April tweets

• They say putting a baby to bed earlier than usual results in the baby's later wake up time. I wonder if the same principle works for adults?
• I am so tired but the only thing stopping me from going to bed at 9pm is the fear that I will wake up fully rested at 5am...
• ... Perhaps the next time M works late, I should try a super early bedtime. Just to see. 9pm seems like the perfect time.
• Trying to enjoy new series of Outnumbered but those children are annoying me now & they're my worst nightmare of how Lil P could turn out!
• Little P's directive to us this morning when we got her up - a single sentence: "Grobag off; go get milk; TV on." Who are we to deny her?!
• Yesterday evening, on the way home from daycare, Little P looked up at the sky and started counting clouds: "1, 2, 3, 4". So delightful.
• We've had a half day at work today due to moving offices, so I am now wandering around Bloomsbury before having to pick Little Planet up...
• Korean lunch (spicy hot pot) at Biwon on Coptic St, then a demonstration of a Japanese tea ceremony at the British Museum...
• ...A wander through the Korean and magnificent Chinese ceramic galleries; coffee and cinnamon biscuit at The Espresso Room on Gt Ormond St.
• ... A stroll down Rugby & Lambs Conduit Sts, buying books and other goodies for Little Planet from the sweet Little Lamb Books...
• ...To the Brunswick where I buy colourful blouse and dress & two t-shirts from the fabulous French Connection. Now heading home to my Lil P!
• Friday 7.30pm: Little P's asleep, the garden is watered, M's on his way home, dal and rohu fish curry for dinner tonight (thanks Mum!).
• Morning spent in Coram's Fields where Lil P enjoyed meeting the rabbits, sheep and goats; then we took her to meet Peppa Pig at John Lewis.
• Went to the gym today during Little P's post lunch nap. First time at the gym in 2.5 years. Feel fantastic & plan on going 3 times a week.
• 45 mins cardio, 15 mins weights. Need to reduce cardio & increase weights. This is a w/e workout; less time in the week - prob 40 mins max.
• Seeds M has planted so far in our garden: 4 types of pumpkin & squash, broccoli, kale, spring onions, radishes, rocket & salad leaves.
• A day in the garden. Such glorious Springtime weather.
• Homemade chilli con carne and brown rice for dinner tonight. M's on his way home but unfortunately he has to work still.
• Our offices have moved from Soho to Fitzrovia. Hurrah! Heal's, Planet Organic and Charlotte Street all on my doorstep!
• Cranky, clingy, nappy rash, early waking. You'd think that after more than a year of experience we'd recognise Lil P's teething symptoms? No.
• Client meeting ran over. Fortunately M could pick Little P up and put her to bed. So I took advantage and...
• Saw the sumptuous and elegant Tilda Swinton movie "I Am Love", followed by won ton soup & sweet and sour chicken in Chinatown.
• The Panorama programme shook me up. I'm now making sure Little P brushes her teeth AFTER bedtime milk rather than in the bath before milk.
• London Zoo, gym, garden, Spanish omelette, glorious sunshine, a wonderful Saturday. And the day is still not over!
• I almost forgot: Subho Noboborsho, Happy Bengali New Year! It's 1417!
• Hmmm, M wants to watch David Lynch's Inland Empire movie tonight; I want to watch the disturbing but less convoluted Munich. Who will win?
• Question for any gym bunnies out there. How do you stop yourself from over-eating after a gym session? I am now always ravenous.
• Dinner tonight had a Spanish feel: Spanish tortilla, chorizo with olive oil & red wine, deep-fried calarami & aioli. Plus a robust Rioja.
• Sunday activities: haircut for Little P, visit to M's sister and her boyfriend, gym, garden, visit from my mum, now roast chicken dinner.
• 9.45pm North London, 20th April: Was that a plane I heard just now high in the sky???!
• This month's Good Food magazine is particularly good. Tonight I'm making Spring vegetable tagliatelle with lemon, mustard & chive dressing.
• Another dinner from Good Food magazine tonight: Fettucine with green lentils & lemon. Dying to eat but want to wait until M's back home.
• M is bringing dinner home tonight. From Princi or Waitrose? Whatever, either passionfruit cheesecake or key lime pie will suit me fine.
• This weekend is all about family: M's cousins on Saturday and my mum and dad's on Sunday (though M has to work on Sunday).
• The weather in London was so glorious today. I don't think we spent more than an hour indoors and that was having showers and getting ready!
• We're finally decorating the nursery & getting furniture, art, toys & books in there for her. To date it's just had her cot & old boxes in.
• To date she's only slept in her nursery; now we want to make it her own special room where she can play, read, hang out in as well as sleep.
• Homemade pizzas tonight for dinner, complete with homemade bases & tomato sauce: asparagus tips, artichokes, mozzarella & drizzle of pesto
• Square Mile coffee first thing on a Sunday morning. Perfect. Today M is working, but Little P & I are going to enjoy at my mum & dad's.
• Mum's made prawn masala curry & mixed vegetable curry with red spinach, sweet potato, runner beans, aubergine, mooli and bori for dinner :-)

A weekend in Spring

We've just experienced a perfect Spring weekend here in London. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, birds were tweeting, planes were streaking the sky, seeds were being sown, lawns were being mown, BBQs were lit, children were out playing, alot of DIY was being done, the parks were filled...

Saturday morning began with breakfast in the garden. Then we headed over to Coram's Fields - a children's park in the heart of Bloomsbury that is an oasis of calm first thing in the morning. Little Planet chased the goats, quacked at the ducks, stood in awe of the huge black sheep and chatted to the rabbits before running over to the sandpit.

Then we piled into a taxi and headed over to John Lewis on Oxford Street, where Little Planet had her feet measured and then met Peppa Pig in the toy department. Peppa Pig was rather big, with slightly scary, crazed eyes and huge feet. She towered over the children and though Little Planet was mesmerised and awestruck, she was also a little timid and kept her distance. But she obviously enjoyed the experience because she now can't stop talking about Peppa Pig whenever we ask her about her day yesterday.

Afterward, we bought wine, fresh fish, fruit (including rhubarb) and vegetables (including samphire) in the Food Hall before returning home. During Little Planet's post-lunch nap, M made bread and I went to the gym. I've been working out most of my adult life - waking up at 6am to do yoga or go to the gym since I was 16 (on and off). But when I got pregnant in 2007, I stopped and had not stepped back inside a gym until yesterday (on maternity leave, during Little Planet's first year, though, I did walk 3 hours a day pushing the buggy through heat and cold just to get out of the house). At the gym yesterday, I did 45 minutes cardio and 15 minutes weights and I felt terrific - exhilarated even. My plan is to go 3 times a week but cut down a little on the cardio and increase the weights session as I love feeling strong.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at home in the garden. Little Planet played, I read the papers and M planted seeds: four varieties of squash and pumpkin, kale, broccoli, radish, spring onions, rocket and salad leaves. Once Little Planet had gone to sleep, M seared the tuna steaks we had bought earlier at John Lewis and served them with lightly steamed asparagus spears and samphire topped with dry-roasted black sesame seeds. For dessert he made rhubarb flan which we ate watching the beautifully-filmed Control - a movie about Joy Division's Ian Curtis who killed himself in 1980.

