We always knew that Charlie crawling would present new challenges for Philip in how he related to his baby brother. What I can now see is how Charlie is far from the innocent party any more and that as they sort this out it will lay the foundation for their close brotherly relationship. So after interfering too much the first day as cuddles turned to shoves, I'm trying to leave them to it a bit more now. One child moves onto playing with something else much quicker if it doesn't turn into a competition for mummy's attention!

Philip is progressing well with potty training, has begun recognising letters and connecting them with sounds (the English language is about to get a whole lot more confusing for both of us!) and in the last few days seems to have made a big leap in his social awareness. Whether just because he knows it pleases us, or whether genuine, he is now concerned that other people have a chance to have the same food as him, to get stickers as rewards etc. He also talks a lot about what is naughty and what is silly (and therefore funny) at the moment - which I think will take a long time to really figure out as sometimes it just depends on the context. He still tells me when he's going to be naughty which is quite cute but rather forces one into discipline as you can't give him the excuse he didn't understand!! In a way he's role playing "being a naughty boy" and may find out it has advantages in some situations :-)

Which brings me onto my recent observations of the toddler world. Occasionally at a toddler group I get to watch Philip interacting with his peers across the room. On a Friday there's a gang of them whose Mums spend too much time talking (in their opinion) and so they run round with a football for a bit at the end. Which is great. However, when I started out in this parenting thing I somehow have the impression that children are so sweet and innocent and that if you can teach them to be polite and share, they'll have lots of fun and lots of friends. But (in my sweet innocence) I am beginning to realise that the world of childhood interactions doesn't really work like that. If the Mums aren't watching (or are across the room) then in the short term the fastest, biggest or pushiest boy gets the football. That's life! I'm not going to condone it if Philip knows I'm watching but I think you've got to be realistic that different skills work for different situations and there's not much point shouting (which is very aggresive behaviour in itself) at a child for "playing the game" as he sees it. To a certain extent they've just got to work out their relationships themselves, like Philip and Charlie have to. Complicated stuff.

Off swimming with Charlie now.