Cally, the problem with dinner time dramas is that they have a captive audience. We've had a few issues with up and downing too, I've found she eats better when we serve tea a bit earlier. If she's fluffing around for too long we take her dinner away. We had enormous problems with this with DD1, even after she was going to school (!) A dietician friend once said to me that kids really only need about 15 min to eat their meal, so we rounded that out to 20 mins (with 2 warnings), and then the dinner disappears after that. Mean, aren't I?

That is so cute when you go out somewhere and they find a little temporary friend to play with. Arte sounds like it was a well deserved and very long overdue social outing (and I hope the start of many more).

Oz yay for progress! He'll get the hang of it soon enough. We praise E like crazy whenever she does one, so she'll very proudly tell everyone all about it LOL.

jM. glad your bro is out of hospital, I hope the professor dude came come up with some answers. I can imagine your brother is very indignant about people asking if it was self-inflicted, but in the absence of an explanation people will always be suspicious.

I"ve been trying to avoid paying too much attention to what's happened in Japan but it's seeping in around the edges of my consciousness.