Yesterday I got Ingrid to go to her dance-n-play thing in the afternoon by promising that I’d be sitting right outside all the time. And I did. And she came to the door about 10 times, twice to cry about a bumped knee, and the rest of the time to announce that “we’re now playing follow the leader” or “I got to be the bear in the sleeping bear game” and so on. But at least she took part in the whole thing this time and didn’t want to leave early.

Ingrid’s obsession with not throwing anything away flared up yesterday. She got very upset when I emptied the small bin on the desk into the large one in the kitchen, and took it all out again. Then she told me “I wish there was no waste bin! I want to take it all!”

Today I went to meet some Sjalbarn mums again, like two weeks ago.

The builders have now demolished not just everything inside the extension, but also the old veranda outside. Inside, a lovely old window was uncovered, on what used to be the outside wall of the old house but is now inside between the to halves of the house. I’d have loved to keep it visible somehow but it’s right where we’d planned to have a wall, so it’s probably just going to get buried again.