Notes from the week

• On Tuesday, M returned from a work trip to New Orleans laden with gifts such as a New Orleans babygro, toy crocodile and delightfully funny picture book about gumbo (Gator Gumbo) for Little Planet, and assorted chilli sauces for me and him
  
  
• M had most of the week off, which meant that I ate very, very well indeed. As he was home, he was able to cook such delights as spaghetti in puttanesca sauce, roast chicken with spring greens sauted with pancetta, wild boar stew (photo below) with brown rice, baked sea bass with roasted sweet potatoes and sage leaves, pork tonkatsu with shredded cabbage, and apple and blueberry crumble made with jumbo oats
  
  
• Little Planet was taking a tablespoon and a half of baby rice in her first week of weaning, so we started her on a second meal of pureed carrot prepared in our new Beaba Baby Cook steamer and blender - she wasn't particularly enamoured by the taste but she did eat it all
  
  
• On Thursday, we took her for a Turkish lunch of lahmacun, hummous, flat bread and baklava at one of the many Turkish restaurants on Green Lanes in Harringay. We ate and she watched the world and his mother pass by!
  
  
• She slept through all the loud fireworks exploding around us for most of the week. Phew!
  
  
• Her nursery was finally laid with carpet on Tuesday and is now a very warm and cosy space
  
  
• On Friday, we took her to the Mark Rothko exhibition at the Tate Modern - her first visit ever to the Tate. Once again, she enjoyed looking at the colours and shapes and the throngs of people. Afterwards, she chilled out with us in the leather sofas in the 5th floor members' room while we ate cheesecake and drank ultra smooth illy coffee
  
  
• Then we pushed her along the Southbank to a heaving Borough Market, where we picked up De Gustibus sourdough bread, Chegworth Valley farm apples, and smelly cheeses for her Mum and Dad's lunch. By this time, she had fallen asleep and it was time to go home
  
  
• I went into the West End alone on Saturday afternoon to make a start on some Christmas shopping at Foyles, Paperchase, Liberty, M&S, Muji and Brooks Brothers. From Muji, I bought Little Planet her first ever Christmas stocking, made from thick dusky pink felt that should last many, many Christmases. Now we have a child of our own, Christmas is going to be very special for us from now on. And we will also have our first ever Christmas tree soon
  
  
• Still a lot more Christmas gifts to buy, but there's always online too
  
  
• In town, I also saw the stupendously brilliant (well, I thought so) and quick-witted movie Easy Virtue, based on a Noel Coward play and starring the equally sexy Colin Firth, Jessica Biel and Kristen Scott-Thomas
  
  
• I read as many newspaper analyses of the Presidential election as possible and am now Obama'ed out (well, not quite)
  
  
• We raked autumnal leaves from the lawn, but by the next day the leaves had returned. Our trees are not done shedding yet
  
  
• We enjoyed watching Little Planet reach out and try and pull down the toys on her Happy Safari cot mobile - fortunately we never used the mobile to help her fall asleep as she certainly would never sleep with it on now. The mobile is strictly for stimulating daytime play
  
  
• We popped her in a door bouncer for the first time and had a giggle as she didn't know quite what to do other than swirl round and round (photo above)
  
  
• On Sunday, we took Little Planet to a buzzing Alexandra Palace farmers' market near Crouch End and filled the buggy basket with soda bread, more sourdough bread, soft goat's cheese, Portland crab, pears and leek and brie quiche
  
  
• I began reading Lionel Shriver's intricate but a little too parochial The Post-birthday World, but soon tired of it and so started Carol Shields' Happenstance. Her books always engage me so I have high hopes of finishing this one
  
  
• We celebrated as Little Planet turned 5 months this week. Happy birthday, little cherub!