A quiet moment...

... in the middle of a hectic day.
Fortunately the girls slept well. Simone was awake at 5 a.m, but that was a lot better than the 3 a.m. start that Jack had had the night before. No wonder he's catching every bug that's around.
I got up with Simone, and later she and Frieda had fun peering out at the snow from their bedroom window (extra - they're wiping off the condensation).  Jack really wasn't up to getting out of bed, so I got the girls ready and we did a kind of mad buggy slalom down the icy slopes to school. Our ancient Mclaren buggy - the basic, lightweight one that Richard and I bought secondhand when Eben was little - did surprisingly well on the slippery surfaces. We all stayed upright and we laughed a lot.
After that I drove Simone back to ours, where we spent a happy day. She's really on good form. When we're chatting with her, she watches our mouths intently, and she's busy practising words: today's clearest one was 'bubble' (she was in the bath, following a particularly messy nappy change).
The evening was harder work. I was a bit tired out by then, and when I picked Frieda up from after-school club, I scraped the car badly on a bollard while focusing on avoiding another car. That'll prove to be an expensive mistake, I think...
However... Richard and I made tea for the girls, and got them bathed and ready for bed. Jack emerged in time to soothe Simone to sleep; he has started a course of antibiotic, so with luck he'll be feeling better soon.  R and I took turns reading some sections of the 'Rabbit and Bear' book series to Frieda.  Once she was in bed, we headed home. Marianna was due back by then, after her long train journey from Guildford.
We ended the evening with a bit more therapeutic viewing of 'The West Wing'. Bedtime was not late :-)