Sunday began with M going out for a run, me dusting and hoovering the house and Little Planet pretending to dust too. Then breakfast and a long read of the papers outside in the garden, shopping for meat and vegetables, then more time in the garden including lunch, then more time in the garden... you get the picture! I also slow cooked a chile con carne from Thomasina Miers' Mexican Food Made Simple, which we'll eat for one of our dinners this week.

It's nearly 6pm now. After we put Little Planet to bed, M will cook paella with monkfish, prawns and saffron from the Moro Cookbook for our dinner. It sounds yummy! Then we'll settle in with another movie.

I hope you also enjoyed good weather this weekend.

Benign neglect

As a child, I was a complete bookworm and still am today. I simply adored books: the pictures, the words, the imaginary worlds books conjured up in my mind. From an early age, my father read to me and also made up stories. I was a good reader by the time I started school at 4 years of age.

I played alot too: I had a core group of little friends and we would play in one another's houses and gardens, and also in the street. I was in daycare from 8 months old so I had lots of opportunities to play with others from an early age. But as I was also an only child of working parents, I quickly became proficient at playing on my own. I was always busy and enacted many make believe scenarios alone.

You see, my parents were not the type of parents to actively play with children. My memories of childhood involve long weekends playing beside them as they cooked, cleaned, gardened, read the papers, sat and chatted. Though they didn't play with me, they involved me in everything they did - from gardening and hanging out the washing, to going out shopping and visiting castles or museums or zoos or on holiday. They also talked with me alot. And, of course, read to me. But actually play with me? No.

I am convinced that my keen imagination, my love of books and my ability to play happily alone for hours on end from a very early age were largely due to my parents not hovering around me all the time.

I have my own child now and I have turned out exactly like my own parents: I love reading to Little Planet and have made it a habit of reading to her since she was a newborn. At 22 months (today!), she loves books - she has her favourites and she will pick books off the bookshelf and pretend to read. I also chat with her alot and have talked with her, again, since she was a newborn. The constant chatter has paid off: at 22 months she is talking in sentences, has a huge vocabulary and can happily tell me what she did this morning or yesterday when I ask her. And I've sung to her so much that she can now sing several songs and rhymes all by herself and unprompted.

But I am not and never have been good at playing with her. I show her how to play with things but then I step back and leave her alone to get on with it. If I see her struggling with something, I try and hold back and let her work it out herself. Other mothers I know were and still are forever getting on the floor and playing with their children, but quite simply I find it boring. I am happy to go to the park with her and chase her around the garden, and of course read to and chat and sing with her. But actually playing? I would prefer to read, write, cook, catch up on family gossip, generally relax. It's the weekend, for goodness sake!

Having said all that, as she gets older, becomes more communicative, more engaged and imaginative, it's much more of a pleasure for me to play and discover my own playful side. But...

I guess you would say that my style of parenting is of the "benign neglect" variety.* I don't feel guilty about this: she has five little friends who she plays with at daycare all week long; she doesn't need me to be another playmate. I like to think that if I was a stay-at-home-mum then I would play with her more but also that I would send her to regular playgroups, and still encourage in her long periods of independent play.

She's clingy when she's in a stroppy mood or feeling under the weather, but 90% of the time she plays terrifically well on her own. She has done since she was just a few months old. My little toddler is not yet two but she has what I consider to be a great gift for someone so young: she can potter around the house and play freely and contentedly for long periods of time on her own. Often whilst I am in another room, I can hear her chatting merrily to herself and to her toys. And when she needs me, she finds me ("Mummy, what you doing?").

This Easter Monday, for example, whilst I cooked, read and generally pottered about in the kitchen, she spent an entire afternoon in the garden wheeling her dollies around in their buggies, feeding them plastic and wooden food she had cooked for them in her saucepans, giving them a bath, changing their nappies, scolding them, cuddling them, giving them bottles of milk. She also sang songs, watched planes flying high in the sky, watched the "trees dancing" in the wind, ran up and down ("Ready steady go!!"), kicked a ball about and chatted to various imaginary people on her pretend mobile phone (really an old TV remote). Every so often she would wave at me and say, "Hello Mummy!" and every so often I would go out to help her wash her dolly or simply to have a cuddle and a chat.

Her ability to play independently and her imagination, for a 22 month old, is amazing. And I am convinced it is largely because I simply let her be.

* Another example of my benign neglect style of parenting is that I have never childproofed our home: no stairgates, no DVD protectors, no cupboard childproof locks, no keeping precious ornaments out of her reach... Ever since she started to crawl, I warned her away from certain areas or things and it's rarely been a problem. It means that when she visits other people's houses, she knows instinctively what is off limits to her. At daycare, she's not the toddler trying to open cupboards or stick pencils into the DVD or reach up for the framed photo on the shelf. Certainly my own parents never childproofed our houses when I was young. But perhaps this is another post.

Revolutionary tweets

Twitter has revolutionised the way I chronicle my life. Before I discovered Twitter for myself - years after everyone else, it seems - I had to keep note of everything I did in a notebook and later in the Notes app on my iPhone. And then I would collate these notes into a post for this blog.

Now I can Tweet as I go about my life and simply copy and paste (with a little editing down) into this blog. It may be a lazy way of blogging, but then blogging can be seen as a lazy way of keeping a diary. And in all honesty, without the ease of Twittering I doubt I would be able to blog as frequently as I am able to do.

There is another reason why I copy and paste most of my Tweets into this blog and that is that one day soon I will self-publish this blog in print form as my own personal record of the last six years of my life - and boy what a last six years these have been!

