A growing nursery

I was recently asked how I was doing up Little Planet's nursery. The straightforward answer? "Very simply." You see, neither M nor I particularly like themed rooms or specific colour palettes - all the walls in our house are white and we've added colour through accessories such as cushions, photos, books, rugs and ornaments.

Take Little Planet's bedroom, for example. The clean white palette is enlivened with splashes of colour from her wall art, pictures and spotty rug (the white chest next to her cot stores her toys) ...

... to her cream curtains with brightly printed illustrations of hot air balloons, rickshaws, yellow cabs, gondolas and red double decker buses (we store blankets and linens in her old moses basket on top of her wardrobe) ...

... to her bright beanbag chair and a few selected toys ...

... to her spotty changing mat on top of her chest of drawers and, of course, her colourful book display ...

It's a growing room that should be easy and quick to update as she gets older. More than anything, though, it's a calm, serene room in a quiet part of the house overlooking the back garden and all the trees. Little Planet steps onto her squishy cloth globe, peers out the window and looks at the trees, cats, birds, squirrels and foxes. It's such a peaceful room that I placed a chair in there for us adults to sit in and relax too!

Domestic Saturday

It rained all day today so, unlike yesterday, we didn't do much except catch up with things domestic.

A man came round first thing to hang curtains up in the nursery. Little Planet had an amusing conversation with the man she calls Mr Curtain Man:

"Hello Mr Curtain Man!"
"Hello little one. How are you?"
"I'm drinking!"
We all roar with laughter.
Put out by our laughter, Little Planet exclaims "It's not funny!"

The curtains are lovely - a Harlequin print called Far Far Away: cream with colourful prints of hot air balloons, rickshaws, yellow cabs, elephants, gondolas and red double deckers (photo above).

Afterwards, we went shopping - shoes, sandals and shorts for Little Planet, magazines and general provisions for us.

In the afternoon, we cleaned the house and sorted out the study - going through all our paperwork, filing boxes and miscellaneous things we've dumped there (photo above). We still have stuff to go through, but we've made progress. The study is the only room in the house now that needs de-cluttering.

Little Planet played on the floor during all this cleaning and sorting. Now that her vocabulary is exploding, her capacity for imaginary play is expanding and it was a joy today to see her playing with her cars and garage, and her little people in their play school, creating scenarios.

I spent a lot of time reading stories with her too - books like Meg On The Moon and Tea With Bea, plus story apps on my iPhone such as Kidztory's The Tortoise And The Hare (photo above). I find reading with her extremely relaxing. My favourite way to unwind during the week after a hard day's work is reading bedtime stories with her.

After her bedtime, M made homemade pizzas - one with mozzarella, capers and anchovies, the other with mozzarella, artichokes and asparagus (photo below).

Now M's watching David Lynch's Inland Empire but I'm simply not in the mood for such an obtuse and surreal film so I am snuggled on the other sofa with some trashy magazines and my iPhone open at Google Reader.

There's a treacle tart in the oven, which we'll devour smothered in cream.

It's been a good, productive day at home, but I do hope the sun shines tomorrow and on Bank Holiday Monday.

Being a home body

Ever since we have been together (and at 4.5 years, it's not really been that long) Mr Planet and I have been on some big holidays: last year we went to New York, the year before that was spent in India and Japan, the year before that was spent in Thailand and New York, and the year before that was spent in Thailand and Spain. So when M said that we would have to postpone our trip to Hong Kong this year because it clashed with a big court case he's working on, I was incredibly disappointed and resigned myself to the thought of smaller city breaks and odd days off here and there to stay at home in London.

Of course, I can go away by myself or with friends/family, but... I admit it, I sulked a bit, okay a lot. But you know what? I've taken a few days off here and there to simply potter in my own home and city and I've really enjoyed it. 2010 is shaping up to be my year to chill out a little more and simply enjoy time in my own place as a home body. I became a homeowner for the first time ever the year we got married, 3 years ago. And I'm really enjoying having my own space to truly relax in. Taking days off to potter around is actually as rejuvenating as a holiday abroad, if not more.

Today has been a case in point. My day started early - as it tends to being the parent of a small child - with Little Planet's wake up call. As M showered, I took Little Planet into bed with me and we read lots of stories as we snuggled up together. We both especially enjoyed Peepo! by Janet and Allan Ahlberg because of the sheer amount of illustrated detail on every page. My little toddler is usually such a whirlwind of activity that it's rare that I get the luxury of holding her in my arms for more than a minute or two. But when I'm reading her stories, then I am allowed to hold her tight for as long as I want! It's pure heaven to feel the weight of her little body against mine, to smell her skin and hair, to listen to her breathing so close to my face as she listens to me reading to her. I never want to let her go.

