Catching up and chilling out

In just over a month, I return to work and so I have been spending the last week or so preparing. I met with my boss and he told me that they want me to work on a major new account (I work in advertising). The account will involve some travel, occasionally in Europe. After nearly a year of maternity leave, I'm very excited. I've discussed my daily hours with my boss and with HR. I will start work early and leave the office at 5-ish pm each day in order to pick up my daughter from childcare by 5.30-ish and spend some time with her before her bedtime. M will drop her off each morning. I can work at home after Little Planet goes to sleep. And I can travel or work late so long as I have notice. This is the theory, and I pray very hard that it will be the practice. I think the key is not to over-think it, but simply to get on with it as all working mothers have to do.

The impending return to work has also meant trips to Aveda in Holborn to get my hair done, as well as several trips to the shops for my new working wardrobe. No hardship there! I've made an inventory of my existing clothes and have been focusing on shoes, handbags, blouses and a trench coat. So far I've looked around Selfridges and the shops around Bond Street and Regent Street, but once Little Planet starts childcare (just under a month before I go back to work) I will start looking (and buying) in earnest.

What else have I been up to... Well, I saw the excellent and moving movie Milk, on my own. Sean Penn was a revelation (and it was so hot seeing Penn and James Franco kiss). I ate, alone, at my favourite Korean restaurant Bi-won near the British Museum. M was away for 10 long days (in Chicago) and I was incredibly lonely even though I had several guests and even though I spent some lovely days going out for lunch with Little Planet and other mothers and their babies. Now that Little Planet can sit up in a highchair, is eating solids, and is enjoying entertaining herself by watching the world go by, eating out with her is such a pleasure. But now she is teething, she gets irritable quite quickly if I am out with her for too long. The other day she had a major screaming session on the bus home from a morning out in Islington. Poor little thing.

Little Planet has watched the birds and swung on the swings in Hyde Park and Regent's Park. Yesterday, M and I took her to the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize exhibition at The Photographers' Gallery. We lunched with her at The Diner on Ganton Street in Soho. We ate thick bacon cheeseburgers with fries while she had beef and French bean puree. Then she watched the hustle and bustle from her pushchair as we shopped for provisions at the Japanese mini-market Arigato on Brewer Street and at New Loon Moon in Chinatown. We went out after her morning nap and came back home in time for her afternoon nap. After her bedtime at 7pm, M made a dinner of chicken and baby aubergine yellow Thai curry. We ended the day watching the funny Hana, a Japanese Samurai movie we first watched at the London Film Festival.

Oh yes, and since my last post Little Planet turned 9 months!

I tend to read while Little Planet naps during the day, saving the chores to when she's awake as she finds it hugely entertaining watching me fold laundry or hoovering the rugs or cooking! M bought back a thick New York Times and Chicago Tribune, which I've been working my way through. I've also finished Tony Parson's My Favourite Wife and begun Shyama Perera's Do The Right Thing. This weekend, M has spent Little Planet's naptimes gardening as the weather has been so mild and clear.

Today, we pottered around the local shops and park and then spent most of the afternoon in the garden as the weather was warm and sunny. Tonight, M is making a few Korean recipes from the current edition of the every excellent Gourmet magazine: warm tofu with spicy garlic sauce, shrimp and spring onion pancakes, rice and kimchi.

A lovely weekend with my little family. And so another week begins. M is a lawyer and one of his cases goes to trial this week so I will not see much of him over the next few weeks. But at least he is in the country. And we always have our weekends...

The weekend list

Hot croissants with raspberry jam and Brie cheese for breakfast on Saturday / Apple and mango rice pudding for Little Planet / A stroll through Regent's Park and a play, for Little Planet, on the swings there / Hot dog for M, sausages, mash and onion gravy for me, and beef and green bean puree for Little Planet outside in the park's Honest Sausage cafe / Walking down Marylebone High Street and buying wine and toiletries / Strolling through Selfridges while Little Planet napped in her buggy / Walking down Wigmore Street to the John Lewis Food Hall for provisions / Cab home / Carrot and apple puree for Little Planet's dinner / Homemade lamb shanks and steamed green vegetables for our dinner after she had gone to bed / Fried eggs on toast with hickory Tabasco sauce for breakfast on Sunday / Oat porridge for Little Planet / Lahmacuns, humus, pitta bread and spicy Kurdish sausage for lunch in Antepliler (sweet potato and lamb puree for Little Planet) / A play on the swings for Little Planet and watching the birds being fed in the leafy Finsbury Park / A thorough read of the weekend FT while Little Planet napped and M had a conference call / Spinach and apple puree for Little Planet's dinner / Homemade tonkatsu, miso soup and shredded cabbage for our dinner / Catching up on 90210 (my new guilty pleasure) and Eastenders (which I have started watching again recently) while M worked / Being amazed at the thought that Little Planet will be 9 months old at the end of this week / Feeling sad that M is back in the States again - for a whole week / But looking forward to the week filled with guests and outings (so far, a friend and her two babies on Monday, my cousin on Tuesday, a baby singing class on Wednesday, an outing with just Little Planet and I on Thursday, and my mother-in-law this Friday) / Also looking forward to some solo trips into town on Saturday (getting my hair done and doing some shopping) and the following Monday (seeing work colleagues and catching a movie) while my mother-in-law looks after Little Planet

It's overwhelming...

... how sad I get sometimes when I look at my daughter and think how much of her life I will not be witness to. I am neither old nor ill, and yet there will come a day when I will pass away and not have the privilege to see how she develops as a woman, how the rest of her life will turn out... Do other mothers feel this way?

Cotton days

My husband returned from a work week in Chicago with a bunch of flowers, a good bottle of wine and a couple of filet mignon. For two years ago today, we were wed.

The days and weeks since my last post have been filled with activity: sharing my days and nights with my baby, spending time with my mother (who cooked lovely homestyle Bengali meals for me while M was away and who helped me look after Little Planet), having visitors over, eating out at local restaurants with some mothers and their babies from my antenatal class, preparing for my return to work (making hair appointments, for example, and going through my wardrobe to see what new clothes I may need)...

But I have missed M desperately and he returns to the States again next week. We have vowed to each other not to invite any people over for the Easter break. It will be the week before I go back to work and the three of us need to spend time together, alone.

In the meantime, we have this weekend. Oh, I can't wait!