March tweets:

• My 2nd ever Mother's Day was wonderful. 21 month old Little P presented me with a handpainted card complete with painted handprint. Then....
• ...Mr P took myself, Little P & both her Grandmas out for a Turkish lunch. Delicious minced lamb and chicken kebabs, hummus & baklava.
• The 1st colours Little P was able to identify were not the typical primary colours we expected but pink, purple, black, brown, grey, white.
• Little P loves singing (loudly!) & can sing Old MacDonald, Hickory Dickory Dock, Twinkle Twinkle, Row Your Boat, & Baa Baa Black Sheep.
• Little P loves dancing. She has a unique style like old black men from the deep south twisting & shaking their bodies to the Devil's tunes.
• All her little buddies jump up & down to music; not Little P - she twists and turns and shakes her limbs like a possessed child!
• Had my 1st embarrassing moment in public with Little P today: I was wheeling her home from daycare when we passed a boy & his older mum...
• ...Little P pointed to the pair exclaiming "Boy! Boy" Then JUST as the older mum passed us, Little P pointed up at her & stated "Grandma!"
• ...Little P's voice was so loud, the mother must have heard, but I was too mortified to look back :-0
• A girl told me that she doesn't want kids because she doesn't want her life to change. But what is the point of life if it remains the same?
• I value thinking time in work so highly that it's priceless. It's shocking that there is so little time to think at work!
• To think deeply I go to the office toilet, for a walk, or have a document open and pretend to be looking at it...
• But mostly I do my deep work-related thinking after/outside work because at work you have to be busy all the time (so crazy!).
• Jury service is over. It was intense but so interesting that I want to do it again. However, we didn't come up with a majority verdict...
• ... The case was so complex even the judge admitted its complexity. The case is now up for a retrial so I still can't discuss it.
• Grandma is looking after Little Planet today so Mr Planet and I are off into town.
• Strolling along the Southbank, a leisurely read of the papers in Benugo (bfi), blown away by Gerhard Richter's Cage paintings at the Tate.
• Lunch @ The Swan at The Globe: fish cake with poached egg & hollandaise; smoked mackerel salad; sticky toffee pudding & honeycomb ice cream.
• Provisions from Borough Market: enoki, oyster, shitake mushrooms; thyme; rhubarb; Burnt Sugar fudge. 3pm: Now home to play with Little P.
• Sea salt fudge by Burnt Sugar = delicious!!
• Poule au pot with homemade aioli for dinner tonight, followed by Waitrose key lime pie.

Easter tweets:

• Lovely day spent with my parents. Little P especially enjoyed eating my mum's khichuri (a spiced lentils & rice dish with peas & potatoes).
• Tonight's dinner was yakitori (chicken thigh meat skewered with spring onions, chicken livers skewered with asparagus) with tare sauce.
• In the UK, we have Good Friday and Easter Monday off, so it's a 4 day weekend for us. We have no plans other than serious chilling.
• Our plan to holiday in Hong Kong in October has been postponed to January 2011 as the case M will be working on will coincide. So instead...
• ... We will plan a couple of European holidays this year. I'm thinking of Amsterdam and Istanbul as I've visited neither city.
• Almond croissant & orange juice @ Le Pain Quotidien for breakfast in Holborn before getting my hair done @ Aveda.
• Coffee beans from Monmouth & bath, hand & face products from Kiehl's in Covent Garden (including the much hyped acai moisturiser).
• After all my years living in London, I have finally stumbled upon Ziggy Stardust's red telephone box in a dark corner of Heddon Street!!!!!
• I am so happy they have not knocked down Ziggy's telephone box :-)
• Ilya & Emilia Kabakov's sublime The Flying Paintings, in Sprovieri gallery. Idealised Russian scenes floating within white space. Ethereal.
• Zara's new home collection is so bright and colourful and Summery.
• Pizza lunch @ Il Baretto then shopping in Marylebone: fillet steaks @ Ginger Pig, cheese @ La Fromagerie, clothes for Lil P from Bonpoint.
• Also bought books for Lil P from Daunts: Dr Seuss' Daisy-head Mayzie, Curious George Feeds The Animals, Harry & The Dinosaurs Go To School.
• Pretty photo frames @ The White Company, tarts @ Paul. Enough shopping! Returning home to enjoy time in the garden whilst weather is fine.
• After a great morning shopping, a delightful afternoon in the garden: M planting seeds, Lil P pushing her dolly in its buggy, I was dozing.
• I've finished cooking tarka dal, lamb korma & aubergine curry with tamarind and coconut for tonight's Easter dinner for M & I & 3 guests.
• Lil Planet enjoyed her Mr Potato Head Easter egg this morning but thankfully isn't yet bothered about chocolate. She ate just a small piece.
• This Easter morning we spent a few hours in the park chasing Little Planet through the muddy field. She laughed so much. She is such a joy!
• Now it's 2.30pm and Little P is napping. Peace and quiet subsumes the house for an hour. Lovely!
• 10am Easter Monday: M & Little P are in the garden. M is mowing the lawn, Little P is pushing her dolly in the buggy and throwing her ball.
• And me? I'm inside, curled in the sofa, reading the weekend papers cover to cover. Apart from having been up since 6.30am, this is the life!
• When the wind shakes the branches of the trees, Little Planet exclaims, "The trees are dancing!". I love seeing the world through her eyes.
• It's park time!
• Bratwurst, mashed potatoes and mustard for dinner tonight, followed by mixed berries crumble. The end to a lovely and quite relaxing Easter.

Nooooo, Mummy, nooooo!

Lest you think Mr Planet and I are blessed with a contented, delightful and utterly charming little toddler, I thought it time I post about Little Planet's terrible toddler antics:

• Her favourite word is No. In fact, her favourite phrase is Noooo, Mummy, noooo!
  
  
• Mummy, I want water. Here it is, darling. No, Mummy, no I not want water. Do you want milk? Yes, milk, Little P wants milk. Okay, let me get you some milk. No, Mummy, no, I want water, not milk, no milk! Cue many tears of anger for silly Mummy not understanding.
  
  
• Little P and I are racing home from daycare as the rain pounds down. Little P is in her buggy and I am trying to put the buggy's hood down to save her from getting wet (all the while getting soaked to the skin myself). No, Mummy, no hood, no hood! her hand pushing the hood back repeatedly. But you will get wet, darling. No get wet, no hood! Sticking her head out, her face getting soaked, crying loud tears of rage as passersby look at me disapprovingly as if I am allowing my daughter to get wet deliberately.
  
  
• Calling out from downstairs: Mummy, mummy, what you doing?! I'm up here. Mummy! Come upstairs, darling. No come upstairs, Mummy, carry carry carry! I'm on the toilet, come up here, you can climb the stairs. No, Mummy, carry carry! Then she repeatedly bangs her head on the floor in rage.
  
  
• As well as bang her head repeatedly on the floor or wall, my daughter attempts to take off her clothes when she's angry - last night before bed, for example, in the middle of the kitchen, she unbuttoned her entire babygro and stood glaring defiantly at me because she didn't know what to do with herself.
  
  
• And, of course, she loves throwing things in the event they, for whatever reason, do not satisfy her.
  

