She was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don't apply to you.

A few days off turned into almost two weeks.  All I had to say was that my back was sore, and that I was busy and tired, so I stopped talking.  My back's better, and term is ended, and we had a few days in Cambridge, and I'm quite keen to start writing again.

Two weeks of portraits.

Week 14

Hattie is balancing on the step into the conservatory, using a strip from my Coco dress.  I have given up trying to explain her.

Lucy wanted a go at driving the car.  She's sitting on Simon's lap, steering pretty well.  Hattie had a go too, which was terrifying.  

Week 15

Friday.  The laziest girls in Ealing.  It must have been about half ten, and they're in my bed, watching Octonauts.  Marvellous, as Hattie says.

A bonus shot of Lucy with a life sized model of a polar bear.  Taken today, at London Zoo.  I didn't really realise just how big they were; they are actually quite terrifyingly huge.

Portraits of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.