The other morning Bright Eyes woke me up with these words: "Mum, Coco is crying," and then "Josh is taller than Dad."

The first part was relevant. The second part was his head going round and round, comparing, contrasting, and finding boxes and categories for everything that exists.

The categories of things that he is interested in at the moment include:

• surnames - and whether you keep it all your life or change it.
• position in your family
• who has a step dad or step mum
• how tall versus how old you are
• age (of course) and which team you're in at school
• Movie classification ratings - G, PG, M, MA and R.

His idea of an interesting statement/conversation opener to me is: "Mum, T is 125cm tall. I'm taller than T. But J is taller than me."

Which is fine, if you hear about it once. The 25th time it becomes a bit tiresome.

The challenge for us with his manic thinking about all of these categories is firstly, to get him to keep some thoughts in his head rather than spouting them out around the place. And secondly, to take the conversation to a more emotional or analytical level.

So, when he says, "T is 125cm tall," next time, I might try to say, "You talk about T a lot. What are some of the things you like about him? How do you feel when you play with him?" and see if I can extend the conversation into new ground.