Make believe

Little Planet treated us to a lie in on Saturday, so we decided to treat ourselves and head into central London for brunch. We went to Carluccio's in the Brunswick and ate toast with fig jam, croissants and panetone which Little Planet particularly loved. She enjoyed a run around the place too, confidently chasing pigeons and tentatively edging towards and away from dogs.

We took her to the fountains in Russell Square, which amazed her. Then we headed into Covent Garden to buy coffee beans and a ceramic filter from Monmouth Coffee, wine from Oddbins, toiletries from Kiehl's, and assorted cheeses from Neal's Yard Dairy. Before heading home for lunch, we let Little Planet loose in the children's department of Foyles, where she enjoyed playing peekaboo with some 7- or 8-year old girls who were reading there. Inevitably we bought her some books, including Floella Benjamin's My Two Grannies - an utterly charming and funny picture book about a little girl and her two grannies - one from the Caribbean and one from Yorkshire.

It looks like that, at 15 months, Little Planet has gone down from two naps to one nap a day, after lunch, for around an hour and a half. So she was awake the entire time we were out in central London. Back at home, we fed her a lunch of pasta with cauliflower cheese followed by apple, then we put her down for her post-lunch nap. M and I also managed to have a nap! We woke her at 3 and then spent the rest of the afternoon playing and reading in the garden as the weather was so glorious. We also managed to do two loads of laundry.

After Little Planet went to bed, M made us pork chops with apple and horseradish sauce, accompanied by red cabbage and apple, and roasted cauliflower. I'm on the verge of a cold so I retired early to bed at 10pm and read Time Out's guide to New York. Just two and a half weeks to go!!!

Sunday - today - began at our usual time of 7am. After giving Little Planet her milk, M went out for a jog and I dusted and hoovered the entire house while Little Planet pottered about from room to room. She has discovered make believe play. She walks up and down the kitchen having long rambling conversations on her toy phone, concluding each call with "Okay, bye!". She also stirs food in her plastic saucepan with a wooden spoon and then feeds her dolly. She feeds her dolly a plastic bottle of milk. She tries to put socks and shoes on her dolly. She pretends to garden with her plastic gardening set. It's so delightful to watch. I am looking forward to alot of tea parties in the near future.

She ate her toast sitting on the back garden step while I hung out some washing which M had put on before he'd gone jogging. When M returned, he made us all scrambled eggs on toast. Then we went to the park. Lunch for Little Planet was red pesto pasta and peas, followed by peaches. M baked bread and washed down the kitchen floor and then Little Planet went down for her nap. Our lunch was freshly baked bread - still warm from the oven - and cheese. When Little Planet woke up, we washed her hair. We keep this to once a week because Little Planet gets hysterical having her hair washed. She hates it so much and I dread having to wash it.

My mum came to visit so the rest of the afternoon was spent chatting with her and sitting in the garden en famille. My mum's been busy with Durga puja here in London, but she still found time to make M and I some lamb and plum curry as well as some cauliflower curry. We'll eat them tomorrow night. We are all happy because my mum is bringing my dad permanently to London this week. He's got a place in a new care home just a few minutes from my mum's house.

My mum left for another puja. She's not particularly religious, but likes attending for the sociable aspects. We put Little Planet to bed and now I am roasting chicken thighs and legs with squash, red onions, sage leaves and whole garlic cloves for our dinner tonight. M will slow-cook some potatoes and spinach from our garden. We'll finish off with some homemade blueberry and apple crumble and Cornish ice cream.

Looking forward to it.