DorkySon is massively into painting just now. He always asks if he can get his paints out about quarter to five – just when I’m about to start cooking his dinner – but because I’m so pleased that he’s got a new interest (which isn’t related to trucks in any way) I’m always happy to spend some time getting messy with him.

Last night I decided to show him one of my favourite things to do with paint – folding a piece of paper in half, putting splodges of colour on one side and then squishing it together to make a ‘beautiful butterfly’.

This was the result; the kind of picture that any mother would be happy to stick on her fridge.

It seems that DorkySon is more of a minimalist though. In the ten seconds it took for me to take the butterfly through to the dining room table to lay it out to dry, he had whipped another piece of paper out of the packet and done another painting entirely by himself.

“I like this one much better,” he said.

“But what is it?” I asked.

“Silly Mummy. It’s a train going into a tunnel.”