BEN’S Imagination is coming on at quite a rate. It is a real delight to see him playing with toys and cars, giving them little voices, watching him boss inanimate objects around and apparently scolding them when they don’t do as they are told. He has the finger waggle down to a tee and as for his ‘unimpressed glare’ I would like to say he has learned from the best.

It’s also fascinating to see how he has started to use his new little friends to his advantage.

For example, he was given a green chick for Easter, complete with a chocolate egg, of course, currently missing in action (hidden on top of the fridge). He has named his newest friend Ed – I think he was going for egg but his ever increasing vocabulary didn’t quite hit the mark. Well Ed, Ben and I were happily tackling a jigsaw when my phone rang, so I left the pair of them taking it in turns to complete Paddington Bear eating marmalade.

On my return, however, the nearly finished masterpiece had transformed into a disaster area with small pieces scattered across the floor. It all pointed to one of Ben’s throwing exercises so I questioned the main suspect.

“What happened here?” I inquired gently. “Ed did it,” came the reply. Interesting, I thought. How precisely the stuffed green chicken could have masterminded such a show of devastation was intriguing.

I picked up the stuffed animal for further interrogation. To say he crumbled would be an understatement. Ben watched in horror as his mother’s ventriloquist skills came to the fore and, adopting a never-before-heard squeaky voice, Ed spilt the beans on the real culprit.

The chick was broken, and so was the friendship by the look of it.

I don’t think they’ve have spoken since.