what is it about children?

What is it about children that every morning we have to get up for school, they sleep so deeply we have to wake them at 7am....... but when there is no school - on half-term, or weekends they wake up before Jack Frost has finished his work, and the moon is still in full bloom? Yesterday I was woken at 06.00 and this morning at 05.45... the o being -like Robin Williams famously said - OH my god are you serious!!!!!!!!! By 9.30 we had made a lego treehouse, eaten two breakfasts, gone to the shops when Daidsy said, "is it lunchtime yet?" I won't repeat here what I replied.

What is it about children that they love, crave, beg for popcorn one week, and just after you buy the Tesco mega pack offer (3 mega packs for the price of two) - that's 8 bags per pack = 24 bags of popcorn...... they decide they hate popcorn?

What is it about children that they know exactly (down to the tone, the pitch, the timing) how to push your buttons? The buttons that have the nuclear warning on the front. The buttons that require three codes, synched to attack together and say the one thing that overides all the defence mechanisms to all out nucleur warfare?

What is it about children that no matter what you buy them, within minutes they want more? But give them a cardboard box or an empty milk carton and some pebbles and they'll play for an hour (and what is it about me that I never, ever learn this and get spectacularly narky about the lack of gratitude in their gift????????)

What is it about children that no matter how polite and beautiful they are in the hidden confines of your house, like metal - as soon as you expose them to the outside world they react with the air like a corrosive explosive and blow up in your face? As my mum's best friend comes to visit, they waltz in and ask if she bought them a present.....

What is it about children that they call to your inner child.... like little sirens whispering through the trees, pulling, cajoling, tempting out your petulance, your pouting, your pantomime version of yourself, stamping your feet, throwing tantrums, yelling 'it's not fair!' and 'stop being such a child!'
"But I am a child, mummy!"

What is it about children that make you smile with the simplicity of life?