When Ian was having his bath this evening, he was in a lovely frame of mind. All smiles and good humour.

I decided to capitalise on the moment and ask him a couple of questions about opposites – not the usual ones, we’ve done those to death – but ones that would make him think. I was curious to see what his answers would be.

“Ian,” I asked him casually, “what’s the opposite of woman?”

Ian was quiet for a while, then he gave me a huge grin and said “Man!”

I laughed, but I was surprised too. Ian is picking up the most extraordinary things these days, entirely by himself.

I challenged him again.

“Ian, what’s the opposite of child?”

There was a lengthy silence while Ian thought about this one. Then he looked up at me, and answered –

“Love”

It’s not the answer I was expecting – ‘adult’, or ‘grown-up’ – but if you think about it, that is a pretty clever answer.

It’s the adults in Ian’s life who give him love.

Isn’t he amazing?