We've just had a whirlwind kind of week. The day after returning from a fun weekend celebrating David's birthday, a close friend of the family died in France. I decided to jump on a plane on Wednesday, so I could be there for the Friday morning funeral.

As a result Ruby and David were left to their own devices for the first time ever for more than 12 hours or so. Ruby did awesome, and acted as if I'd only been away for a few hours when I finally returned stunned and exhausted on Sunday. And once again I have to catch up with her because she mastered about 1,000 extra words in those four days!

And then, on Sunday too, our amazingly cuddly cat, Two, died. We buried him yesterday, next to his sister One, who died a year and a half ago of the same ailment (kidney malfunctioning), with Ruby's sweet words ringing our ears: "Bye bye boy, fais dodo."