Happy anniversary, my love xxx

8 months

Happy 8 month birthday, baby! I know you are having a grand old time with your dad. I miss you. See you Monday night before your bedtime!

A different kind of mother's guilt

First thing this morning, we confirmed fulltime childcare provision for Little Planet, to start at the end of April. We have employed a registered mother and daughter childminding team who will look after Little Planet in their own home along with two other small children. The decision wasn't taken lightly: we interviewed them, we checked their reports and references, we viewed their home and watched them with one of their 14 month old charges.

Later on in the morning, we took Little Planet to my office in central London to show her off to meet my work colleagues for the first time. I was brought up to date on some of the new clients our company has acquired over the eight months I have been away.

I am not feeling guilty about leaving Little Planet in the care of others - far from it: I believe she will thrive in the sociable and stimulating environment fostered by these two childcare professionals. These women do far more with their charges than I do with my baby. I am the only mother in my antenatal group (bar one other) who doesn't need to return to work for financial reasons and I am the only mother who has not felt guilty about leaving my baby in the care of others.

Instead, I am feeling guilty about my strong desire to return to work - and fulltime to boot. Regular readers of this blog will know that, as much as I adore Little Planet and think of her practically every minute of my day, I have found the practicalities of motherhood quite monotonous. I yearn for the cut and thrust and variety of my job. Moreover, I have always been ambitious and very focussed and am eager to get back on the career ladder. And as a mother I feel that I shouldn't feel this way.

It's a different kind of "mother's guilt" that I am experiencing.

Busy, busy, busy

There's lots going on over the next two weeks, so I thought I would blog in advance of all the activities. Today, I am hosting a coffee morning and lunch for two of my antenatal class mummies and their babies and then my mother-in-law is driving down for the week from her home in Shropshire. Tomorrow, my mother-in-law will look after Little Planet as M and I go into town alone to check out some exhibitions, have a lovely Indian meal and then head over to the Barbican in the evening for a performance of Shun-kin. On Sunday, I'll go with my mother-in-law to see Revolutionary Road while M stays at home to look after the baby and no doubt cook something delicious for our dinner. On Monday, I host another mummy and baby coffee morning. Tuesday morning will be spent interviewing childminders. M has Wednesday onwards off work so we will interview more childcare providers and then take Little Planet into town to meet my work colleagues. On Thursday, my mother-in-law will look after the baby again so M and I can spend the day in town alone - I'm keen on seeing Gus Van Sant's Milk.

On Friday through Monday, I will be spending time with my parents in Norfolk while M looks after Little Planet. He's been working very long hours in recent weeks - often not returning home until after midnight - so he is relishing this opportunity to spend alone time with her. In turn, I am looking forward to lie ins and not being bound by the clock all the time (Little Planet's feeds, naps and bedtime).

On Monday, I bring my mum down to London where she will stay with us for a week. Tuesday is M's last day of holiday, so I will take my mum to see Slumdog Millionaire (which I have seen, but she hasn't) and the four of us will also go out together - perhaps for a walk in Hyde Park or Regent's Park. Then, as M returns to work, my mum and I will spend quality time with the baby for the rest of the week.

Typical day # 5

At 7 months old, it's time for another Typical Day post - this time from our weekend. Other Typical Day posts are here: Under one month; under one month again; nearly one month; and five months.

On Saturday, in her nursery Little Planet woke up, as usual around 6.45am, but as she seemed contented to babble to herself in her cot, we left her for a while as we both slowly roused ourselves. Our days of lie ins together ended with her birth. Roll on her teenage years when all she'll want to do is sleep!

M brought her into our room for her first milk feed of the day at 7.30am. He's been away for most of the week so he relishes these precious weekend moments with her. I, in turn, relish the "time off". Little Planet is not an eager eater - of milk or solids - so we have to make every effort to stay calm as she periodically bats away the bottle. Often we end up having to distract her with a toy or with a nursery rhyme (There was an old lady who swallowed a fly... is most effective). While M fed her, I showered. I then got dressed and looked after Little Planet as she played in our room after her feed and it was M's turn in the shower. Little Planet had managed a good 200ml of formula this Saturday morning.

By 8am, we had Little Planet strapped into her buggy and we went out to the local shops to buy the weekend FT, drop off dry cleaning and buy meat from the butcher. She loves looking at the traffic and the people passing by and the buildings. Back at home, M and I ate a breakfast of fried eggs on toast with Tabasco sauce. Little Planet sat in her high chair at the table with us and watched us, babbled with us and played with her toys. She's now at the stage where she enjoys throwing her toys on the floor a lot! Most of the time, she gnaws away at her fists, fingers and arms as she is teething. M and I chatted with her and read the papers as we ate. We planned the day ahead.

Little Planet began rubbing her eyes around 9. I popped her into her grobag upstairs and then into her cot for her first nap of the day at 9.15am. I switched on the white noise soundtrack, which we only use for her daytime sleep as she is more easily roused from sleep during the day - by our footsteps on our creaky wooden floors, by a car horn on the road, by birds singing in the trees at the end of our garden, by a neighbouring dog barking, by a police siren in the distance, by builders working down the road... I read somewhere that our brains deal with daytime and nighttime sleep in different areas which is why good night sleepers can be poor day sleepers and vice versa. Little Planet sleeps more deeply in the night and as such we only use music or white noise if she is particularly unsettled - we used it the other night, for example, when she couldn't sleep properly during a howling nighttime gale. She used to do all her daytime napping in a Graco swing as she would struggle to settle during the day otherwise. But when she turned 6 months we put her into her cot for all her naps, which, thankfully, she transitioned to quickly. As she gets older, she falls asleep more easily. For those with young babies, take heart in knowing that usually it does get better.

M and I continued with our breakfast. I put a load of laundry on and washed up.

Little Planet was awake by 10am so M brought her back down and fed her her first meal of solids for the day. It can take half an hour just to feed her 3 or 4 tablespoons of puree. I am not a patient or cool-headed person and it takes all my energy to feed her without losing it. I fix a smile upon my face and try and distract her with songs and smiles and toys and music on the radio (she likes the moving display text on our DAB Pure). If I didn't distract her, she would not open her mouth at all. She's been like this since we weaned her onto solids at 5 months. She's a small little girl and is simply not bothered with eating. She cries when she's tired but she rarely cries to eat. What she opens her mouth eagerly for are water and strawberry and apple puree! This morning she ate 4 tablespoons of apple and blueberry mash. But it was a battle. What can I do? I don't want to force her to eat but if I left it to her she would eat nothing, and at 7 months I don't think I could let it be like this. I hope distracting her isn't the same as forcing her...

