Day 26

Word count: 45,702 - so a whopping 2360 words ahead of schedule! And I've written the hardest scene to write in the novel - the one where all is revealed! Yeah!

I know I said I'd be away, but the weather was against us. Yesterday there was a snowstorm that caused the longest traffic jam in the history of the country... more than 800 km! While I was sitting warm and comfortable at my desk, whining about all the editing I had ahead of me, thousands of people were stuck in their cars, hungry and shivering. No casualties, but a lot of people stranded for hours on end. Several train lines were down as well, and the Red Cross opened up shelters. Chaos.

In any case, the roads were still icy today, and they were expecting another cold front from the north, so we stayed put. We were sorry to miss Greetjes party - we had been really looking forward to it. Alvast gefeliciteerd, Greetje! The girls were disappointed to miss their trip to see Oma, but we'll try to make it up there next weekend.

I will leave you today with a couple of new phrases that Sonia has taken to using all the time:

"Ik denk het wel." = "I think so."(used whenever she would normally say yes, like when we ask facetiously whether she is ready to get out of bed after she has called out to us repeatedly with a voice resembling a fog horn)

"zometeen" = "in a moment" (used whenever asked to do something she doesn't want to do, like eating her beans)

"hij doet het niet" = "it doesn't work" (used for anything that she cannot operate in one go, like the perfectly good zipper on her shoe, or the button on her coat)