Life has changed again. I’m now back at work, although not right now as I’m working four days a week. Sort of part time. The first week was OK from a work perspective, and I’m feeling very enthusiastic about things, despite not being there for 11 months. From a home perspective, we’re getting there, nursery is a big thing for us both to adjust to after spending all our days together.

and…

• Just come across clipmarks and quite like what it does
• Been knitting, just in time for the weather getting nice and warm
• I’ve been looking for someway of indexing recipies online, we gotta eat seems the best of the bunch so far but it still takes a bit of time to enter each recipe, particularly the ingredients list and quantity of each thing
• Loving the Anna Pickard’s live blog of each episode of the Apprentice

Right, baby is having a nap so I’ll try to get a quick post down.

I’ve been making my own pasta after, successfully putting a wanted ad up on freecycle for a pasta machine. The whole process is relatively easy and quite relaxing, however I’d recommend not trying to look after a baby at the same time or everything will take twice as long. It’s not just been pasta, my maternity leave has been one long bake-a-thon really, mostly filled with cakes and biscuits and puddings.

Also been spending my time researching a bit more of my family tree. It’s something I pick up and put down every few years, but this time I decided to bite the bullet and actually sign up to pay to access records and I’ve really gotten somewhere. My aim for some time had been to get back to 18th century. I’ve been able to take two lines back into the late 1700s. Other interesting finds have been a Cornish tin miner great-great-great-great-grandfather and two great-great-uncles that were doctors in the RAMC in WW1.

Time’s up, he’s awake.

Afternoon discos for babies, sounds great and nothing like the Ally McBeal dancing baby thing.

Found out by accident that you can get some good 2 for 1 offers on your Oyster card so we ended up going to the Cabinet War Rooms on Sunday. It’s well worth a visit, most of the rooms have been left as they were, in a plastic free world.

At home the world of food has now greatly expanded to include protein and tiny soldiers of toast.

Six months has gone awfully quick. We’re almost a week into weaning and so far, baby rice, carrots, broccoli, sweet potato and baby porridge have all gone down well. It’s all so mushy that the two little teeth that have popped through don’t have much work to do just yet.

Still here, have had lots of things in my head to post and then never got round to flinging them up here. Life is very busy, as to be expected, but life is also very good. The run up to crimbo has been busy as I’ve been in full on domestic goddess mode, deciding early on to make all my christmas tree decorations. The tree, even if I do say so myself, looks fab. This project has led on to others (making fun things for Ifor) of which pics will go on flickr at some point.

Ifor can now roll and life has taken on a whole new dimension for him and yesterday he was trying to sit up all day. Early in 2008 food will arrive in his universe and things will no doubt get more mucky and sticky from there on in.

Well I made it out on my own this time. I was invited out on a work do and was a bit worried about the prospect of having to make sensible conversation late into the evening, I think I managed it without stumbling into gibberish. The good thing was the event was on a boat so no one noticed my constant swaying (when I’m holding Ifor I rock him but then carry on rocking once I’ve put him down). Had some lovely chats with people about children, people I’ve only ever really spoken to in a work capacity, once the topic of kids comes up people love to talk.

Earlier this week we finally made it out of the house for a evening, leaving a friend to babysit. This was quite a big deal, being the first time we’ve gone out on our own since Ifor was born. We saw Jose Gonzalez at the Union Chapel, a really wonderful venue to hear lovely music in.

I happened to be at the Tate Modern yesterday, the day the new Turbine Hall installation opened. Mere mortals weren’t actually allowed into the Turbine Hall, as it was press preview day, however we were able to poke our noses upto the glass and observe the arty types pontificating over a big crack in the floor, which was entertaining in itself.

Ifor slept through his first visit to a gallery, which is a shame as I think there’s lots of art in the Tate Modern that fit the criteria for baby toys; bright colours, abstract shapes, black and white contrasts, objects from nature, like this picture, Leaves and Shells.

…liking the secure login extension, it makes life easier
…getting hooked on facebook (damn, damn, damn)
…permanently hungry at the moment - I’m breastfeeding an equally hungry baby
…loving lessbounce.com a large range of sports bras that can accommodate my currently heaving cleavage (see above)
…sprouting - not me literally, but I’ve got some alfalfa sprouts on the go.

Leaves in Greenwich Park.