Two strategies work for me, generally. I start with distraction, of the "Look, a bird flying in the sky" or "Let's do some colouring" variety. But if she is so immersed in her rage that distraction does not work then I've found turning away and ignoring her works well: So long as I can see her to ensure she will not hurt herself then I simply withdraw any attention, turn away from her and remain outwardly calm. Her rages soon subside when attention is withdrawn. But inside my heart is always racing and I chant, "It's all a phase, it's all a phase, this too shall pass."

Mothering a toddler can be extremely tough. Thank goodness her sweet and happy side is the side we see the most... for the moment at least!

Little Planet's favourite books

We've been reading to Little Planet and incorporating stories into her bedtime routine ever since she was a newborn. In the past, we simply read her the stories we liked ourselves. But as she got older she began to express her own distinct preferences.

Today, she is a 21 month old toddler who actually demands that we read to her certain books before she goes to bed. In fact, now that her vocabulary has exploded and she is talking in sentences, she often tries to "read" the stories herself, drowning us out as she describes all the images she sees on each page. "Oh, mummy bird eating the worm, yuck!" or "Mouse in the clock... hickory dickory dock, mouse ran up the clock" or "Tiger! Ding dong! Oh come in, come in!" Needless to say, storytime is loads of fun now she can talk about the things she sees.

Here are her favourite books:

The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr

A little girl named Sophie is having tea with her mother in their kitchen when suddenly the doorbell rings. Who can it be? It's a big, stripy tiger who joins them in the kitchen for tea and eats and drinks them out of house and home - even draining the water from the taps so that Sophie cannot have her bath.

Elephant Dance - A Journey to India by Theresa Heine and Sheila Moxley

Ravi's Grandfather visits him from India and soon Ravi is captivated by Grandfather's stories about India, where the sun is like a ferocious tiger, the wind is like a wild horse and monsoon rains cascade like waterfalls. Ravi is so entranced by the stories he is told that at night he dreams of an elephant dancing to a tune he has composed himself on a flute.

Goldilocks by Stephen Tucker and Nick Sharratt

This classic fairytale is written in a witty contemporary verse and with bold, colourful illustrations. It was the first story we ever bought for and read to Little Planet when she literally was a newborn and she still loves it today.

Moon Rabbit by Natalie Russell

White Rabbit loves living in the city because there are so many things to see and do. But alone after dark, she looks up at the moon and begins to wonder whether there is another little rabbit out there, just like her. Then one night White Rabbit meets Brown Rabbit in the park. They become great friends for the night in the park, but after a while White Rabbit wishes she could return to the bright lights of the city.

Full, Full, Full of Love by Trish Cooke and Paul Howard

Every Sunday, Jay Jay and his mummy and daddy, uncles and aunties, cousins and friends all come for Sunday dinner at Grannie's. Not only do they eat delicious food but Jay Jay gets lots of hugs and kisses and snuggles and cuddles and love from Grannie! Little Planet loves saying the words for all the different foods they eat, but mostly she loves saying "snuggles", "cuddles" and "kisses" - just before her own bedtime...

In spite of illness, life goes on

February tweets:

• Full English breakfast at the National Cafe off Trafalgar Square. Complete with delicious black pudding, which I love. Back to work now.
  
• We may book into The Hempel for our wedding anniversary. I am so excited. Feels decadent staying in a hotel in my own city.
  
• Lovely morning shopping, coffee & cake in Crouch End; chilled afternoon watching cheesy Bollywood movie which Little P enjoyed dancing to!
  
• Time will always fly by when you have children. I am often stunned when Little P turns another month older!
  
• Am I the only mother who gets sad realising I will never witness the whole of my child's life - that I will never see her turn 60 for e.g.?
  
• Before you reply, "Oh stop being maudlin and enjoy her now!" - I enjoy every second of Little P...
  
• ... But sometimes I get sad at the life - her life in the future - that I will not witness.
  
• On an upbeat note, beef goulash for dinner tonight! M was home today and cooked it. It's been bubbling away for ages & the house smells yum.
  
• There is nothing more mesmerising than watching Little P sleeping - the only moment in the day...
  
• ... when she is not in peretual motion and I can stare to my heart's content.
  
• Sick parents looking after sick child and still having to keep on top of work = extreme exhaustion.
  
• I can't shift this cold and cough! But I can't take time off work because too many deadlines are hurtling toward me!!! :-(((
  
• I have switched off all work email and taken the day off work. It's madness how much pressure I am putting on myself. I need to get well!
  
• Saw A Single Man today at Islington Vue. What a measured, elegant movie. And with clothes (and a house) to die for!
  
• Made a momentous, life-changing, life-expanding decision this weekend. Need to let it all sink in; need to get thru the next weeks/months.
  
• Hi Mum, I've arrived in Paris! (My mum does not know how to text or receive them but she reads my Twitter feed!)
  
• A day of art... Crash: Homage to JG Ballard at the Gasgosian. So many of my favourite artists in one place. Such a feast.
  
• William Eggleston at Victoria Miro - wonderful snapshots of everyday life captured on this seminal photographer's travels around the world.
  
• Incredible, vivid, comprehensive survey of photography from India, Pakistan & Bangladesh at The Whitechapel Gallery. Fills me with pride.
  
• Delicious, big Japanese lunch at Life on Old Street: okonomiyake, miso soup, chicken teriyaki, sushi and cheesecake.
  
• At the Haunch of Venison, Piccadilly: Jitish Kallat's random, eclectic paintings, sculptures & photos; Chiharu Shiota's fairytale scapes.
  
• In case you're wondering, Mr Planet and I have the day off to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary. And tonight we're booked into a hotel.
  
• Mr Planet & I are enjoying a night at The Hempel whilst Little Planet is bring looked after by her beloved Grandma & Auntie.
  
• Driving through Hyde Park to South Kensington after a heavenly night at The Hempel. Our anniversary weekend isn't over yet...
  
• Popped into The Saatchi Gallery's Indian Art Today exhibition. Eclectic, comprehensive, with some interesting work.
  
• Bought some delightful Indian storybooks for Little P from Saatchi Gallery. Now driving to Marylebone for shopping and lunch.
  
• Clothes for Little P from Bonpoint, novels from Daunts, steak from Ginger Pig, cheese from La Fromagerie. I love shopping in Marylebone.

March tweets:

• Friday is pie-day. Steak & kidney pie then treacle pud with custard @ Newman Arms with colleagues. Then delicious flat whites from Lantana.
  
• It's been a noisy Saturday but 7pm is here and heavenly quiet at last... No Saturday night plans but to eat and then read in peace.
  
• Chicken livers, sprinkled with sea salt, under the grill, delicious.
  
• Little P feverish, won't eat any food but milk, irritable, wants only to be held & cuddled, chewing on her bottle teat. I think it's molars.
  
• A leisurely Saturday morning buying books in Waterstone's on Piccadilly and a wander around the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden.
  