But I had to let her go as we had to drop her off at daycare for 8.30am. M and I then headed into town for a quick al fresco breakfast of apple Danish pastries and flat whites at The Espresso Room on Great Ormond Street. M headed off to work and I headed over to John Lewis to pick up a polka dot rug (photo above) for Little Planet's bedroom. I also picked up a few toys for her birthday in June, plus some knitting needles and yarn, and then I caught a cab home. I was back home by 10.30am and the whole day stretched out languorously ahead of me.

The day was bright and sunny so I decided to launder all the towels. There is nothing like the smell of freshly-washed towels that have been hung up to dry in the garden. Then I curled up on the couch in our newly painted and bright living room (photo above) and I read for a few hours.

I paused for lunch: I made myself some fried Spam slices and fried egg on a bed of white rice and liberally sprinkled with sweet chilli sauce. It sounds disgusting but I've been craving Spam (and this combo) ever since I read a few blog posts by Su-Lin at Tamarind & Thyme and TFP at The Food Pornographer. M is horrified but fried Spam with egg and rice is comfort food of the highest order!

After lunch reading Elle Decoration magazine, I settled in to watch a DVD: Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief. Beautiful to look at, entertaining to watch - a great escapist afternoon movie. As I watched, I snacked on some Klik chocolate cornflakes. Obviously today was turning out to be an unhealthy-eating day!

After the movie, I pottered from room to room doing nothing in particular, and by 5.30pm, it was time pick up Little Planet, who regaled me with lots of toddler talk ("Look at the bird", "Oh man with blue hat", "Is Daddy at home?", "Bye bye Dida's car!", "Hello man", "I went to the park with Dillon", "Baby Celeste she was crying", "Twinkle twinkle little star!", "Can we go to the garden mummy?") all the way home. We chatted some more as she played in the garden and the kitchen and I prepared some dal for the evening meal. Then it was her bedtime - nappy change, into bed clothes, milk, teeth brushing, 3 or 4 stories then bed around 7.15pm.

Whilst waiting for M to return home, I got out my knitting needles and wool (photo below), looked up a great How To Knit video on YouTube and cracked on. The reason I want to learn to knit is twofold:

1. Because I can't listen to music and read at the same time so knitting gives me the ability to switch off and listen to music at night after Little Planet goes to bed.
2. I love buying woollen cardigans and jumpers for Little Planet in Winter. Normally her Grandma knits her some wonderful things; hopefully now I will be able to too.
3. It seems like such a relaxing, even meditative activity.
   

Yesterday, Sunday, Little Planet and I had spent the day with my mum and dad whilst M had relaxed at home by himself. Mum had made two curries for us - lamb and prawn. So tonight, when M gets home, we'll have dal and my mum's prawn curry for dinner.

What a lovely day off. I could easily not work ever again if every day could be like today!!

Extra special days

Now I am on maternity leave, the concept of weekends and public holidays shouldn't really make a difference to me as every day is a holiday, pre-baby. But days morph into extra special days when I have company. So my special week began on Wednesday night in the company of my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and husband for dinner, when I cooked them a hearty chorizo stew with spinach, garlic, smoked paprika, whole cumin and chickpeas and served it with hot crusty Turkish flat bread.

Thursday consisted of a gentle stroll around Finsbury Park (above) in the glorious sunshine with my mother-in-law, watching babies, identifying trees and taking lots of breathers on park benches. We then lunched at Ottolenghi in Islington, where I ate pork and beef meatloaf with roast beetroot salad and roasted peppers, and my mother-in-law ate salmon with broad beans and roasted aubergines. We finished our meals off with fluffy, sticky meringues. I love lunching here - the ambience is so relaxed and minimalist and friendly. The place is renowned for its salads and desserts and was founded by a Palestinian and an Israeli Jew. They've recently published a cookbook, which I promptly bought a signed copy of.

My mother-in-law then left and later, back at home, I cooked a dinner of orecchiette pasta with a sauce of pancetta, freshly marinated artichokes, garlic, fresh tomatoes, green olives and freshly grated parmesan (above) for M and we followed it with M&S lemon zest cheesecakes in front of the disappointingly anti-climactic season 1 finale of Dirty Sexy Money. Now that I am going out less, I am getting the time to watch more TV and DVDs, which (at the moment) is a real treat.

