Current status

My mother's house purchase is finally completed, and her goods should have been moved in today; we can't confirm that until this evening but if there'd been a problem I expect the mover would have phoned.

My mother is leaving tomorrow morning; Alison is visiting in the morning, and Debbie in the afternoon.

Assuming there are no problems with my mother's house, I will fly out next weekend with the girls, to stay for a month and finish my convalescence. If I feel very healthy indeed I'll come back in a fortnight; otherwise Rob will fly out for a weekend because really, we none of us could handle a whole month apart. No. But two weeks will give Rob some much-needed rest and won't blight our lives too much. If I'm no better than I am now, Rob will accompany us out there. I can order nappies to be delivered there before I leave this house, so that's easy.

I've bought two nursing dresses for my summer wardrobe, since being stuck in bed for a month means I've spent almost none of my spending money. I've also bought some more nursing underwear and an entirely frivolous sling. I'm looking forward to them immensely.

Is it bad that I'm planning ways to carry both babies at the same time in slings? When I was healthy I was well able to carry them both at once if I had no bags.

We're looking to sell two tables (one dining, one desk) and the big telly. I must get organised and do the photos and listing on Ebay thing.

Emer at 5.5 months

Well, I don't do regular updates, so I thought I'd throw one in here.

She's gorgeous. What else matters?

Well, when she was four weeks old I bopped her on the head and so we went to A&E. Then when she was four months I got ill and she got dehydrated, which I didn't realise until I took her to a doctor. Then less than a month later she got a fever and we found that she couldn't take oral medicine so we had to get suppositories, which made me feel abusive and disgusting, but were clearly much less traumatic for her than the oral meds. Then she had a growth spurt.

Now she's fat and happy and has two teeth. She's interested in solid foods but not ready for them yet - when handed a banana she tasted it and rejected it outright when she found a piece bit off when she chomped down on it. So we give her a spoon and a plate at mealtimes and she feels like part of what's going on.

She likes to say "bl" as in "bleagh" and "bloo" and "blblblblblbl."

She loves her sister a ridiculous amount and enjoys horseplay which leaves her parents alarmed and poised to rescue. She hates dirty nappies. Strangers are beginning to bother her and she's really twigged to the fact that I'm separate now; she doesn't approve. I haven't written many poems for her yet, but then, I hadn't written many for Linnea at this age either; I think it's a time and energy issue.

She's ticklish and charming, productive of poo, enchanting, disarming, and covered in goo.