• Today we also ate Japanese pancakes, om-soba noodles and green tea ice cream at Abeno in Bloomsbury then strolled down Lamb's Conduit Street.
  
• Mr Planet treated 3 mothers to Mother's Day lunch today: his mum, my mum and me. Oh, and possibly a future mum in the shape of Little P ;-)
  
• My 2nd ever Mother's Day was wonderful. 21 month old Little P presented me with a handpainted card complete with painted handprint. Then....
  
• ...Mr P took myself, Little P & both her Grandmas out for a Turkish lunch. Delicious minced lamb and chicken kebabs, humous & baklava.
  
• 7.30pm. House perfectly still & quiet. In sweat pants & t-shirt sprawled out on the sofa, reading Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked. Blissed out.
  
• I'm waiting in a stuffy court lounge waiting to be summoned for jury service. Zzzzzz....

Recent notes

• Got my hair done at Aveda in Holborn. There were alot of other women there with Saturday 9am appointments - must all be mums of young children!
• Bought Dead Sea bath salts from Ahava on Monmouth Street but haven't yet had a chance to use them.
• Saw Hirokazu Koreeda's Still Walking - a delightful and emotional homage to Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story that explores the tensions between siblings and their parents gathering together to commemorate the death of a family member.
• Viewed Magnum photographer Raghu Rai's gritty, black and white photographs of street scenes in India at the Aicon gallery - very much in the documentary form associated with Cartier-Bresson and Magnum (photo above)
  
• At Hauser & Wirth, viewed Zhang Enli delicate paintings of everyday things such as a staircase, a detail of embroidery, the branches of a leafy tree (photo below). I was struck by how different the paintings were from other contemporary Chinese painters who tend to focus on politicised subjects or kitsch pop culture. Very Luc Tuymans.
• Little Planet's recent loves: dancing wildly to Bollywood tunes on DVD, making animals and faces with Play Doh, and painting.
• We've all got colds. We kept Little Planet home today - M looked after her this morning then I came home from work at lunch time and took over as he went into work.
  

10% more

In my last post, I described how I had struggled to set any New Year resolutions this year because, give or take several detours, I am living the life I had always dreamed for myself since childhood. I said that it's time to envision a new life for myself, or at least set myself some new goals.

Aside from my usual, "Get fit", "Read more current affairs", "Eat less", "Work harder" goals I half-heartedly set for myself every so often, I've been struggling to think about much that would make my existing life better...

...Except the concept of living the life I already live, but living it better.

It came to me one morning as I was walking to work: "What if I lived the life I live now, the life that I already love, but with 10% more effort?"

Every aspect of my existing life would improve, and it could start with the little things: Walking with 10% more energy, injecting 10% more oomph into my work presentations and meetings, giving 10% more attention to detail in how I dress and present myself, putting 10% more rigour into understanding the news articles I read and the art shows I view, having 10% more appreciation of the food I prepare and consume, investing 10% more focus on making my home more beautiful, being tender and kind towards my husband 10% more of the time, making 10% more attempts at making my little daughter laugh hysterically...

The thought that I need inject just 10% more effort into every aspect of my life feels achievable, not daunting.

So let's see how it goes... I already have an extra spring in my step.

Visioning a new life

When I was a teenager, I imagined a very clear picture of how I wanted my life to turn out when I grew up. I wrote the vision down on a piece of paper and kept it hidden away. I subsequently misplaced the piece of paper, but it didn't matter because the vision was so vivid it had burned into my psyche.

In that vision, I saw the way I dressed, the way I moved, the way I behaved, the man I had married, the home I lived in, the career I had carved out for myself and enjoyed, the leisure activities I pursued, some accomplishments I had achieved...

Fortunately my life has not unfurled exactly to plan and on schedule - I didn't forsee the heartaches, for example, or the illnesses; I didn't forsee how unconfident I would feel in so many situations. But you know what? My real life is pretty close to the life I imagined for myself all those years ago. I have the lovely home, the career that excites me, the husband who excites me and shares my love of food and travel, of city life and culture - the galleries, the restaurants, the movies, the people. I even have some bonuses - things I never actually wished for such as a child.

When I was pondering aloud to Mr Planet the other day why I was struggling to make any "bigger picture" resolutions for 2010, I realised it was because I am finally living the life I have always wanted to live.

I need to start dreaming again. It's time again to envision the next chapter of my life and write it down for posterity.

Oh my goodness, I have no idea where to start...

Update tweets

In lieu of recent posts, here are some updates from the last two months from my Twitter site. Work is the craziest it's ever been; I don't see my workload easing up any time soon so I need to make more of an effort to post on my blog. I must make this effort because I really enjoy browsing my old posts on here (all the way back to 2004) when I get some downtime.

December updates

• I will be working right up to Christmas. Everyone else's clients down tools for 3 weeks over December. Not mine.
• I keep thinking it's Monday tomorrow. I've packed Little Planet's daycare bag, my work bag and I nearly put out the empty milk bottles.
• I'm trying not to hyperventilate over the fact that I have 3 client presentations to prepare and deliver before Christmas :-(
• On top of working, we're hosting a family Christmas again this year for 10+. I see no rest at all for M & I until 2010.
• Super busy at work but still spent a lovely weekend with Little Planet & M, and tonight M & I enjoyed a romantic dinner at Roka on Charl.St.
• What a lovely Xmas. We hosted dinners on Xmas Eve, Xmas Day and Boxing Day all for 12 guests each day. The fun far outweighed the stress!
• We ate roast cod and chermoula on Xmas Eve, roast goose on Xmas Day and an Indian feast (courtesy of my lovely mum) on Boxing Day.
• Roasted ham, broad beans and bubble & squeak (using leftover Christmas veggies) for dinner last night.
• Met up with M after work tonight for a lovely dinner at Yauatcha. Now I have the rest of the week off - yippee!
• All guests have finally left & it's just M, Little P & me for 5 days to spend full-on quality time together before work resumes on the 4th.
• M and I are seeing in New Year with Champers and roast beef. Little Planet is seeing the New Year in with chicken pox!

