My daughter is now fast approaching two and a half years old. Seeing as a month or two in a small child’s world is equivalent to a couple of years in a balding father’s life, I thought I would update her list of favourite games. Some of the old favourites – Shop, Cave, Doctor’s – are still popular. But some new entrants are favoured, too:

• Garage – My daughter recently acquired (via the kind benevolence of her Nanny at a car boot sale) a retro Fisher Price garage. Fisher Price people and their cars do not staff the garage. Vans, sports cars and a tractor – all gifts from her Nanny to play with on the garage – run the establishment.
• Piggy and Daddy – More a song than a game, this synth-backed classic has it all. Demo tune three on my daughter’s Xmas present keyboard is otherwise known as ‘Piggy and Daddy’, a catchy ditty about a man, his daughter’s puppet pig and the fact that they are such good friends.
• King of the Castle – I get to act like an idiot and climb ‘the seven year old and over’ climbing frame when we visit the local play park. The reason is that my daughter hangs around at the bottom, telling me she is the Dirty Rascal. When Mummy is there as well, the Dirty Rascal – and her associate – becomes the Gruesome Twosome.
• Animals in the Tree – When we leave the play park, we hit the trees in the big park. Toys are told to climb the tree and then my daughter shouts: ‘Be careful’. Subtle variants include ‘Climb the Tree’, while Daddy has to hold his daughter as she (pretends) to climb the tree, and ‘Look for Creatures’, an investigation into ants living on the trees.
• Upstairs – Which basically involves going upstairs and playing a series of games with the soft toys, such as ‘Shop’ and ‘Cave’. Looking out the upstairs window is popular, too – especially when Mummy walks past or an Ocado van drives past. Or the man opposite arrives home from work. And opens his front door. Which he does, strangely, every day.