Then it was playtime. In the living room, she scooted around in circles on her tummy across the rug chasing her toys. She loves lifting each toy above her head then throwing it behind her and either scooting round to retrieve it or ignoring it and moving onto another toy. She went mad with excitement jumping up and down in her Jumperoo bouncer. She swayed her head and rocked her body from side to side on the floor to music and she babbled away non-stop to herself and to her toys. She can now sit up unaided for minutes at a time. But still, her favourite position is on her tummy.

She drank 140ml of formula at 11am then, as it was the weekend, we took her out in her buggy into central London. We got off the Tube at Oxford Circus and went shopping: Kiehl's products in Liberty, soap from Muji, food from Arigato, wine from Oddbins and coffee from the Algerian Coffee Shop. Little Planet always naps around 12pm - anything from half an hour to an hour, in the buggy whilst out and about or in her cot at home (more like an hour or so if she's in her cot). Today, I put the hood of her buggy down and she fell asleep as we walked around town.

M had to pick up some work from his office so we headed over there and, at 1pm, I fed a newly woken up Little Planet some broccoli, pea and pear puree. This is the meal she usually has protein at - vegetables with pureed beef, or chicken or cheddar cheese. But today I didn't have any to pack. She ate 3 tablespoons of food as we waited for M and she ate well as she was distracted watching people come in and out. She can't stay cooped up in her buggy for long so I took her out of it and popped her onto the carpeted floor with some toys I always carry around so she could stretch and roll around. M and I both have offices in central London that serve as useful pit-stops now we have a baby.

We grabbed lunch around 2pm at Apostrophe near St Paul's Cathedral and, once again, Little Planet enjoyed watching us eat and watching all the people. She also enjoyed looking at her reflection in the mirror behind her. She swung her head from side to side at this "other little person"! M held her in his lap as he ate his toasted chorizo panini and chocolate orange muffin one-handed - another skill all parents quickly master.

If this were a weekday and Little Planet and I had been at home, I would have taken her out in her buggy to a local park and the local shops at 11.45am and she would have napped out and about from 30 minutes to an hour. I go out with her even if it is raining. We both need the fresh air and I would get cabin fever if I didn't leave the house once a day. I'm not mad, though. If it is raining hard then we will stay home and she will nap in her cot at midday (and usually nap better).

During the week, I may have guests or meet up with other mums and their babies in the mornings and/or for lunch. But more often than not, it's just the baby and I on our own. I generally return home by 1pm and feed her her solids and then she plays in the living room until her 3pm feed. I play with her and also let her play alone while I read the papers and do chores and watch BBC News 24 on TV. I prepare and eat my own lunch. During this time I will also prepare the night's dinner (if I am cooking; though M returns late he still likes to cook). Little Planet enjoys watching me chop vegetables. She is still very good at playing on her own. If she is going through a separation anxiety phase, though, then I try and do things where she can still see or hear me. Lots of cuddles seem to give her more confidence to be on her own, though at the moment she is still not the "cuddling" type - she is always eager to twist and turn out of my arms and onto the floor.

Now that, at 7 months, she is on solids, we can go out for longer periods of time, as we can feed her outside. But we still struggle to feed her milk in public as she gets too distracted to drink. In a few months she'll have dropped most of her bottles so we will be able to go out for fuller, longer days. She also naps after her afternoon milk feed and as she's napped already once in the day in her buggy I prefer this nap to be in her cot. So this Saturday, we jumped into a cab home and fed her 195ml of milk at 3pm. As usual by this time of the day, she was so tired that she fell asleep at the end of her feed and I popped her into her grobag and into her cot to sleep for just over an hour.

M was working in the study and I folded laundry, washed up, read, chatted on the phone and surfed the net. Sometimes I will also nap when she naps, but as she generally sleeps well at night I tend not to be too tired during the day. If she wakes (and all babies and adults wake in the night whether they remember it or not), she generally self-settles quickly.

Now that we have stopped waking her for an 11pm milk feed, she is sleeping much more deeply at night and so she needs less sleep during the day. As little as a month and half ago, she was sleeping up to 2 hours in the afternoon. Now it's more likely to be an hour or an hour and fifteen minutes. For this reason, in the new year I pushed her 2pm milk feed to 3pm so she would last longer between the end of her afternoon nap (around 4.30pm or 4.45pm) and her 7pm bedtime.

My life with Little Planet is governed by routine! I found having a newborn such a chaotic shock to my system that I had to impose a routine from day one simply for the sake of my sanity. I needed to know what was coming next. Certainly though, motherhood has made me much more used to unpredictability than I've ever been used to before (and I have had an unpredictable life).

M was still on a conference call with a colleague in the States so when Little Planet woke up around 4.30pm she and I played in the bedroom. At 5pm, I fed her pureed vegetables and a sugar-free fruit fromage frais for dessert. She eats more if we offer her two courses. Then she played in the living room and we read together. Sometimes she watches an edition of In The Night Garden that I have recorded. She gets very excited when Igglepiggle comes onto the screen and she sways back and forth to the music. She also gets very excited when the BBC News music comes on when I watch it at lunchtime. But at 7 months, her attention span is short, and she soon refocuses on her toys. I don't have a problem with Little Planet watching TV. She won't get the opportunity to get addicted to it in our busy household. My own parents never needed to ration my TV hours when I was young because we were always so busy playing or going out or having visitors over.

By 6pm, M had finished his call and he came down to play with Little Planet. This is also bath time. During the week he is never home before 8.30 or 9pm, so during the weekends he loves giving Little Planet her final milk feed of the day - today 230ml of formula - and putting her to bed by 7pm. We don't have a bedtime routine as such but I try and keep things low-key and quieter from 6.30pm onwards. If we have guests then I will take her upstairs away from the hubbub. I often play lullabies in the background as we wind down towards her last milk feed and 7pm bedtime.

And that's Little Planet's day over. The rest of the night is for M and I alone.