M had Friday off. While he ran errands, bought provisions and checked out a few art exhibitions in town, I spent most of the morning having my hair done at the Aveda Institute on High Holborn. Such pampering will be my last chance before Little Planet is born so I wanted to make the best of it. However, in the middle of my blissful treatments I received the texts that two of the women from my antenatal group whose babies were due end of May had already given birth. The news brought my 3rd June due date hurtling towards me and I was consumed with a tense mixture of excitement and fear: I really want to meet Little Planet face to face but am obviously afraid of both the birth and how I will look after her; I am also a little sad that what feels like a holiday – a self-indulgent period of me-me-me time – is coming to an end.

M met me afterwards and we lunched at our favourite Korean restaurant Bi Won, where I had my favourite bi bim bab bowl - a stew of vegetables, beef and chilli paste on a bed of rice and a raw egg broken on top, and served sizzling away in an earthenware bowl (above). This is comfort eating of the highest order and for me ranks alongside buttery mashed potatoes, thick, salty, hand-cut chips, and Alphonso mangoes in the comfort eating stakes. M slurped a kimchi and tofu soup. Then we strolled through a vibrant Russell Square in full, pink bloom (below).

Back home, M prepared the dough for pizza and did laundry (my hero), and then took a nap while I chilled under a blazing sun in the garden with my new favourite magazines - Parenting, Parents, Real Simple, Dwell and Junior. For dinner we ate the pizzas topped with our favourite tomato, mozzarella and artichoke toppings (with additions of black olives and anchovies for M) and then ended the night watching the gripping and complex Heroes, season 1, on DVD.

The Bank Holiday weekend was spent at home as I am too weary and heavy to do much out and about now as I enter my 39th week of pregnancy. M went for a run around the park and then to the gym. When he returned he planted coriander, parsley, thyme, sage and basil in pots in the garden (above). In the evening he cooked a mouth-watering Vietnamese meal of beef stewed with tomato, star anise and lemongrass from Andrea Nguyen's Into The Vietnamese Kitchen, which he served with stir-fried water spinach from a local Vietnamese supermarket that has recently opened and brown rice (below); and on a rainy Sunday he roasted lamb with rosemary (from our garden) and garlic for dinner and served it with asparagus and mashed chickpeas. We had Ben & Jerry's phish ice cream for dessert - my first time - yum!

We whiled away the rest of the rainy Bank Holiday chilling in the kitchen reading the weekend papers (below), reading novels (I've started Carol Shields' Duet - wonderfully descriptive evocation of the apparently mundane lives of two sisters - one a biographer, the other a poet), baking muffins filled with lemon zest and sultanas (recipe below), blogging, surfing the net, preparing and then taking delivery of our Ocado order (life-saving at this stage in my pregnancy when I can carry hardly anything), checking and re-checking my hospital bag and baby's things, checking we knew how the infant car seat works, and reading up as much as I can about water births as I am booked in to have one if all progresses well. And Bank Holiday Monday finished with M cooking Singapore prawns for dinner, made with fenugreek, fennel and tamarind (below). Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend (at least those of you in the UK and US!).

38 weeks

In direct contrast to a previous post, the last few days have been much, much better. I have had more energy and fewer naps. I don't know what it is - perhaps it's the cooling of the weather.

...I have eaten cupcakes bought home by M from Candy Cakes in Covent Garden and then been inspired to bake my own vanilla cupcakes dressed with butter icing and violet flowers (above) as well as butter scones, which we demolished over the weekend.

...I have slow-cooked ratatouille for my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and enjoyed an evening eating it with them before they crossed the waters to Portugal for a week's spa break.

...I have slow-cooked a courgette, cherry tomato, ricotta and lemon sauce for orecchiette pasta for M.

...I have eaten a scrumptious Indian meal cooked by M from Madhur Jaffrey's comprehensive Ultimate Curry Bible: Cauliflower gosht (above) and lamb in a mustard seed sauce.

...I have spent many an hour preparing our bedroom, as it is shaping up to be a Zen haven with a lovely corner just for the baby (above with moses basket, baby changing unit, and armchair and footstool for holding and feeding her and singing to her), for she will sleep in our room for her first few months before we move her to the nursery. I can see myself and Little Planet spending most of our hours in this heavenly corner.

