The best way to mash bananas - with a harp of course

Oh to be a child again. They get to do whatever they want (within reason) with none of the restrictions of social niceities and good manners that we adults have to put up with. If the little man has a mouth full of food and sees something else he fancies eating, he will simply push out whatever chewed up morsel is inconveniently in there with his tongue, making room for another tasty treat. Genius. Of course, I will put a stop to this at some point - visions of him spitting out food in front of startled dinner guests when he is married and in his thirties is not the future I envision for him.
And they are not afraid to show their feelings - however public. The other day, we were visiting friends in Wells and making our way down the very pretty high street to have a coffee. Unusually one of the pavements has a small trickling brook running along one side and naturally the little man wanted to get in and splash about. I didn't want him to and gently tried to move us past the temptation which resulted in him lying face down on the floor, crying and refusing to get up. Fair enough, I thought - sometimes he can play in the water, at bathtime and when he is smothered head to toe in waterproofs, and now he couldn't so I felt his frustration. Despite the stares from passersby, I admired my son's unbridled freedom of expression.
But the best example comes courtesy of my friend's little man. She is a professional harpist and one day came into the dining room where she stores her precious instrument to find her three year old carefully pushing a whole peeled banana through the strings. She asked him what he was doing, to which he replied: "Mashing bananas mummy". Obvious really.