The weekend list

Beginning to research our childcare options / Terribly excited at the thought of returning to work, even though I still have 4 more months of maternity leave left / Terribly sad at the thought of leaving Little Planet every day, even though she will undoubtedly thrive in the company of other adults and children (as I did when my own mother returned to fulltime work as a paediatrician when I was 8 months old) / Giving Little Planet her first taste of egg - scrambled - which she didn't screw her adorable little face up at (at 7 months, she's been on solids for 2 months now and still can't be bothered with food - she's not an eager eater and still has no more than 3 or 4 tablespoons of solids per meal; despite this she is eating meat, rusks and lumpy food; the two things she gets excited about and eagerly opens her mouth for are strawberry and apple puree, and water!).

Going into town on my own and browsing the sales along Bond Street but buying nothing / Spending too much money instead in the lingerie departments of Marks & Spencer and John Lewis / Devouring one of my all time favourite comfort food dishes - dolsot bibimbap - at Biwon near the British Museum / Stocking up on green and Indian teas at Postcard Teas on Dering Street and chatting with the owner - Timothy D'Offay - about our babies / Having a lovely pedicure at the Aveda Institute on High Holborn / Returning home to eat M's deliciously cooked pot au poulet / Ending Saturday night with a few episodes of gritty police drama The Wire on DVD / Early to bed / Suffering a sleepless night as torrential, lashing rain and gusty winds shook the house and scared Little Planet in particular.

Waking up to a calmer, brighter and sun-filled Sunday morning / Giving Little Planet her first taste of yoghurt (mixed with strawberry and apple puree and some organic, sugar-free rusk) / Savouring several hours of pottering around at home, completely alone, while M took Little Planet out to visit her aunt - usually I leave the house and head into town to get some "me time" (as on Saturday), so it's nice being able to veg out at home on my own / Cheese on toast for lunch and M made tonkatsu for dinner / Another early night and this time a settled one for all of us and there were no gales.

Another week begins and I am sad because M will be away in the States again :-(

Back to earth

What a whirlwind the holiday season was. We had so many guests, the house was packed, and there was endless activity. I was really looking forward to the New Year when M, Little Planet and I could spend quiet time together and yet after everyone left I slumped completely. I got a cold and then felt very lonely and a little depressed - the house was suddenly too quiet.

The holiday season was wonderful. We ate roast goose for Christmas lunch and baked ham for Boxing Day lunch. M bought me a sumptuous black wool coat from Pringle and chocolate brown leather gloves from Brooks Brothers for my Christmas gift. Our Christmas tree was laden with gifts from and for all our guests (as you can see from one of the photos below). Little Planet had a fabulous time being showered with cuddles and kisses.

Everyone had left by the New Year. That night, M and I woke up Little Planet as 2008 turned into 2009, and the three of us watched the neighbour's fireworks from our bedroom window. So far this year, we have taken Little Planet for buggy strolls around Regent's and Hyde Parks, taken her sales shopping in Marylebone, and popped into the Serpentine gallery with her to view the Indian Highway exhibition. I went into town again this weekend gone, alone, and watched the movie Slumdog Millionaire, which I really enjoyed.

2009 signals a return to work for me, around April or May. I've been chatting with colleagues and I am really looking forward to returning. We are fortunate in that I don't need to return to work for financial reasons. I simply miss the excitement and the gossip and the adult company. I really enjoy my job and am thinking of returning fulltime. So I have begun the new year investigating childcare options.

This will be a busy, busy year for me. For the three of us, in fact.

7 months old

Our little girl is 7 months old today. To celebrate, she had her first ever haircut.

It's been chaos central here at chez Planethalder - some of the chaos has been wonderful (lots of guests) and some of the chaos has been awful (we had no heat or hot water for a few days and a house full of plumbers). Peace is hopefully resuming and I will do a proper post soon.

Happy New Year, all!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Full house

The countdown to Christmas has started. We have a full house as M, Little Planet and myself are hosting Christmas for both sides of the family this year. We have visitors staying over all next week and into the week after so it's all very busy chez Planethalder household. Normal posting will resume soon (hopefully before 2009).

Happy birthday Mr Planethalder!

I love you so much (and am very happy you are not working late tonight) XXX

Empty nest

Our little cherub turned 6 months today. To mark this milestone, we moved her cot into the nursery. I was so terribly sad at her leaving. It's my first taste of the dreaded "empty nest" feeling. My sister-in-law pointed out that it's only a matter of time when she will leave home :-(

And yet it's so liberating having our room back to ourselves again at night :-)

M had to work from home this weekend and so we stayed local - walking in the park, visiting friends, cooking, baking bread, gardening and generally chilling out with Little Planet.

Happy birthday, baby!

Duvet days

• On Saturday, with my mother-in-law looking after the baby for the weekend, M and I headed into town for lunch at Japanese restaurant Abeno, near the British Museum. We started with hiyayakko (chilled tofu topped with bonito flakes and grated ginger) and miso soup. I then ate om soba (fried noodles served wrapped in an omelette) with prawns, pork and squid. M ordered a spicy naniwa (pork and kimchi) okonomiyaki. He drank green tea and I drank calpico soda, which was very nice and tasted a little like lychee juice
  
  
• The place was stuffy with academics. I used to be one myself (lecturing during my PhD) and sitting in Abeno listening to the conversations around me made me remember why I had left academia a few years ago
  
  
• We chose a new flat screen HD TV, for our living room, in the Sony Centre on Tottenham Court Road
  
  
• We viewed Jia Jia Wang's colourful toytown paintings at the Alexandre Pollazzon gallery near Goodge Street
  
  
• Then cabbed it to Spruth Magers gallery off Bond Street to see Thomas Demand's latest solo exhibition Presidency featuring photographs of life-size, near-perfect paper models of the most powerful room in the world - the Oval Office (photo above)
  
  
• Earlier this Summer, we bought from Postcard Teas a brass tea caddy to commemorate Little Planet's birth. Handmade in Kyoto, the metal will age as she ages and be a lovely keepsake to be passed down through the generations. On Saturday, we returned to the store to have its accompanying brass tea scoop engraved by a member of the family who had made the caddy. Little Planet's name has its Japanese equivalent and has a beautiful meaning, so her name in Japanese was carved into the metal
  
  
• We also bought some ginger and clove loose tea
  
  
• We browsed the new Dries Van Noten collection in Liberty and also shopped at Muji, Borders, Foyles and Space NK
  
