Back home in Ireland this week, my daughter plays with her cousins Charlie and Lucy, who are eight days older and eight weeks younger respectively. Lucy and my daughter convey their love by pulling at the candyfloss strands of each other’s wispy hair. Charlie, by contrast, offers kisses to both, but he appears to have learned how to kiss from a manual on giving the perfect headbutt. Thankfully, each glancing bump from his noggin delights his smaller cousins immeasurably, so tears are avoided. We’re not so lucky when it comes to the other order of the day.
