Sponges..

'Chill out Mum, I'm only just 2 (who'd have a speech therapist for a mother?!)'

These spongy shapes kept Biryani amused for a while. She knows that shapes are called 'circle, square,' etc ,numbers are 'four, five', letters' a,b, z' etc and colours 'yellow, pink'etc. Now whether she picks precisiely the right label for the concept is another matter. She usually plays it safe and calls any shape 'circle-square'.

So as I type a quasi-fight is going on between 2 younger boys, but is more disturbing as the sponges are being squeezed out and all manner of rude words are coming out in English (mainly with a Swedish accent), Swedish and Arabic. Meanwhile Biryani is happily repeating surah al-fatihah and counting up to 15 as she colours M's Bamse (a swedish cartoon bear) colouring book. A sponge will absorb whatever it's placed upon, not only pure water..

I have been doing final preparations for baby, Biryani has been transferred to the boy's room, and she actually slept in there without a fuss, and I think I slept better for it too. I've been having difficulty sleeping so well recently, particularly after praying Fajr, what with baby wriggling, ongoing stress, and hunger (I had a first breakfast at 4.30 am the other day, sun well up by then, so didn't feel so strange)