As a mixed-race child in Beijing, knowing who you are might be difficult. So daddy is putting a touch of British flavour into Henry’s life by getting him ‘into’ tea and biscuits. Every evening for the last couple of weeks, Henry has had a small cup of tea (really just a mouthful) and a chocolate biscuit. He loves it, looks forward to it, and probably even dreams about it.

Talking of dreams, the other night Henry and daddy had a short conversation in their dreams. Mummy says Henry was talking about something in his sleep out loud and trying to get daddy to notice by repeatedly calling his name. After six or so attempts, daddy replied ‘yes’ from his sleep without waking, and Henry then stopped asking. A short, but entirely unconscious chat.

Qilin received his first bike this month, after more than two years of bright green jealousy. Although this was only two days ago, he can already ride it down the corridor - mostly forwards. He loves us to get involved, and we each have our own vehicles. Daddy has to ride Henry’s small car, which he refers to as a taxi, and mummy, poor mummy, gets the tiny rocking horse. Should mummy try to upgrade to the taxi, she is quickly shouted off.

The nappy is coming off this month, and toilet training is a go-go. With daddy at work, mummy is working hard with Qilin to teach him not to wee and poo in his trousers! He really does try (not to), but he still forgets to pay attention sometimes. The little accident usually ends with him crying for help, trousers half off and poo aplenty! But he wants to do it properly, and we feel confident he will get the hang of it before playschool in the second half of this year.

“Naughty is the name of the game, and I want to play the game with you!” The classic, and slightly modified song from the ‘Generation Game,’ sums it up perfectly. Henry is growing in naughtiness, almost always as a product of boredom. The fact is, because daddy works a lot now, Qilin is home with mummy everyday. It’s too cold to go out and mummy often needs to do house stuff, so Henry gets bored and then looks for attention by being naughty. We relish the day when Lily comes back and can look after him for an afternoon. I expect he does too.

All the baby books say a night-time routine is essential to getting a child to sleep, suggesting books and bath. Ours, however, is slightly different, and it goes something like this. Firstly, Henry asks to wrapped up in the duvet like a jiaozi (dumpling) while daddy searches for him around the bedroom. He then jumps out shouting ‘taa-daa!’. After a few goes of that, Henry stuffs his face into the pillow so he can avoid being kissed by us, but is secretly glad when it happens. Then he counts, “one, two, three, GO” at which point daddy turns the light off. And finally he practices his speaking and counting in the dark while mummy has to massage his leg, or his back, or his bum, or whatever else he asks for and daddy shouts at him to ‘go to sleep!’ Around eleven-thirty he drops off to sleep, where he dreams about food mostly and wakes up searching for daddy at nine the next morning. But like everything else about Qilin, convention doesn’t really apply. He is special, unique, and naughty, and every single day with him is an eventful one.