off for a few days

to see my mum and have a pre-Xmas mini-Xmas there.
Taking some work with me, but should all be done by Tuesday morning at latest.

Quick catch-up before we go:
Thursday
F played The Sims 2 a lot again, and is definitely reading quite a lot of bits herself, whilst sometimes claiming that she can't read them and asking me to do so. She is also very interested in how the sims get together, make friends, fall in love, how that relates to what happens in the real world, and who can marry who (she checked with me that women can marry each other, so we talked about a few people we know in that context).
She found out how to unlock a new location, which we both got very excited about, seeing the character just get in a taxi and go for a holiday by the sea with a surf machine and all. She is generally really playing the game now instead of just fiddling with it.
I was helping her and working and not doing much else as I had a 3-deadline Friday slapping me in the face.

Friday
I had been up till stooopid o'clock, and still had to work right up until 2pm, which was exactly when we were due to visit a new very local HE friend. I met all my deadlines and we went to the local shop to buy something to get cashback to pay for a taxi up the hill as walking would have taken a good half hour that we didn't have.
Then we waited outside the shop on the bench eating sweets and chatting until the taxi came.

We had a lovely time up at C's house. F was initially most enamoured of their cat, and not so much of the girls, but by the end they were all playing together pretty well and having fun. It's just great to have met home-ed friends in our town - someone to pop to park with, etc. I had mainly seen the girls, E and M, at group, where I thought they were quite quiet, but of course that's relative. They were lovely lively confident girls in their own home. C and I chatted and F and I admired their tree and a small crowd of performing soft toys that did various Xmassy acts/songs. I especially liked a Santa that sang something about 'bringing toys and candy' but was running out of batteries and sounded very sinisterly to be threatening to bring 'poison candy'.

F had already said she might not go to LNs that evening, and then after C gave us a lift back, she tripped on the steps going in and hurt her leg, so was definitely sure she wouldn't be going after that. I was kind of relieved as we were both tired and I don't think she would have got enough out of it.
In the evening I went out like a grown-up and had alkyhol at a pub with real people, which was lovely.

Friday night, I really needed catch-up sleep but F had a hurty tummy and woke me up at nicely spaced intervals. Finally I woke at half seven to the sound of her being violently sick all over her duvet, so I thought it was probably time to get up.
Saturday she was sick about 5 times - we were supposed to be going to my mum's, so had to put it off till today instead.
She wasn't very ill most of the time, had a slight temperature later.
So Saturday was mainly washing and trying to find places to dry things. She was quite a bit better by evening but very sleepy and floppy. She is fine this morning, chirpy and lively again, thank goodness.
And now I'm off to pack and get ready and we'll be back on Wednesday.