She wasn't sure about me at first. Stood at a careful distance, assessed the situation, decided not to commit.

Fair enough.

It was a January morning, their flat warm with soft light and the comfortable chaos of a two-year-old's natural habitat. I followed her lead, which once she'd decided I'd passed inspection, turned out to be fast, joyful and entirely on her terms. A fireball with the best laugh in the room.

That's the thing about children this age. There's no negotiating and no performing. You either earn it or you don't. When you do, what you get is completely, brilliantly real.