I was boiling an egg yesterday lunchtime, when Amelie walked up to me with a serious expression on her face, and said this:

"I'm Super Cow, you're a snail, and Mummy's a mushroom."

Which is possibly the first time those words have ever been combined in a sentence.

For the past year, Amelie's been so at home with the iPad, you'd think that Lisa had enjoyed a one night stand with Steve Jobs, but as it happens, the girl's also pretty handy with a mouse and keyboard. Since Christmas, her favourite PC game has been Super Cow, a platform arcade game featuring snails, moles and naughty dogs. It's basically Sonic the Hedgehog with udders.

Worryingly, Amelie's so computer literate that she can now walk up to the PC, close down Facebook, minimise my blog, and double-click on Supercow, all in the time it takes me to put the kettle on. I can pop out for a cup of tea, and return two minutes later to find my blog post gone, and Amelie sitting on the computer chair, halfway through level five. The only thing which stops me being angry is the pride I feel at the fact that my three-year-old daughter knows as much about computers as I did when I was twenty-five.

Better still, that technological know-how looks set to bring this family together. I took Amelie for a walk yesterday, and we had a long chat about the new baby, during which she told me that whilst she'd rather the baby didn't come out, she does want to show it all her games on the iPad. I like to think that's Steve Jobs' main legacy - helping toddlers to bond with their unwanted siblings.

In other news, Lisa spent most of yesterday counting her blessings on the living room floor, and the result is that we now have about thirty bags of change, totalling £164. That equates to less than 24 hours at the local vets, but it's a start. The good news, however, is that whilst two days of hospitalisation left Chloe only marginally better than she was before, two days at home seem to have done her the world of good.

She began eating little bits yesterday, and by the evening was voluntarily socialising with us, and seeming more like her old self. She doesn't seem keen on the ridiculously expensive biscuits the vet sold me, but overnight she ate all of the stupidly pricey tinned food I'd left out for her. So this morning I tried her on the outrageously dear pouches. She was actually asking for her breakfast for the first time in a week, which is encouraging, and she tucked into the pouched food with enthusiasm. At least I thought she did. Five minutes later, it transpired that she'd licked up all the gravy, and left the actual meat. But it's still an improvement. For the first time, I'm beginning to think that £400 was worth it.