Concepts of time and place are becoming important in the world of My Little Sunshine and me at the moment. When she wakes in the morning she asks if it is eight o’clock yet because if it is not she knows she’ll probably have to wait a while until she gets her porridge although she will tell me she is “so starving” despite the fact that when it is placed in front of her I will have to use all manner of tricks to get her to eat it.

She is accustomed to a certain routine which is based around créche hours and involves an afternoon snooze that she will do anything to get out of. She is either starving or thirsty or there are books to be read, or “first you watch your programme and then I’ll watch my programme first”.

Of course the same thing happens at night when she wonders if it is eight o’clock and therefore time for bed. But at least during winter’s dark evenings she was inclined to believe me because we all associate darkness with sleeping. I foresee plenty of bedtime struggles this summer because it isn’t dark.

The present bedtime ritual is a long and arduous one, with extra bits being added all the time. There is the beaker of milk, the sofa cuddle, the washing of the teeth, story time and the bed cuddle which could go on forever as I often feel I could stay put in the bed myself if there weren’t so many other things to do. However, I drag myself up because it was one of my own rules from the beginning that My Little Sunshine sleeps in her own bed and by herself. My God, sometimes your own rules are the hardest to keep

With regard to place, I have been trying to show areas of relevance to her on a map of Ireland because I have found it so difficult to explain through mere language. In her mind the world works like this: we live in Dublin (not Ringsend because that is where the créche is) and she just won’t agree that anyone else lives in Dublin because to her it is our apartment that comprises Dublin.

Clare is where her grandmother lives, so last year when I told her we were going to the seaside in Clare she was very upset when we didn’t end up in grandma’s house. Actually, her grandmother seems to own most of the trees in Clare according to My Little Sunshine.

As we drive now I tell her where we are and find myself laughing at my pitiful explanations of towns, cities, counties and countries. She knows about aeroplanes but that doesn’t mean that she actually understands just how far our friend Mary went when she moved back to New York.

The part I find most amusing is My Little Sunshine’s concept of ‘town’– the Jervis Street Car Park and the juice bar. Believe me, there have been tears on the occasions before I realised her definition, when I told her we were going to town only to arrive in another part of Dublin. Even funnier is the fact that ‘town’ is actually any high storey car park.

Oh the joys and exasperations of explaining simple concepts. I love trying to explain, I’m just not sure I’m doing a very good job of it.