  
• I revisited the Dayanita Singh show at the Frith Street gallery. It was M's first visit to the show and he too enjoyed the haunting and luminous photos of India illuminated. He bought me an early Christmas gift of a boxed set of the photographer's travel journal work across India, Indian Diaries: Sent A Letter
  
  
• Both the Nordic Bakery and Fernandez & Wells were packed so we high-tailed it in the rain to Mrs Marengo's on Lexington Street for strong coffees, sticky toffee pudding and a fruit and nut slice
  
  
• The day ended and the night began with a friend's birthday party in St Albans
  
  
• I spent most of Sunday vegging out in bed, snuggled deeply inside my duvet, while Little Planet played with my husband and her grandmother or napped. I had spent a sleepless Friday night, tossing and turning in bed for no reason and ended up sleeping on the couch downstairs (my mother-in-law was in the guest bedroom) for fear of waking M and Little Planet up. And then the Saturday night, of course, had been a late one at the party. I only surfaced to eat croissants for breakfast and bacon butties for lunch
  
  
• I was feeling a little anti-social, I admit, longing only to read the papers, surf the net and doze all day; to not have to speak with people. We all have days like that, don't we. But in the evening we had dinner guests - one of whom is a vegetarian - and I certainly enjoyed eating M's roasted aubergine with pumpkin and feta cheese, white bean and barley salad with a beetroot and yoghurt dressing - both recipes from Silvena Rowe, followed by his puff pastry apple tart
  
  
• The weekend marked a successful week of weaning Little Planet onto solids. Successful in the sense that she ate all the food we gave her (a tablespoon at a time of baby rice for breakfast and sweet potato for lunch). But she doesn't seem bothered whether we offer it or not; she has been nonplussed by the tastes and textures so far, opening her mouth excitedly only for water, which she loves. I think I will offer her broccoli this week - not sure how she will take this...
  
  
• Little Planet has been rolling from her front to her back for a few weeks now, but on Sunday she rolled from her back to her front for the first time
  
  
• She'll be 6 months old at the end of this week. Here she is wrapped up in her new snowsuit for a buggy ride in the cold weather...

At work and at play

Although I am on maternity leave and so am not working at the moment, I still view Monday through Friday as a working week - working as a mother. I enjoy my time with my baby - more so now than the first three months, when I whined all the time about how boring motherhood is - and I frequently meet up with other local mothers and their young babies. But as regular readers of this blog know, I find one day much like any other - a feeling that is intensified when one is essentially alone for most of the day. My weekends, on the other hand, are filled with many different things to do; M is likely to be home; family are around; and I can also do things alone, without the baby. I feel more like the old and the new me on the weekend. I know I can do many things with Little Planet that I do on a weekend, but it is so much easier to have another person around to help out as she is still so very young. So, despite the fact that I do not go to work as such, I still get that excited Friday high and that sad Sunday night low.

Saturday began with strong, freshly-brewed Monmouth coffee along with sourdough bread and a selection of cheeses M had bought during the week from Neal's Yard Dairy in Covent Garden: robust Wensleydale and double Gloucester cheeses.

Then we took Little Planet to the British Library in King's Cross to view the interesting civil liberties exhibition, Taking Liberties - The Struggle For Britain's Freedoms And Rights. It wasn't compelling enough for Little Planet, though, as she fell fast asleep as we wandered around reading about the Magna Carta, the women's emancipation movement, and modern-day concepts of human rights.

Afterwards, we took her to one of my favourite Indian restaurants Ravi Shankar on Drummond Street, where M and I shared an aloo chaat then M had a masala dosa and I had my usual delicious and very filling spinach and panir dosa. With a baby, you get used to cutting your food into bite-sized pieces so you can eat with one hand (holding the baby with the other)!


Then M took Little Planet back home to feed and nap. We have 4 hour windows of opportunities with Little Planet to do things between feeds. She is such a fussy feeder and so easily distracted that feeding her outside is very difficult. She also naps for increasingly longer periods as the day goes on - 40 minutes around 9am at home, around an hour in the buggy when out and about, around 2 hours in the afternoon where I prefer to be home, and then bedtime at 7pm. So mornings are our best time to go out and about with her or socialise with other mothers and babies.

I stayed in town to pick up tea from my regular haunt Postcard Teas and buy toys, baby books and baby clothes from Baby Gap, Borders and John Lewis. As Little Planet approaches 6 months, we have to buy the next size up of clothes. I couldn't resist buying her some cute denim dungarees (above) and brown cords, as well as the usual collection of sleepsuits, body suits (above) and vests. I really like the German Phister & Philina and Katvig ranges John Lewis now stock. I used to love buying DVDs, CDs, books, gadgets and clothes for myself; now I get even more satisfaction buying things for my baby daughter. As I choose which toy and book to buy, my heart swells as I imagine her playing with these things. And, of course, I love dressing her up.

I also picked up some Gail's sourdough bread and fondant fancies from the basement Food Hall - strawberry, lemon and chocolate. Another treat - Elizabeth Arden's miraculous and legendary Eight Hour Cream, now in a small vintage jar. Perfect for my elbows and lips.



Saturday wasn't all about shopping though. I also managed to pop into the Frith Street Gallery on Golden Square to view Dayanita Singh's latest photographic work Dream Villa. I've enjoyed Singh's work for a while now - her largely black and white photos of upper middle class Indian families (first photo above), empty home (second photo above) and museum interiors, and Delhi eunuchs appeal to me. But these photos were a little different (third photo above). No less mysterious, yet colour-drenched. These were haunting artificially lit, urban night landscapes that captivated me as I walked around the cavernous and empty gallery. I will definitely return for a re-view.

In the evening, back at home, M fed Little Planet and had her in bed by 6.45pm. The night was then all ours. We dined on homemade wild boar ragu with pappardelle by candlelight. M also made a puff pastry apple tart. Then we watched Paul Schrader's exquisitely filmed movie about Japanese writer Yukio Mishima - Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters on DVD.

Sunday began with a lie in (until 8am) then a milk feed for Little Planet and fried eggs on sourdough bread with a liberal sprinkling of Tabasco sauce for us. We shopped locally for the week's meals. Back at home we had chicken soup for lunch and bread and cheese. Then we spent the rest of the day sorting through all our books - which to keep, which to recycle. So many difficult choices to make. My parents thought that I would be able to take all my books from their house now that I have more space of my own. Sorry Mum!