...I have finished reading Mavis Cheek's witty and sardonic Yesterday's Houses and started reading Penelope Lively's City Of The Mind; I have thrilled to both Boy Child and Climate Of The Hunter by Scott Walker, whose sexy deep vibrato seems to always set Little Planet off, and have also been enjoying Madonna's Hard Candy and Nick Cave's Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!; and I have swooned to Katherine Hepburn in the magical movie Summertime.

...I have hosted a coffee morning for some of the mums-to-be from my antenatal class and enjoyed the company of these women who range from civil servants and researchers to TV and music producers.

...Here's my bump at 36 weeks - 2 weeks ago. I don't know why my wrist looks so strange here; must be the overhead lighting...

...I have perused online for terracotta pots and herbs to grow in our garden, plus ideas for growing a Japanese garden.

...I have been weirdly excited by a phone call from a client who hadn't realised I was on maternity leave. It made me miss work.

...I have craved, just for a couple of days thankfully, bland ready-made curries and samosas and quiches and potato salads and cheap chocolate mousse from the supermarket, which was strange as thus far in my pregnancy I had only craved milk and fruit (perhaps why I have only put on 15lbs in weight to date - I thought I would put on much more, but really the only thing that has gotten bigger on my body has been my stomach).

...I've bought more clothes for the baby from Green Baby (and her first teddy bear from Mothercare)...

...With women in my antenatal class beginning to go into labour now, I have written my birth plan and begun packing my hospital bag just in case.

37 weeks

• Saturday was spent wandering around the brilliant China Design Now and Blood On Paper exhibitions at the Victoria & Albert Museum; buying assorted green teas and Indian chai tea and chatting away to the owner about, you guessed it, tea at Postcard Teas; eating masala dosa and nair dosa (filled with a mixture of potatoes, beetroot, carrot, onions and ginger) at Keralan restaurant Rasa W1 next door; shopping for soap at Liberty and food provisions on Brewer Street - Japanese at Arigato, Italian at Lina Stores, salads at Fresh & Wild; stocking up on armfuls of paperback fiction at Waterstone's on Piccadilly - Carol Shields, Mavis Cheek, Ann Packer, Jane Smiley, Saul Bellow, Penelope Lively, Nikita Lalwani and Rumer Godden - to read when breastfeeding, though I'm already engrossed in the Mavis Cheek novel.
  
  
• As lovely and stimulating a day as it had been, it was a relief to get back home, to be honest, and sit down to a lovely meal cooked by M of grilled mackerel fillets and zesty green and red salad. For by the end of the day I was exhausted and realised this was the last busy Saturday I can have until after the birth. Next week I'll be staying closer to home - ideally in my home. My pelvis aches more, I'm getting more frequent Braxton Hicks and period-like cramps, I'm getting looser motions, and frankly it's too hot for me now.
  
  
• As we came home, we chatted briefly with one of our immediate neighbours. They also work in the City and have a 16 month old toddler and the woman was recommending good local nurseries. The best one, apparently, is at the end of our road and though we are in the "catchment area", it has a "strict selection criteria". For nursery. Uh-oh, it's all begun. Now I am worrying whether we will meet the selection criteria, whatever that is, and Little Planet hasn't even been born!
  
  
• Sunday was spent sitting in the garden, reading and watching M do some gardening. We want to plant herbs and jasmine and vegetables so he was weeding and preparing the beds. M spends his weeks (and many a weekend) working hard as a lawyer in the City, but despite the little free time he has, he finds cooking and now gardening (and wandering around galleries) the perfect form of stress relief. Lucky for me. But I did my fair share of cooking last week - aubergines and chickpeas in a spicy tomato sauce, and a red lentil dahl. This week I plan on cooking risotto with borlotti beans, peas and courgettes, a spinach and paneer curry, and some orecchiette with rocket and walnut pesto and cherry tomatoes. To end the day, M cooked homemade pizzas - he even made the base from scratch - with toppings of mozzarella, artichokes, tomatoes and anchovies and we ate them in front of Heroes, Season 1.
  
  
• Now the weather is so lovely, I've been sitting in the garden a lot. I can't wait to spend time in the garden with Little Planet. I can't wait for her to discover the swishing leaves on trees and dappled sunlight for the first time. To see the world anew with her eyes will be such a treat.
  
  
• I realised the other day, that I have spent nearly 9 months building up a picture of Little Planet in my head - how she looks, what her personality is like, based on my scans and her activity within my womb. I have grown to love her antenatally. Soon she will be born and I will have to discover her and learn to love her afresh. Not just one time, I suspect, but over and over again for as long as we will be together.