I cannot possibly be as tired as I am.

But I am.

However, we have passport photos for the children, and the tickets for the trip to Borth should be in the post, and the bokashi bins arrived today, and I got four loads of laundry done.

We absolutely have to figure out how to have several weeks at home with no-one here and us not going anywhere. Luckily we're rapidly running out of money for travel so we should be able to manage.

Oh, gawd. All this and two lots of dental surgery too. What a summer!

Observing the children

Emer finds it difficult not to beam madly at the camera unless she's slightly afraid of the person taking the photo.

In general, she is trying on behaviours for the reactions - patting Linnea on the head, for example, or lowering her chin and looking up through her lashes, or other Cute Buttoned Boots mannerisms which get her lovingly laughed at.

Linnea has been writing decorated letters - lots of twirls and swirls - and then asking me to read the words aloud. If she doesn't recognise the word (because, for example, it is ANiNWOOS5 or TOXNS M) she asks whether it's in Irish or Swedish.

They are incredibly decorative though. Spirals at every serif, curlicues everywhere.