Sleepover

Not much going on here. Sophie's friend Saskia came over last night. It was the first sleepover experience for both of them and there was much excitement and tomfoolery, mostly centred around the inflation of the air-filled camping mattress. Sophie is now quite mobile. Looking at the clip here I'm sure you'll agree it's hard to imagine that she is almost completely covered by her cast from the waist down. Two weeks to go.

The best day Lottie ever had

This weekend we went to stay in one of our company cottages on a tiny island called Børøy. I've never seen Lottie, who is by nature a disconsolate creature, so happy. Never has a dog had as much fun in one day. She enjoyed:

• running around in the middle of nowhere (Børøy is a small island accessed from a slightly larger island a couple of hours and a ferry ride from Stavanger) without any other dogs or people to oppress her
• eating chicken cooked with a garlic, lemon and butter stuffing
• going on a speedboat ride
• rubbing in cormorant poo (enlarge photo on boat and examine neck area)

Four weeks and counting

Our New Year's Resolution is to eat out once a week. We must be boring if our resolution is to have more fun, not less. Anyway, here we are at the local pizza place. Sophie and Jo enjoyed dressing up "posh" (... "Daddy, you're scruffy!") and Sophie enjoyed staying up late. Not too much happening here. Sophie had a check-up last Monday in Bergen. Her hip is looking good and they have put a new cast on. This one will come off on 9th February, just before her birthday. By the way, her love affair with dentists is over. Today she told us she wants to be a florist when she's older.

Buffcleef and the dentists

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Of all the toys Sophie got for Christmas her favourite is a pack of "Happy Families" cards, or rather the dentist family contained therein. She hasn't let these four playing cards out of her sight for the past week. It may seem a bit weird but they have happy smiles and enjoy hiding in fold-out fairy land. In fact they spend a lot of time doing this. See also the pic of her table at the end of a busy play session. The four dogs in the wardrobe lifeboat are called Innie, Tinnie, Colin and Buffcleef. Tomorrow we fly to Bergen for a check-up and new cast. We're over halfway through the cast thing now.