F had 2 big waileramas today. Not going to go into details because I'd rather keep this blog focused on the positives really. So the positives about the meltdowns were that, firstly, she really does this less and less - when it happened today I realized it's becoming much less frequent - and, secondly, she said an unprompted 'sorry' to me after the first strop and really meant it. I'm going to attribute at least 60% of it to her being tired and post-viral.

So, moving on, today we went out for a walk in the late morning, with her in charge - I did stipulate not going up 'Big Hill' and she was OK with that. She put her binoculars and her tape measure in her rucksack and I packed some bananas and chocolate for a small picnic. We wandered a bit, with her leading the way pretty much as she wanted, sat on a bench in the sunshine, then ended up going over and round in the loop that we sometimes do for a medium/long walk. Saw rabbits and a big white horse - patted it over the fence and watched it do a very long yellow pee - walked through the muddy downhill field with 2 very interested chestnut ponies following us and being a bit nudgy for my tastes, but not actually nippy and not too big. F found a large piece of chalk and did some really good writing on an old railway sleeper under a bridge.

Back home, she watched the start of a DVD on her laptop, then we went over to the park as local friend C had rung earlier to suggest meeting up in the afternoon there, as they were out walking locally. I packed a few park toys in my rucksack and we headed over. F was in a more sociable mood than she's been for a while and actually seemed quite interested in making friends with E, until it rather tragically all went wrong with the second strop of the day - hard going. But, apart from that, they did briefly play in various ways, which was nice to see. I got to know E a bit more, as C was pushing M on the swing and E decided to accept my offer of help with the roundabout and then with coming down from the climbing frame. Thinking about the strop in retrospect, I suppose I did make an assumption when I packed the bag of toys, which didn't help. I quite possibly wouldn't like it if F packed two things of mine in her rucksack without really telling me clearly and then offered one of them to my friend. Anyway, as I said, let's not dwell.

Walked back some of the way with C and the girls, parted company for them to head up the hill. F gave E 2 goodbye hugs. I think she would really like to be friends with E and felt crap about how it had all gone wrong.
Got home, instantly realized we had abandoned Dozy Mog in the park, so dropped my rucksack off and went straight back - the park had emptied when we left and Dozy Mog was just sitting there on a bench on his own. Picked him up and popped to the local shop for an ice-lolly for poor old F, who was still feeling a bit sad about the earlier stuff.

Back here, I tackled some kitchen stuff and then invented something nice for dinner - enchilada type things with 2 different fillings. I filled some of the tortillas with a mixture of finely chopped carrots, butter beans, cooked with chopped tomatoes, red onion, tomato puree, oregano, lemon juice, sesame oil and some with a filling of finely chopped mushrooms and green beans cooked in a sauce of soya milk, marge, garlic and pesto. Poured the white sauce over the whole lot and cooked them in the oven for 20 mins. Really tasty.
Watched some Dr Who, and now she's in bed - hope she gets a good night's sleep and is on better form tomorrow. I'm going to do a bit of work and might have a long soak.