Twinkletoes, Double-Deckers and Pippi Longstocking

Friday:
Started late and with a snuggle in bed, where F made her hand be a wavy-about snake and we played that for a bit, then I made my hand be a wavy-about bee and did buzzing noises and F copied that, then her bee started finding people and stinging them so I offered it a hand-flower to land on instead and that led to conversations about bees, wasps, stinging, dying, defence, attack and of course honey.
Much giggling was also involved, and a quick and spirited game of 'yes they don't - no they do' ensued.
F had one of her ponies with her and told me it had 3 names: 'Violet Sparkle', 'Twinkletoes' and 'Sophie'. We talked a bit about how I had a collection of plastic ponies when I was a girl too, and how I loved them and made up stories about them and stuff. She asked what happened to them, I said I didn't really know, I just didn't have them any more. I did a bit of overacted sadness about not having the ponies and she did overacted mock sympathy. Then we turned that into a silly maths game where I was saying things like "If you had 2 ponies then you took 2 ponies away - that's how many ponies I've got now!' still in the overactedly sad way. And "If you had ten ponies and then you took five ponies away, and then you took five more ponies away, that is how many I have!' etc. Nice to have an audience for one's overacting...
Then when we went downstairs she told me not to look as she was making something secret for me. It turned out to be a pink pony cut-out drawing - she had done it so carefully, drawing, colouring and cutting. She told me it was called Twinkletoes (Hi Twinks! *waves*) and that she had done it because she knew I missed my ponies! I was quite touched. We have been particularly close and happy lately, and this was lovely of her. She then suggested I should put it on my bedside table so that I would see it last thing and first thing. Very sweet. So I did.
The rest of the day featured: some painting of Ferocious Beast pictures, with Maggie et al riding on top of him; 'helping' me to cut out material to make a new duvet cover for her bed, mainly in the form of jumping on the material and fiddling with the tape measure in an over-excited manner; Cat in the Hat PC game; Tweenies adventures game online; Shrek on X-Box. Twirling and jumping around, etc.

Saturday:
Much tickling and cuddling in bed, all three of us, to start our day, a day of sunshine and springlikeness. And shopping.
We upped the hill (the smallest of our number extremely reluctantly in a 'maybe my feet are hurting could it be another growth spurt' kind of way that in retrospect I think was hunger) to the bus stop and caught a double-decker into Brighton. I am liking this bus business without buggy. Nowhere near as much as F is though - she just adores sitting top front and experiencing the whole trip with or without running commentary in musical or spoken form.
In Brighton, hordes of people, bright sunny day, we purchased some enjoyable non-essentials! I got some trousers and a top and some socks, J got some new hardware and F got a little clock for beside her bed. I also bought thread for the duvet cover I'm making for F's bed. Could have spent a long time in C&H Fabrics stroking the wool and rubbing my face in it, but probably for the best that I didn't.
Back home again on another double-decker, and F did some more Ferocious Beast painting, played a bit of XBox and generally pootled around a bit. Watched a bit of Dancing on Ice with me and was inspired to twirl around and jump a bit.
We're reading Pippi Longstocking for bedtime book at the moment, so a chapter of that, and she was tired and fell asleep fairly quickly after by the sound of it.

During the week an online friend contacted me and told me that her other half has a similar condition to F - where her right side is 'difficult', for him, it is his left side that is. We compared notes at some length, and yet I feel this is just the beginning of an incredibly valuable friendship. To hear of an adult dealing with this, of his memories of childhood, of his achievements, of his analysis of how it has been to live with it, is so helpful, such a gift. I think we will be swapping stories and views for a long time to come. Thanks very much M! And thanks too to L, for helping us get in touch!

I have had 2 large glasses of red wine and relaxed and now intend to watch a film and flop on the sofa.
I'm not working again until Wednesday so there!