January updates

• 2009: Celebrated 2nd wedding anniversary & Little P's 1st birthday, returned to work, and travelled to Frankfurt, Madrid, Paris & New York.
• I hope 2010 is as wonderful.
• Little P's new word is "Itchy" as her chicken pox takes hold. Both her Grandmas will be looking after her next week, showering her in love.
• I can't believe it's back to work on Monday... Where did the luxury of time go?
• I've decided not to set myself any 2010 resolutions until the beginning of Spring, which feels much more natural.
• Yum, lunch from Ambala - samosa, potato cake, curried chickpeas, and dahi bara.
• 1 of the positives of having kids - the excuse to watch their movies (not that we need an excuse!)? I am looking forward to it!
• Little P's chickenpox is clearing and she's back to her cheery, cheeky self.
• I am glad Little P got chickenpox so young. Now it's out of the way. I, on the other hand, am still waiting to get it!
• Mooli wraps on Frith St - delicious. I had paneer wrap. £5 meal deal - wrap, papads, drink. Eat in it's foil cover tho as will fall apart.
• Another client presentation. Still get very nervous doing them yet I work in client services! Worst part of my job, but shd be the best.
• These days I automatically assume that a lone woman at the cinema is not single but married with a child or two & simply seeking alone time.
• Saw Up In The Air at the cinema after work today. Clooney very good. (Mr Planet put Little Planet to bed so I didn't have to rush home).
• My 19 mth old is waking at 5.30 now after sleeping 7 to 7. She sleeps longer without a day nap though. I'm hoping it's just a phase!
• Attending Saraswati puja with my mum.
• Puja made me realise what a mixed up bunch my family are r.e. religion: mum is Hindu, dad is Brahmo Samaj, I'm Catholic, husband is athiest.
• & Little Planet is "undecided" (I assume). When my parents enrolled me in convent school they deliberately left the Religion field blank....
• ... explaining to the head nun that at 4 years old I was too young to have made up my own mind on religion. My parents were (are) very cool.
• My mum and I are having quality mother-daughter time and going to the cinema to see Meryl Streep in It's Complicated soon.

Popping in and out

Hello, Merry Christmas one and all. I am just popping in to say that although I am not blogging at the moment (in the New Year, I promise), I am Tweeting. So for those of you who read my blog via a feed reader, here is the link for my updates: http://twitter.com/Planethalder.

The other side

Oh my goodness, I've been so busy being surprised at how Little Planet has hit her "terrible twos" 7 months early that I've not had time to absorb quite how much her speaking has come on by leaps and bounds. She's close to 18 months old and she's trying out sentences. She points to the door and says "Let's go out!" She points downstairs and says "Mummy get milk!" And she's been saying "Off we go!" for a while now. I was an early talker. She's taking after her mum :-)

On a separate note, I've been super busy at work and may have a few work trips in Europe as we approach Christmas so I may not have the energy or time to blog. Suffice to say, life will be the usual mixture of going out, eating well, working, playing with Little P (and ducking her tantrums!) and working again.

See you on the other side!

2 day week

I was off work for the first two days of the week just gone. I was supremely lazy and didn't even leave the house (or change out of my sweat pants). Here's what I did:

• After M left with Little Planet to go to daycare and then work, I washed up the breakfast dishes and then... well that was the extent of my domestic duties for the day!
• I blogged
• I finished reading Jeffrey Eugenides' superlative, Pulitzer Prize-winning Middlesex. The novel begins: "I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkable smogless Detroit day in January 1960, and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974"
• I read all the weekend newspapers (FT, Observer and Herald Tribune)
• I ate hot buttered toast (homemade rye bread with caraway seeds) and vegetable soup, plus lots of chocolate chip cookies
• I responded to urgent work emails (I had no choice)
  
• I watched Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in the elegant movie Guess Who's Coming To Dinner while outside the wind howled and the rain poured down in sheets
  

It's nice to have days of solitude like these - so good for the soul.

Yesterday was Friday. Both M and I took the day off as annual leave. Compared to the first two days of the week when I stayed at home, this day was a busy day. After dropping Little Planet off at daycare we:

• Headed to the Southbank and ate hearty breakfasts at Giraffe: M had huevos rancheros and I ate a full cooked English breakfast. The food was delicious but it's such a shame that only restaurant chains exist on the Southbank
  
• Then onto the Hayward gallery for the bright, bold and brilliant Ed Ruscha exhibition (photo above)
  
• Walked back over the river and caught a bus to the Royal Academy for the playful, colourful and extremely busy Anish Kapoor exhibition
• Down to the White Cube at Mason's Yard to see Damien Hirst's latest paintings (which seemed to me like modern day versions of Francis Bacon as re-envisioned by the Chapman Brothers - in other words, wholly derivative)
• Lunched on delicious handmade-noodle soup at Baozi Inn in Chinatown (photo below)
  
• Afterwards, we went to the Covent Garden Odeon to see the Coen Brothers' latest movie The Serious Man - a fantastic black comedy
• Stocked up on tea at Postcard Teas and provisions (fresh fish, cheeses, wine) at the John Lewis Food Hall
• Headed back home to pick up Little Planet and then meet my mother-in-law who has just returned from a long holiday in Chille and Argentina and is staying with us for the weekend
• While M and his mum prepared Little Planet for bed, I took a cab to the Sadler's Wells Theatre to see Akram Khan and Nitin Sawhney perform Confluence - a highly-emotive performance that fused Sawhney’s music with Khan’s contemporary spin on classical kathak dance. I've lost count how many times I've seen Akram Khan (photo top) - blog posts collated here - and I try not to miss a show.

So what a week. In all I was at work for just two days. I dread the amount of work I have to catch up on on Monday (I'm trying not to look at my emails, which is difficult considering they are all on my iPhone). And now the weekend is here - and the sun is actually shining!

Weekend bullets

Friday

• In Paris for a client meeting all day. More client meetings due in Hamburg and Rome over the next month, fingers crossed. I like travelling on business. M is in Madrid for work this week, so I will miss him. He'll be in Amsterdam and some other cities over the next month also so we have to plan all our work trips carefully so one of us is always at home for Little Planet.
  

Saturday

• Points Of View: Capturing The 19th Century In Photographs exhibition at the British Library. Rarely seen photographs and a very detailed history. Even Little Planet enjoyed some of the photos, particularly the ones depicting baboon locomotion (she made monkey sounds to show her appreciation).
• Coffee and cake at the Wellcome Institute and a run around for Little Planet.
• Big tantrums on the Tube journey back home (Little Planet, not us, though I felt like tantruming back in response). The "terrible twos" are starting, seven months too early! I now keep chanting, "It's a phase, it's a phase".
  
• Cheese on toast back home while outside it began to pour with rain.
• Afternoon nap for us all.
• The rest of the afternoon spent baking pizza bases, bread and blueberry muffins, doing laundry, hoovering the house, reading the papers and playing.
• Charlie And Lola bedtime story for Little Planet - she's just getting into these books and us two adults find them enjoyable too.
• Homemade pizzas for dinner after Little Planet went to bed.
• Movie after dinner was the Coen brothers' hilarious Burn After Reading.

