Halloween and sick Ellie

I'm sitting in the downstairs spare bedroom, on half of the sofa, thinking how this really should be the sitting room. We're about to have the sitting room painted so we've moved as much out as possible, but only half of the settee would fit through the door, so the other section is in another room somewhere.

Hannah is beside me writing her diary to 'Dear Eliza' and very pleased with herself. She just told me she kissed Max last year - should I be worried?

We seem to have spent the last week doing Halloween. Well, we are Americans and therefore into celebrating the occult while being as self-indulgent as possible, of course.

Last Saturday the inhabitants of Acorn Circle had a bonfire, so we dressed up the children, snuck through the woods, and joined them. Mark spent the entire time scootering. Hannah spent the entire time running with a pack of screaming kids. I'm not sure what Ellie did. I chatted to people like Mike my neighbour, who I last bumped into while getting onto a plane in Chicago.

So that was Halloween 1. Then we had the Halloween party at the Casco Bay YMCA. I voted not to go, through sheer exhaustication after a long week at work, but I got out-voted. It was fun though. Hannah did the haunted walk, then took me into a dark room to probe a pretend body on a pretend operating table (hilarious but my fingers ended up smelling of Purell and pickles). Mark and Ellie went on the bouncy castle as much as possible. It was surprisingly fun.

Then last night was the actual real Halloween. Only Ellie was sick. We knew she was sick because Mike said 'Ellie time to go trick or treating' and she said 'I don't want to.' So Mark and Hannah walked about 1.5 miles around Oakwood, visiting 20 or so houses, and came home with mountains of disgusting chocolate. And Ellie and I stayed home and cuddled.

Her temperature has been between 100 and 104 for the last 24 hours, and she has been very hot and unhappy. She threw up at one point, and we both spent half the night awake with her. I'm hoping it's not swine flu, and that it passes soon. Only I hear her feet above my head, so I'd better go and check her...