Shocking, isn't it. Five weeks since I last blogged. I think there are three things at play here. Firstly, my colleague is only now starting her phased return to work after about 2½ months off; it's just been so busy at work keeping on top of things recently. Secondly, for the best part of a month, I've been suffering from a cold, so feel permanently under the weather and tired. The last, curiously, is probably Facebook. Because you can just type 3-5 words to describe how you are, it's easier to do that than to write some relatively prosaic narrative. Perhaps the answer is that I blog in a more snippety way. If anyone ever reads this, by all means comment to let me know what you think.

Anyway, ah yes, narrative. So what's new. Well, we've all suffered from aforementioned cold. With that, Jessie's english has improved apace with new words like cough and frog. As we predicted, she's turning into a chatterbox. She now answers to Jessica with Kaijak (nearly there). She's starting to combine words (I dinner, for instance). Yesterday in the bath she said beebles at least 40 times. To be fair, there were a lot of bubbles in there...

She climbed out of her cot a wee while back, so the sides have come down and we've converted it into a junior bed (as they call it). She's sleeping fairly well, although wake-up time seems to vary between 5.50 and 7.30. Usually the former at weekends, and the latter on days when the alarm is set.

She's doing well at nursery - we had an update with her key worker the other day, and she's apparently as confident there as she is at home. Ros and Jess have started going to a music group near home, where Jess happily goes up to the front and sits next to the leader. No guessing who's in charge there...

In other news, Mum's powerbook died, so she's bought a glossy new MacBook. Sounds very cute. We've replaced our nasty uPVC windows with lovely, new uPVC windows from a local firm, Prior Products. These have decent openings, proper insulation, and the right proportions for the house. As a bonus, water doesn't run down the inside of them.

For my birthday, we went for an overnight stay down near the coast in Sussex, at a lovely B&B, Old Chapel Forge. We met up with my Mum in Chichester in the torrential rain, and again the next (windy, but sunny) day in Portsmouth.

Anyway, I'd better sign off, as I've got to get packed and on my bike to go to hospital. I'm off to Amersham for a week, where they're going to do some phototesting to try to find out why I go all burny in the sunshine. Wish me luck!