Sunday

• The motto for Sunday was "Don't shop with a full wallet and no sense!" After complaining to M that Little Planet has too many toys and that she would be getting more at Christmas from friends and family, I walked into the Early Learning Centre in Brent Cross with my mum and came out with 5 bags full of toys for Little Planet's Christmas.
• However, over the past three or four months I've packed away alot of her toys (she gets given alot) and I rotate toys every few weeks rather than having them all out. This way she discovers her old toys afresh. I've also passed on many toys to others. And M and I haven't personally bought her toys for months.
• Also, the toys I bought at the ELC were much needed ones completely appropriate to her age: she's drawing now so I bought her some craft and arts things, she's playing more imaginatively with toy animals so I bought her some small animal figurines, she's manipulating objects with greater dexterity so I bought her a toy piano, she's playing throw and catch and chase (even by herself) with a ball so I bought her a bouncy ball...
• Now that she is exclusively walking now (and running) I can dress her up in more dresses. I don't like flouncy, frilly pink things, so I pretty much shop online or at Green Baby, Bonpoint and Baby Gap for her things. On Sunday, I bought her a number of denim, cord and cotton tunic dresses, including the one below.
• The rest of the day was spent at home with Little Planet - my mum visited as did Little Planet's Granddad on M's side.
• Homemade pizzas again for dinner.

Things to do

Our busy weekend began on Friday night when M returned home with fish and chips, which we ate in front of the TV (recordings of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Breaking Bad). My working week had been particularly stressful due to having to work with a particularly controlling and obstructive colleague, so vegging out mindlessly felt so good.

Saturday began with hot croissants at home. An old friend of mine was meeting us for brunch at Carluccio's in the Brunswick Centre at Russell Square, but as it was raining so hard and Little Planet had ripped the only raincover we have for the buggy, M and Little Planet could not come out so I went alone to meet him. We both lectured together at university but whereas I moved career into advertising, he has remained in academia and is doing very well. He ordered scrambled eggs and I had a fruit salad and we caught up for an hour.

We separated at the British Museum where he went on to meet another friend and I took a cab to the White Cube in Hoxton to see Anselm Kiefer's The Fertile Crescent exhibition (photo above). Kiefer was inspired by a trip to India where he was taken by the sun-dried mud bricks of rural brick factories. The smell of thick, encrusted oil paint filled the gallery and was heady and earthy. It's been a few weeks since I've visited a gallery and I really needed this emotive hit of Kiefer - one of my favourite painters.

It was raining so hard that I cabbed it back into central London, to the Courtauld where they were exhibiting Frank Auerbach's abstract oil paintings of post-war London building sites (photo above). Like Kiefer, these weighty, gutsy paintings with thickly layered paint really got took my breath away.

It was still raining when I left the gallery but I decided to walk to Piccadilly where the second part of Anselm Kiefer's exhibition continued in the White Cube's Mason's Yard gallery - this time featuring monumental forest diptychs and triptychs enclosed in glass vitrines.

I tried to see Anish Kapoor's show at the Royal Academy Of Arts, but the queue was a mile long (despite, or perhaps because of, the rain) so I decided instead to search for a raincover for Little Planet's Bugaboo Bee buggy. I called Mothercare and Selfridges but they had sold out. I was fortunate in John Lewis - they too had sold out of the raincover but they graciously gave me a good-as-new display model for free. While I was there I also picked up some Neal's Yard baby balm which is so good for Little Planet's nappy rash whilst she's teething her big molars. Then down to Carnaby Street where I bought some Kiehl's products from Liberty and some candles from Muji.

Finally, I ate a late lunch (at 2.30pm) at Masala Zone, where I ate a vegetable thali and got talking to a nice elderly Indian couple from Barnes (south London) seated next to me about Anish Kapoor, iPhones and disabled parking in central London. I've eaten at a wide variety of Indian restaurants - from cheap to expensive - but Masala Zone and Rasa are still my favourites.

I came home in time for Little Planet's dinner time. M had spent a lovely day with our daughter - going to the park, playing and also doing loads of things around the house, including baking bread. Later on, M made homemade mayonnaise and crab cakes which he served with a salad dressed in homemade sesame seed dressing. It was delicious.

This Sunday morning, the weather was bright and sunny so M and I took Little Planet to the British Museum. We saw the The Power Of Dogu exhibition of small ceramic figures from ancient Japan (photo above) and the exhibition of Mexican Revolutionary Prints. At 10am, both exhibition rooms were virtually empty which was wonderful for the three of us as Little Planet was able to toddle around to her heart's content and M and I were also then able to really focus on the exhibits. Little Planet found alot to interest her in the exhibitions as we encouraged her to identify ears, eyes, noses, chins, mouths, hair, feet and hands on each of the Dogu statues and also on some of the people depicted in the Mexican prints. She really enjoyed this activity. Then we took her to the fountains in Russell Square.

The rest of the day was spent at home. All three of us napped after lunch for an hour then M planted Spring bulbs in the back garden whilst Little Planet played throwing and fetching balls on the lawn and I was upstairs sorting laundry. Little Planet watched Supernanny with me (!!) and then some CBeebies and then we all played before a family dinner of roast chicken, sweet potatoes, sweetcorn and broccoli.

This is the first time we've eaten dinner together. Because Little Planet goes to bed at 7pm she has her dinner at 5pm - this is too early for M and I but we thought for once we would give a shared family dinner at 5pm a try. It was too early for us and I didn't really enjoy the meal; also Little Planet does not eat well when she has an audience (such as people sitting at the table with her) so she hardly ate a thing. Oh well, at least we tried and we will try it again periodically.

Now she's in bed and because we've already eaten, we have a good four hours stretching ahead of us before our own bedtime. Such a long time not punctuated by meal preparation and eating! What shall we do with the time? I'm sure we'll think of loads of things.

Hope you all had a good weekend too.

Being a hermit

Saturday saw much lovelier weather so we spent most of the day outside in the fresh air. We took Little Planet to London Zoo in the morning. She particularly enjoyed staring at the gorillas and walking through the butterfly enclosure. Then we spent the afternoon with her in the park. Sunday was spent shopping locally for groceries and visiting with my mum.

I've been super busy at work. I'm going through a number of end-of-year reviews with clients, even though it's still only November. And as the year end is fast approaching, I'm also doing some client entertaining planning. This year, I am not looking forward to the client entertaining season. Perhaps it's because I am busier than ever, perhaps it's because I am more tired, perhaps it's because I no longer enjoy drinking as much now that morning lie-ins are a thing of the past, or maybe it's simply a phase I am going through... but right now, I can think of nothing better than snuggling in at home with M. I don't want to go out and socialise.

Cooped up

We had another very low key weekend. Saturday morning was spent in the park; the afternoon was spent napping, playing at home and sorting through paperwork in the study. We all ate well - Little Planet devoured pasta with a cheese and tomato sauce for lunch, and scrambled eggs and peas for dinner. M baked rye bread with caraway seeds and also a lemon sponge cake. For dinner, he grilled venison steaks and we ate them with roasted cauliflower with capers and sauteed potatoes. In all, Saturday was blissfully languid.