The weekend ended with roast chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, kale stir-fried with pancetta, and gooseberry and elderflower posset for dessert.

How was your weekend?

Winter fuel

Cold, dark nights require hot, heavy food for dinner. Tonight, we ate fried kimchi rice with beef - a quick and easy-to-make Korean dish made with leftover short-grain rice (from last night's tonkatsu meal), beef slices, soy sauce, garlic, spring onions, red chilli flakes, sesame oil, black sesame seeds and, of course, fiery hot kimchi. Delicious.

Weekend delights

• My mother-in-law was visiting for a long weekend, so on Thursday, while M was at work, we took Little Planet to Giraffe in Islington where we both lunched on burgers and fries whilst Little P watched the lights, the balloons, the other babies and children and their mummies/nannies, and played with a paper napkin
  
  
• M took Friday off work, so we left the baby with my mother-in-law and browsed Comme des Garcons' Dover Street Market in Piccadilly. I was particularly taken by the new Play childrens' range. Within a year - the smallest Play Kids size is still a little too large for her - Little Planet can wear clothes just like her mummy! I also bought some grey buttons from the Labour and Wait stall to replace the cream buttons on my trench coat, as I think the matt grey buttons will look more interesting against the creamy beige material
  
  
• We lunched at American brasserie Automat across the road, where M had his favourite macaroni cheese with spinach and bacon and I ate a burger with ham, pineapple and cheese. We shared a dessert of Mississippi mud pie with pistachio ice cream and watched all the Mayfair hedge fund boys have their long Friday lunches
  
  
• A collection of Stuart Luke Gatherer paintings caught our eye at the Albemarle Gallery. I liked his parodies of middle class and professional lives
  
  
• We strolled around Green Park and St James' Park and enjoyed the crunch of autumnal leaves underfoot
  
  
• We viewed Pieter Bruegel's masterly painting The Massacre Of The Innocents at The Queen's Gallery in Buckingham Palace. It was interesting to learn that the figures of babies and children being massacred were later overpainted by order of the Emperor Rudolph II, who owned it
  
  
• Then onto the comprehensive Rennaissance Faces: Van Eyck To Titian exhibition at the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square. As usual, I was too tired to take in all the analytical connections being made, but I enjoyed simply absorbing the works emotionally. M is far more intellectual than I and loves reading and assessing any art exhibition's curatorial interpretations
  
  
• We refueled on restorative green teas at Mitsukoshi on Regent Street. I love the peace and quiet of their most private (but still quite popular) basement Japanese restaurant and tea room
  
  
• We ate an early dinner of assorted tapas and charcuterie at Dehesa on Ganton Street (behind Carnaby Street) and then rushed onto the Jubilee Line to see...
  
  
• ... the magisterial Leonard Cohen at The O2. Oh my goodness, what a performance. I have written elsewhere about my adoration of both the man and his music. I have loved this man - who is old enough to be my grandfather! - since I was a teenager. This old man writes the sexiest and most spiritual songs of love and lust that I have ever heard. His music is truly transcendent
  
  
• We left during the encores and managed to get home just before midnight. Little Planet was fast asleep in her cot and we capped a wonderful evening with some delicious Suntory Hibiki
  
  
• We slept in late on Saturday morning - well, until 8am, which constitutes a lie in with a 5 month old baby. I think I have mentioned before that Little Planet hardly ever cries because she's hungry and she's content to simply doze or play first thing in the morning. This Saturday morning she woke up at around 6.30am so we popped her into bed with us and she fell asleep. Hence the lie in!
  
  
• After our usual leisurely weekend breakfast of croissants and strong, freshly ground coffee, we left Little Planet with her Grandmother again and M and I headed back into town to do some more Christmas and birthday shopping
  
  
• From Arigato in Soho, we stocked up on a variety of Japanese condiments for my sister-in-law, including mirin, soy sauce, sushi rice, rice topping and nori sheets. From Waterstone's on Piccadilly we bought her a Japanese cookbook and from Muji we bought her wooden rice bowls, chopsticks, dipping bowls and a big cloth bag to put everything in. I love giving food gifts to people
  
  
• From Zavvi on Piccadilly, we bought a variety of CDs for Little Planet, including yet another Baby Einstein classical compilation and Disney's Christmas carols!
  
  
• We lunched on green curry fried rice with char-grilled chicken, chilli prawn fried rice with shitake mushrooms, and fish cakes with cucumber and peanut relish at Busaba Eathai in Soho. The service was as bad as ever but the food was as delicious as ever (albeit a touch too salty for my liking)
  
  
• In the evening, I cooked a prawn and red pepper curry with coconut milk and also a sweet potato and spinach curry with Bengali five spices. And after dinner, around 9pm, I collapsed into bed while M and his Mum watched TV (Little Planet had been fast asleep since 6.30pm)
  
  
• We managed another lie in this Sunday morning, then M fed Little P and took her downstairs to play while I stayed in bed until 10am. Such bliss
  
  
• We went to my sister-in-law's house for a long Sunday lunch. She lives just a few minutes away from us, but now she is in a new relationship we hardly ever see her. She made us pizzas. She loved her birthday present of Japanese goodies
  
  
• Poor Little Planet missed most of her daytime naps today due to the lie in and the extended lunch out so was very ratty as the day draw to a close. She simply catnapped in her buggy, which isn't restorative enough for her
  
  
• After he has fed the baby and put her to sleep, M will made pork tonkatsu again with shredded cabbage and sushi rice for our dinner
  
  
• Another lovely weekend nearly over. Boo hoo

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!

The end and the beginning

What an historic day! The first black President. The highest voter turnout in 44 years. Vast numbers of young voters. The end of the conservative era.

Today is the day my Little Planet becomes a telly addict as I am glued to the BBC News 24 channel.

Hanging out with Mum

But Daddy's home tomorrow - yippeeee!

Typical day # 4

Little Planet will be 5 months old next week. And I've just realised that it's been a while since I did a "typical day" post (previous posts here: 1, 2 and 3). M is in the States again, so here's a typical day out of our weekend just gone with just Little Planet and her mum...

5am - Little Planet starts babbling and drifts in and out of sleep until...

6.30am - when she starts to cry a little and I bring her into our bed where she chills out looking at the patterns on the curtain, the digital clock and my face.

