In the library this morning

...there was a little boy UTTERLY hysterical. He was strapped in a buggy, with a supervising daycare worker pushing the handle on and off when he got really loud. He seemed a bit tired and overwhelmed, and I once again said a silent prayer of thanks that I don't leak (ever), and to be quite honest I kind of put him out of my mind because, well, at least someone was with him. Therefore no maternal judgmental outrage. ;)

After a minute or two, I could see Morgan getting fidgetty. Again, this is Morgan, no thoughts about that for another few minutes! But her face was really really serious, and I could see her scanning for me.

"OK there, baby?" I ask, coming nearer so she can see me in the crowd. She rushes into my arms sobbing, pointing at the pushchair and saying, "baby, moolk, baby, moolk!" When I tell her that I *can't* give the baby milk, and that someone is looking after him and he's probably tired and fed up, she gets VERY UPSET. Eventually, clearly not having managed to communicate with stupid mummy, off she goes still looking worried.

Then a minute later she appears at my elbow. "Mummy, moolk... pweese moolk!" She looks very intense; this is not about milk. I attempt distraction ("don't you want to see this story?") and she bursts into frantic tears in my arms. I nurse her, feeling a bit stupid again for not understanding, and after no more than ten sucks she runs back off to join the other children. Apparently the world is all as it should be.

And that's when I realise what her little serious face and her sudden decision that SHE needed milk was about. That little boy clearly wanted something, and she didn't think he was getting it. I, mysteriously, refused to fix the situation. Would the same thing happen to her? If the world was so broken for him, would she still get what *she* expects from it?