Yesterday F started her day with 3 big bowls of cereal whilst watching the most recent Dr Who episode, followed by Barbie - Rapunzel. I was a bit bleary as I'd been deeply asleep when she came chirpily into our bedroom asking us to read a message in Animal Crossing.
Later, she invented a card game, which we all played - F, J, me, Dozy Mog and Fuzzy Mog (the Mogs were playing together as a team). It was a mixture of snap and something. It worked OK as a game, albeit very luck-based, so we played a few rounds. Dozy Mog seemed to be the winner more than anyone!

J and I did houseworky stuff for a while - he did sorting through boxes, washing up and blitzing the kitchen surfaces, I did hoovering downstairs and kitchen floor cleaning. M popped over briefly with the twins. After housework, we all got peckish so had a snack before going out into the garden for bubbles. Bubbles didn't go so well - think the air pressure was all wrong. Had a nice time out there though lounging around and looking at the sky.

After J and I came back in, F stayed out, doing something with woodlice (some kind of 'rescuing from unsecure homes' according to her - i.e. moving them from their comfortable places, the poor sods). A few days ago she was holding a worm and it just divided into two, which I'd never seen before - we were both really shocked! Both bits continued to move, the main worm disappeared under the steps and the tail bit carried on wriggling for a while.

A bit later F asked me to film her and made up some kind of song/story, called 'Hollywood', which was about a girl who had a little daisy and loved it, then she seemed to lose it, there was a bit with a horse galloping (she rode on the tent-tunnel then fell off), then a bit with a leaf, which I didn't really get, then "she travelled far and wide" and found the daisy "with a bird by it, but the bird was... [dramatic pause] dead!" I got it all on my newish camera which can take much longer movies than the old one. It's a shame some of the sound isn't clearer, as it was entertaining storytelling.

While J was doing dinner, F took an old baby bath temperature sensor thing (that had emerged from J's box-sorting endeavours) up to the bathroom and experimented with that for a while, trying different amounts of cold and hot water. We ate dinner (burger sandwiches, chips and a few salad veggies) watching Stardust, which we enjoyed very much - good mixture of magical, quirky, dark and charming.

Today we didn't get up till 10 (F had been awake till gone midnight), F watched more Dr Who, then played Animal Crossing with me. She likes to visit my town, play hide and seek or tag, visit a couple of my characters, etc. We used the short message facility - the game is really giving her so many opportunities for reading and writing! She sent me the following, among other messages:

"I poo tooooooooo"

"I love you poo-hed"

"bossy bossssssy"

"soree"

We played for 90 minutes or so, then I had a quick snacky lunch and went off to walk to Homebase to buy a few things, some to be delivered during the week (mower and paddling pool) and others (bolts and cutlery) to be brought home by me. It was very nice to be out walking by myself at my own pace for 2 hours, I really enjoyed it. Saw K at the park with her 2 girls and her husband, so have arranged to see her - we've been phoning each other and missing each other's calls for ages.

Back home, J and I got the garden table and chairs out and celebrated by sharing a small bottle of Becks that was left in the fridge. We all sat out for a while, enjoying having the table and chairs out for the first time in our new garden. It felt great. The table is so much closer to the living-room than at the other house, for instance, where there were steps, lower patio and conservatory in the way. Watched a squirrel cavorting about in the trees at the back. It was lovely - been looking forward to this ever since we moved in actually.

I cooked butternut squash grills, roast potatoes and carrots, broccoli, green beans and courgettes with soy, lime and garlic dressing and we watched Stardust again, at F's request. Now she is in bed and I have Black Narcissus downloaded from 4OD to watch in the corner of my screen whilst doing a few other things.

Stardust generated conversations about inheritance, runes, oracles and also about the motivations of the various characters at different points. We paused it now and then to answer F's questions.