He crouched down so that he was at eye-level with his opponent.

Determined blue / green eyes looked into solemn brown ones.

The battle was about to begin…

Carefully he lifted the spoon from the bowl and placed it up against her lips.

But she refused to open her mouth.

He sighed. "Now Lizzie," he said patiently. "We've discussed this. You need to eat your dinner."

She looked at him, blinked, before stubbornly turning her head away.

She was making her position quite clear.

But he was not one to give in.

Cautiously he raised the spoon to his nose and sniffed.

She turned to see what he was doing.

Feeling her eyes upon him, he slowly moved the spoon to his own mouth and took a small taste.

"Mmmmmmm… Yummy."

He looked over at her to gauge her reaction.

She curled up her bottom lip and banged her tray-table with both hands.

Not happy.

When it looked as though he was intending to eat some more, her eyes began to fill with tears.

He turned triumphantly to his wife, who was standing by the fireplace in the sitting room.

Molly shook her head – wrong move.

She then had to quickly put her hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud.

Was he ever going to learn?

"Lizzie, stop that."

"Don't do that."

"No that's bad."

"It's supposed to go in your mouth not all over your hands."

And then…

"Elizabeth Margaret Holmes… don't… you… dare!"

She did.

Molly heard the unmistakable sound of a bowl full of baby-food hitting the kitchen floor. Followed closely by the sound of delighted giggles of a baby girl who is very pleased with herself.

A few minutes later her husband made his way to the sitting room.

The usually elegant looking Consulting Detective sat down in his chair with as much dignity as a man could with baby food smeared on his shirt, suit, and face, through his curly hair and even on the end of his aristocratic nose.

Molly turned to get the scoreboard that was securely placed behind Bill the Skull on the mantelpiece.

She updated the score before showing it to her husband.

His eyes flickered from his wife to the scoreboard and back again, a hurt expression on his face.

Elizabeth – 10
Daddy – 0

Molly placed the scoreboard back behind Bill before she walked over to her husband and leaned down to kiss him on the forehead.

She straightened up and made her way to the kitchen to clear up the mess she knew she would find there.

Then she collected their wilful daughter from her highchair and gave her a bath before putting her to bed.

Sherlock, she would thoroughly clean from head to foot later.