No Girls Allowed: a story

The number and quality of photos about Ben has rapidly declined since he started walking, because he is in constant, constant motion. It is easier to get film clips and I know Tom has a few on his phone which we will upload to here today. Ben has a habit of picking up interesting things , wandering somewhere, and then putting them down to pick up something else. This means I have no idea where our regular camera is, which is annoying but small beer compared to some of the other things we have lost...
Ben has been waking at 5am this week, which is not exactly delightful, but I shimmy up the little attic steps to his little attic bedroom and lift him onto a twin bed we have set up for storytime and night-time nursing/early morning feeds. We snuggle together under the duvet, he feeds and dozes, and I tend to drift off as well (depending on how kicky/scratchy his is at any given point, of course). Today we cuddled and dozed until 6am when he climbed down off the bed and set off (at a run, of course) for the door. We are done here, Mum, the world is full of fun things for me to run at, trip over, and purloin. Let's go!
This morning, however, was my turn for a lie-in and Tom 's turn to get Ben dressed, breakfasted, and read "spot the dog'' and "maisy" flap books, as well as "Don't put your finger in the Jelly, Nelly!" which must be read at least seventeen times each morning, or the sun won't rise, apparently.
So, No Girls Allowed - We were racketing around this flat as Tom and Ben got geared up for a chilly, muddy dogwalk (with a stop at the swings!) and I put the kettle on and thought about slinging some sausages in the oven. Tom was putting his shoes on in the bedroom and Ben followed him in, I followed too as we were talking about something, only to have the door closed -and latched shut- in my face. There was a brief pause then I heard "HAH! No girls allowed! This is the BOYS clubhouse now! HAH! ....."
Then silence as Ben picked up something with a triumphant "Da! Da!"
"Oh.... fabulous, darling. Lovely. Very nice."

The door to this all-male bastion of coolness and exclusivity was opened, to reveal Ben proudly wearing one of my bead necklaces, and doing a little shimmy of delight.

Polly and I looked at each other. Boys, eh?