Hi

Anouk is still comfortable, sleeping a lot and when she is awake issuing commands and being amusing.  We are juggling her medication to try to get things right, she has not been too sick today and her pain is reasonably under control but headaches have become a bit more frequent and so she is getting slightly more morphine than she was. When i was on the phone to the nurses this morning, she suddenly said "why did the chicken cross the road, - to get to the other side!",  She woke yesterday and asked if she could go for a swim and then later to ask if she could have hair braids - she got the hair braid - and now looks like Tim Minchin (rather serious case of bed head) - with a braid.  She still wants things to be busy and likes to have her friends over - but can be rather grumpy when they get here....  She is fed up with being told what she can and can't eat (bearing in mind she can't swallow and food and water tend to end up in her lungs) and so today was insistent she would have a sandwich for lunch, fortunately loosing interest after a little bite and then wanted a sweet to suck - "not a fat one - a thin one and i am going to eat it and swallow it whole without chewing it"  - she did eventually get hold of a sweet and i spent an anxious 5 minutes whilst she chewed it,  refusing to take it out before she finally spat it out.  She has asked to go out and see her chick "Lily" a couple of times and liked having it sat on her lap and wrapped in her blanket for a while.  We have had a steady stream of visitors today including two of Anouk's school friends and Julia and family have come back from holiday and so it is lovely to have them around.  Pa Fred and Granny Sue arrive from their week back in Australia! on Saturday.  Neave is finding things really tough and is angry and not really sure what to do with her feelings, it is hard to give her the attention she needs at the moment, she is off to see her Play Specialist at the Hospice tomorrow.