Sunday was altogether a very different day. For a start, it poured with rain; it was so blustery that we couldn't go out with the buggy. So we hunkered down inside all day. At first I thought, "How wonderful, we can snuggle in all day and be supremely lazy!" But I developed a painful stomach ache from the previous night's venison; I subsisted on white buttered toast all day and lay prone on the sofa. And all three of us suffered from cabin fever - we whinged and whined to some extent all day long. I think Little Planet in particular disliked being cooped up all day inside. It's part of her daily routine to be outside for a few hours each day. Fortunately my mum came round in the afternoon so Little Planet was relatively happy being distracted by her "Gramma".

My stomach still hurts, but I'm at work now so I am being distracted from the pain.

All about sleeping

Having been away for a week in New York, rushing around doing lots of fun things, all I felt like doing this weekend just gone was staying at home and chilling.

Unfortunately, my daughter had other plans for us all (as children do!). She has most of her teeth now but teething has had little impact on her good, deep, night time sleep thus far. But now the poor little thing is teething one set of her big molars, so she was wide awake screaming at 5am on Saturday and was inconsolable (immune to cuddling, Calpol and sleeping in our bed). So that's when the day started for us.

In truth it was fine because she is such a delight and we knew we could all catch up on sleep later in the day. However, the early start meant a very stressful morning as she wasn't ready to nap but at the same time was extremely cranky so not much chilling got done. She finally napped (as did we) for an hour or so after lunch. Thereafter, fully rested, she was a dream child - happy, playing, rested, chilled. The afternoon turned out to be wonderful.

She woke up screaming at 4am on Sunday, but thankfully went back to sleep within minutes of me giving her some magic potion (= Calpol!). Then she slept on another few hours. Consequently, Sunday was wonderful for all of us as she was fully rested. We simply played with her all day long. And in the afternoon, after her post-lunch nap, my mum came to visit her. My mum also bought M and I dinner for that night - homecooked chana dal curry and cauliflower curry. So delicious that we had to eat it again on Monday night (rather than freezing).

Honestly, life with my daughter is just so much fun (much more fun than when she was a baby). She's got a cracking sense of humour, laughs all the time, chatters away non-stops and her vocabulary is growing by the day. She can point to things and correctly name them eg leaves, trees, cars, bin, bib, books, flowers - she pointed to a buttercup in our garden and said, "Flower!" and then she pointed to a nasturtium and also identified it as a "Flower!"... She saw a photo of a boy and said, "Boy!", and she saw both her Grandmothers in a photo and she exclaimed, "Gramma!" It was particularly sweet when we were leafing through a photo album together and we came across a photo of the three of us together. She pointed to the image of M and exclaimed, "Daddy!", she pointed to the image of me and said, "Mummy!" and then she stopped at the image of herself and hesitated, really staring at it. M said, "Who's that?" And she replied, "Baby!"

She also now enjoys pointing to animals and imitating the sounds they make: "Woof woof" when she sees a dog, "Squeak, squeak" when she sees a mouse, "rrrbit, rrrbit" when she sees a frog, "meeeooow" for a cat... When she sees a lion, she flings her arms back, thrusts out her face, opens her mouth wide and really roars!

She loves dancing to music - she stomps her feet and shakes her body and flaps her arms around. The other day I caught her trying to imitate a woman doing a yoga pose on TV (the tree pose, incidentally). She also enjoys pretending to read - she'll open a book up and look at the words and babble away as if she is reciting a nursery rhyme (sing song style) then turn the page over and repeat. It's very endearing.

Life is more difficult too. As a baby, she was far more mobile - we could, generally, take her anywhere. But now she has a mind of her own. If she's decided she doesn't want to be somewhere, she makes her feelings known loudly. If she doesn't want to eat or do something then she will emphatically say (or shout, or cry) "No!" and turn away. We don't push her too much if she doesn't want to do something. I recognise that at the moment she cannot be reasoned with so I have little choice but to go with the flow. Going with the flow is a learning experience for me!

She also really fights going to sleep in the buggy when we are out and about - there is too much for her to see and do and she doesn't want to miss out on all the fun. It means we can no longer go out for longer than a couple of hours at a time before she is beside herself with tiredness but refusing to nap and so is hysterical. It's okay. It's just a phase. Eventually her stamina will build and she will no longer need to nap anyway.

Sunday afternoon ended with M carving out a happy Halloween pumpkin for Little Planet (photo above). We lit it and switched off all the lights. We kept switching the lights on and off because she was so excited by it all - she was literally shaking with excitement.

Sunday night was a little better for her and us in terms of sleep. She is usually a deep sleeper at night (a light sleeper during the day) and regular readers of this blog know that she started to sleep through the night from 12 weeks old (generally 7 to 7 or 7 to 6.30). But teething makes her night sleep much lighter and more broken, so on Sunday night she was roused from her sleep just by M and I going to bed at 11pm. She cried for a minute and then went back to sleep so we didn't need to go into her. She also cried out at 2am in the morning but fortunately went back to sleep after a minute so again I didn't need to go to her. Unfortunately I was, then, wide awake and it took me an hour to get back to sleep!

New York minute #3

Monday was our last day in New York and we began the day by packing our bags and checking out of our very cool Hotel On Rivington. We headed over to Battery Park and boarded a packed ferry to the Statue of Liberty (our first visit ever despite numerous visits to NYC). Then we walked alongside the Hudson River to Tribeca for an early lunch at Bar Artisanal. There we ate the very best cheeseburgers, fries and craft beers in beautiful surroundings. Bar Artisanal is truly a great place to eat and Tribeca itself has numerous good restaurants and cafes. We'll explore more when we next visit New York. Afterwards, we walked off our lunch by strolling through Central Park in the glorious sunshine. But dodging the hundreds of determined joggers was hard work! We escaped onto 5th Avenue and did a last bout of shopping in Barneys department store before heading back to the hotel to pick up our bags and a cab to the airport.

Returning to London on Tuesday morning was bittersweet: we were sad that our vacation was over and were very tired from the overnight flight, but we were excited about seeing our baby daughter again. When we arrived at our house, we napped for a couple of hours. M's wonderful mother had already cleaned the house and done all the laundry. After our quick sleep, we picked Little Planet up early from daycare. As soon as she saw us she shouted, "Daddy!" then "Mummy!" and jumped into M's arms. It was lovely!

And now it's back to reality again and work, work, work, play, work, work, work, play. Still, we have the weekend to look forward to and we plan on doing nothing but chill out at home with our daughter.