Razzle dazzle

Family weekend day two: a long hot one, spent mainly in the garden.

We carried the kitchen table outside and put it under the gazebo, and had a kind of rolling buffet through the afternoon and evening. People came and went as the mood took them, but there was lots of chat and laughter, and I felt very lucky having the whole crew around me.

The Boy Wonder still wasn't very well, so he was unusually fragile and needed more sleep than usual, but this didn't stop him organising us all, and wanting to know how everything worked. It transpired that the best thing about having the paddling pool blown up for him was the filling process; here he's checking to make sure the correct hose is being used. The outfit is beautifully designed to make it difficult for the enemy to estimate his range, speed, and heading, but sadly it didn't prevent the water reaching his tummy when he overbalanced and sat down, at which point paddling stopped being fun and was abandoned.

Words of the day: "car', "key" and "door". Also "rororo" - which (brilliantly) is a boat. And "no" of course, which today was produced very short, on a high rising intonation (and with the smallest imaginable shake of the head) that tended to make you feel stupid for even asking the question.