to the floor for a tummy rub.
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