By 7.30am, she is getting grizzly so I feed her. During week days, M will feed her around 6.45am before he goes to work, while I have my shower. But this weekend, as it is just me on my own with her, I fancied more of a lie in! Interestingly, Little Planet rarely cries for food and doesn't have much of an appetite overall, but especially not first thing in the morning.

Feeding time is now a potential battle because she has recently developed mild reflux, so I begin by feeding her in my arms until she arches her back and cries and then I burp her, give her a break and then feed her flat on her back on the bed. Feeding used to take 15 minutes, now it takes 30.

8am - I pop her in the cot with her Happy Safari cot mobile on and have a shower and clean my teeth. Sometimes she cries with frustration and sometimes she babbles with contentment, but either way I need my 10 minutes in the bathroom or she will have a smelly mum.

By 8.15am, I am back and I pop her onto the bed, put the TV on to watch the BBC news and get dressed. She watches the news and she watches me... She particularly loves it when I blowdry my hair and put cream on my skin. And we chat a bit in our own languages.

8.30am and we are in the kitchen. I pop her in her reclining high chair and she watches me as I wash her bottles and prepare my breakfast. She particularly loves watching the water run and hearing the coffee grinder make its loud noise. We chat - I talk, she babbles back. Sometimes I will position her by the window so she can watch the trees in the garden. I will sing to her and dance (very badly) in front of her with the radio on, to which she will graciously humour me with a gummy smile.

9am and she may start crying a bit. Her eyes look heavy and she will rub them. It's time for her nap. She usually fights daytime naps but always sleeps after a few minutes. I take her upstairs to the nursery and return to the kitchen to check my emails, eat my breakfast, wash up, prepare her solids and put a load of laundry on. If she is crying, I try to ignore her if it only lasts a few minutes. This is hard, as even a minute of a baby crying feels like an hour.

9.40am - I can set my watch by her consistent 40 minute first-nap-of-the-day! She's up and so I feed her a few spoonfuls of baby rice as we have started weaning. We decided not to wait until she is the recommended 6 months old as, with our doctor's permission, we think and hope weaning will help her reflux.

She is now beginning to open her mouth when she sees the spoon heading her way and she is making chewing and swallowing motions. I try and make the experience as fun and as calm as possible - if she doesn't want it, I don't force, and I always try to have a smile on my face so she doesn't associate food with stress (smiling is hard when she is spraying me with food and it goes all over me!).

This morning, for the first time, she took a full tablespoon of the baby rice and pushed hardly any of the food out of her mouth, which is great. This week, when M returns, we will try her on something more flavourful - carrots, I think. We want to start her on vegetables before fruit so she doesn't develop a sweet tooth and reject the vegetables.

Then it's playtime again! She has a kick around on her activity mat, I sing with her and read her stories from large picture books whose pages she tries to turn. She has some tummy time - often in front of the Tweenies which I record each day - and I also prop her up into the seating position to get her used to it. She plays with her toys and cloth books - she is beginning to reach, grab and play with them now. I will show her colourful flashcards with pictures and the names of such things as cat, dog, mouse, rabbit, boat and star. She is content to play alone for some time, especially if I am within her sight so I will sit on the rug next to her and read the papers. It's only recently that she's begun to grizzle if I leave the room for more than a few minutes.

11am and it's time for her next formula feed. I dread each and every feed now that she has reflux but the Infant Gaviscon seems to have eased her pain somewhat though has had the uncomfortable effect of making her strain to do a poo. But it seems she also now has a psychological fear of the bottle - she seems to anticipate that feeding time will make her feel bad. I pray she has a sleepy feed (which she does usually at least three out of five daily feeds) as then she doesn't resist the bottle and tends to take most of her milk in one go.

By 11.45am, we are ready to go out in her buggy. Come rain or shine, I like to get her out in the fresh air every day. We stick to the local parks and streets, but when M is home we go further afield and into central London. Little Planet and I may meet up with other mothers and babies I know from my NCT antenatal classes, but most likely it will be just the two of us.

We have converted her buggy from pram mode to pushchair mode, and now that she is more upright and can see out properly, she cries far less. In pram mode, she used to cry alot when she was awake in it but couldn't see anything. She still cries a bit in the pushchair. I think she doesn't like being strapped in. Who would?! Pushchair rides are the few times we give her a dummy if she starts to scream - it quickly soothes her.

Though we are out for 1.5-2 hours at a time (I have become very fit), she will sleep from 30 minutes to 1 hour or more as I pound the streets and shop. I prefer if she sleeps no more than an hour so that she sleeps better later on in the day and I may gently wake her.

By 1.30pm, we are home and I let her stretch and kick out on a rug in the kitchen, surrounded by toys, as I prepare and eat my lunch and play with her and surf the net. Like most babies, Little Planet likes nothing more than people-watching and watches me closely as I go about my business in the kitchen. Us adults are far more entertaining to babies, as we go about our daily activities, than their toys.

2.30pm and it's time for her feed and her big nap of the day. By this time, she is usually quite tired and is in bed by 3pm and can sleep for us much as 2 hours in the afternoon. Surprisingly, this length of time doesn't affect her bedtime at 7pm. But we will wake her up by 5pm if she isn't already awake - just so she is sleepy again for bedtime.

She may cry intermittently - usually as she transitions from one sleep cycle to another - but early on we learned to leave her as then she quickly self-settled. This way she can sleep for long periods undisturbed by us. We have found that the more she sleeps during the day, the better she sleeps during the night - sleeps begets sleep.

Her long afternoon nap is usually the time I make a start on dinner (if I am cooking), do a few chores and then settle down with a novel or the papers. I am avidly following all the global financial and US election news.

She used to sleep for a long stretch in the mornings too, but dropped that in favour of two smaller naps. I am sure that at some point she will reduce her afternoon napping too. But for now, she needs her daytime sleep and gets very grumpy if deprived of it. Certainly she sleeps more during the day than the other antenatal class mothers' babies and she is the only one who is sleeping through the night. I do wonder sometimes whether she sleeps more because we don't rush to her every time she cries or stirs...

5pm and she's awake and we enter into a calm phase as we wind down for the night. I'll wash her then we'll listen to lullabies as she lays in her cot and swings in her rocker and stretches out on the rug. Calmness is key in the hour or so before bedtime. During the day too, I find that if I calm her down before her naps and feed her in a quiet place then she will nap better.

