Day 18

Word count: 30,789!!! No less than 783 words AHEAD of chedule!

Hoo ha. I am a Goddess with an Attitude who has just bought herself a first class ticket to a good night's sleep. Satisfaction is sweet. Am listening to Innessa Galante singing Ave Maria on my headphones and feel positively sublime... This state of mind can be yours too, for the small price of producing an average of 1,667 words a day for 18 days straight. Please not to confuse sublime with cocky. I am carefully guarding against feeling cocky by allowing myself to revel in tiny victories and then getting back to work. Cocky is asking for trouble.

Girls were high strung by the time I got home from work this evening, having been cooped up in the house all day feeling yucky. By the time bedtime rolled around, Maddy had a goose egg on her noggin as a result of being assaulted by her two-foot tall, swaggering, bully of a sister who was wielding a pink and lavender plastic blow dryer. Ai ai ai.

Once upstairs, it became clear that Sonia was looking for trouble. She proceeded to kidnap Maddy's special stuffed animal "Tweetje". Maddy has slept with that rabbit every night for over a year, and no matter how dedicated Maddy is to Sonia, this wasn't going to happen. Clever girl that she is, Maddy brought Sonia her stuffed sheep, which is almost identical to Tweetje, except for the ears and the color (the Easter bunny tries to be fair). Once Sonia was convinced that the sheep was an acceptable replacement for Tweetje, I asked her what she wanted to name it. "Aap." she said, and hugged it. For those of you who don't speak Dutch, this is the equivalent to naming a stuffed sheep "Eep", except that "Aap" means "monkey" in Dutch. Maddy and I looked at eachother and laughed. Aap. Maddy and Tweetje (which, incidentally is named after the sound Maddy claims a rabbit makes) and Sonia and Aap all fell asleep quickly this evening, hence the amazing word count.