In and out and about # 2

M had taken Monday and Tuesday off work, so much of Monday was spent working and relaxing in the garden, though M also had to work from home for half a day. In the evening, I cooked some mixed vegetables with spices, chilli and coconut cream.

On Tuesday, we took 5-week-old Little Planet on her first bus ride. Our days of being able to sit on the top deck are over (for now). We took her, fast asleep in her pram, to Exmouth Market, where we bought capers, Manchego cheese, membrillo, lomo, smoked paprika, paella rice, walnut and honey bread and wine from Brindisa. Then we strolled back through Islington, buying a mint plant, glass tumblers and magazines (Dwell, Real Simple, Parents, Wired, Wallpaper*, Redbook) along the way.

In the evening, M cooked a seafood paella for some old friends we've known since our Oxford days, and we chatted about work and babies. One of our friends, a single woman who is a development worker in Africa, has been approved for adoption in India but she was sharing with us her anxieties about actually being able to look after a child.

We sipped wine in the garden as darkness fell and generally relaxed. Or at least, I tried to relax, but it was difficult as Little Planet was having a very unsettled late afternoon and early evening. Just one of those situations where nothing you do can calm her - not even holding her in your arms. She eventually managed to fall asleep around 9. Her unsettledness could have been because the last five days have been full of people and outings, or it could be just something she's going through developmentally, or it could be a mixture of the two. Who knows. The one thing I know for sure is that with a new baby nothing is predictable.