6.30pm - I will feed her and she is usually quite sleepy by now. I'll read her a story and then it's off to bed by 7pm. She used to cry for several minutes when we put her down for her night time sleep but now she rarely cries and drops off after 5 to 15 minutes of babbling, sighing and shuffling.

The rest of the night is now my own totally - to watch TV or a DVD, to eat dinner, to read, to surf the net. If M is in the country then he'll usually return home by 9pm and we catch up with each other.

As this is the weekend for fireworks in the run-up to Bonfire Night, I am on tenterhooks waiting for her to be woken up by the loud bangs. Our back neighbour starts letting off fireworks, some of which fall into our garden, and I think, Uh oh, surely she'll wake up now. On the digital monitor, I hear her shuffle around, but thankfully she remains asleep. There are fireworks tonight too, so I am still on tenterhooks!

I wake her up at our bedtime - 11pm - to give her her final feed of the day. Like the 7am feed, this is usually the feed M does as it's his opportunity to see her after a long day at work (he is never able to make it home for her 7pm bedtime). We will stop this feed when she is properly weaned onto solids, but for now we will wake her at this time to ensure she is getting enough food. She drops back to sleep after 15 minutes or so of babbling and another typical day ends.

On request...

... a cute photo of Little Planet!

Weekend list

Yesterday, my mother-in-law looked after Little Planet, so M and I went into central London and...

• Devoured baconburgers and fries at Ultimate Hamburger off Piccadilly Circus
• Viewed Lucian Freud's early paintings at the Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert Gallery on Bury Street - it was interesting to see the evolution of his style, subject matter and colour palette
  
• Enjoyed the comprehensive Francis Bacon show at the Tate Britain in Pimlico - so voluptuous and disturbing...
• ... And the Turner Prize 2008 shortlist there - we particularly loved Runa Islam's film of rickshaw riders
  
• Revisited Dryden Goodwin's photographs of passers-by in London's West End at the Photographers' Gallery - I felt that the subject matter and execution were good enough not to have technological gimmickry added on top
  
• Drank (unusually tepid) coffee and ate pistachio and lemon cake at Fernandez & Wells on Beak Street
• Savoured full-bodied New Zealand, South African and French Pinot Noir at Fortnum & Mason's 1707 wine bar
  
• Ate crispy vegetable tempura, pork tonkatsu, green tea ice cream and yuzu ice cream at the Japan Centre's Toku restaurant
• Bought green and first flush Darjeeling teas from the delightful Postcard Teas on Dering Street, and strong Indian coffee beans from the Algerian Coffee Store on Old Compton Street
• Stocked up on supplies - slippers, soap, hangers - from Muji on Carnaby Street
• Bought a variety of picture books for Little Planet from Waterstone's excellent childrens' section on Piccadilly, including the delightful The Haunted House by Kazuno Kohara and the colourful dreadlocked Goldilocks by Nick Sharrat and Stephen Tucker - she is now trying to turn the pages of books we read to her in our laps
  

Back at home we...

• Began treating Little Planet with infant Gaviscon as she now, at 4.5 months, and for the first time, has silent reflux
• Gave her her first taste of solids - Organix wholegrain baby rice - it will take some time but we were pleased she didn't instantly refuse either the food or the spoon

This afternoon, my mother-in-law and I went into central London and...

• Saw the sadly bitty and bland movie Brideshead Revisited at the Curzon Mayfair while...
• M stayed at home, looked after Little Planet and, while she slept, cooked roast lamb, roasted pumpkin and cauliflower with caraway seeds for dinner on our return
• He also baked an apple strudel which we will eat for our dessert. Thanks M!

Home and away

My husband M has stayed at home in London and looked after 4.5 month old Little Planet on Saturday, Sunday and today, while I am visiting my parents in East Anglia. He has taken her out shopping to the local fishmonger's, butcher's, baker's and to our local farmers' market. He has taken her out to the park. He has taken her to visit her auntie. He has generally enjoyed showing her off (she draws alot of comments from strangers when we're out and about and he is a proud daddy).

Meanwhile, I have spent the three days looking after my mother who is recovering from a knee operation. I have cooked her lamb and spinach curry with Bengali five spices, and a chorizo and chickpea stew. I have helped her out with some paperwork and shopping. But I have also lounged around alot, eating junk, reading magazines and the weekend papers from cover to cover, listening to music really loud, and sleeping in late each day until 9.30 or 10am. I feel like a teenager again!

I am missing M and Little Planet - our weekends a trois are treasured. But the break in routine is lovely. And of course, seeing my mum and dad.

I would have brought Little P with me, but she is going through a very fussy feeding stage at the moment making it difficult to feed her outside her known environment and without distractions. She may have mild reflux and/or may be ready for solids. We shall see how it goes this week and may have to give her infant Gaviscon and/or introduce some baby rice to her diet. I can't wait to introduce her to solids.

Choice pieces...

... from the past week.

• Dancing to the Sugababes videos on TV with Little Planet in my arms
• Eating M's risotto with rosemary and borlotti beans
• Being riveted by the John Adams series on TV
• Enjoying the return of Heroes
• Dressing Little Planet in jeans, beanie hats and NYC sweats (photo below)
  
• Lounging around reading the papers as Little Planet naps and it pours with rain outside
• Playing David Bowie and Tom Waits CDs to Little Planet, exposing her to superlative classics such as Ziggy Stardust and Rain Dogs
  
• Devouring beef stews and lamb curries on chilly nights
• Getting our garden shed erected
• Getting our kitchen spotlights fixed
• Enduring Little Planet's extremely fussy feeding and hoping it's just a phase
  
• Celebrating Little Planet's 4th month birthday
• Cracking hazelnuts and almonds and walnuts
• Taking Little Planet to her very first art show - Gerhard Richter's 4900 Colours: Version II at the Serpentine (photo above). She loved all the colours!
  
• Taking her for a stroll around Hyde Park in the glorious sunshine
• Taking her shopping with us at Whole Foods Market in Kensington
• Finishing Ann Packer's engaging The Dive From Clausen's Pier and Jonathan Raban's disappointing Surveillance; beginning Sarah Addison Allen's Garden Spells
  
• Relishing my time away from the baby - for example, a walk alone to the local shops, or watching the astounding and harrowing Il Y A Longtemps Que Je T'aime at the cinema in Covent Garden alone, or eating sushi alone at Tokyo Diner in Soho