This motherhood deal is pretty sweet, if you don't count the nine weeks of emotional hell that came before the last couple of wow-i-love-this-kid, and what-a-gorgeous-smile, and you-are-really-joining-in-this-conversation! and fewer nappies! and more sleep!

I just have to keep remembering to call myself 'Mummy' when I'm talking to him, and not 'Auntie Anne'...

Any day now, 'cow'

Any day now, 'cow', you are so dead.

What, you have to photograph everything?

Yeah, I'm still watching you... and could you do something about this 'cow' please?

People. Ugh.

The world would be a better, if smellier, place if dogs were in charge.

Examples of human crapness from today's little errand-running trip into Enfield Town with Matteo in his sling:

1. Post office employee decides it's ok to keep a queue of 13 people waiting while he reads and then signs a card for a fellow employee, putting it back in its envelope before he calls the next customer. Actually, two of the cashiers did this. I only really noticed when my least favourite, exceedingly customer service-free cashier was involved. (Our local post office used to be staffed by knowledgeable employees who'd worked there for years. Then it was bought by Londis and turned into a supermarket with a post office section at the back. Now there are rarely more than three cashiers manning the counter, longer queues than ever before, and the cashiers were all new except for one. It took ages before any of them were up to speed with postal information.)

2. Man smoking while waiting for the same bus as me puts his cigarette out on the bus timetable stand when the bus arrives. How is that ever an ok thing to do?

Ah well, at least there's none of that in our house where I tend to be most of the time at the moment due to, I don't know, possibly the demands of a 9-week-old baby. Who just happened to sleep from 11pm to 5am last night - way to go Matteo!

So a gratuitous photo might be in order. Speaking of which, recommend me a reasonably priced, good quality digital camera with a decent length zoom? I'm happy with automatic everything else.



(This is the Superman pose he adopts when on his playmat and contemplating punching the stuffing out of poor Dylan the (not-very-much-like-a-donkey) Donkey. (Who has weird pink strings coming out of the top of his head. Do toy designers not think anything for babies should be vaguely realistic?)

He often does this while his nappy is being changed too. Maybe he just thinks he's so cool because he can just lie back while someone else takes care of the dirty work?

Internets (or at least those of you out there with children), can you help me?

Matteo is 8 weeks old on Sunday. During the day, when he's not sleeping, I talk to him, read to him a bit, sing nursery rhymes to him, and he has a bouncy chair with toys hanging down above him which I sit him in sometimes, and if I need to get something done I park him e.g. in the kitchen and try to remember to talk to him about what I'm doing while I do it. I try to get him on his tummy for 'tummy time' but he pretty much hates it. I'm thinking about getting a playmat for him, one with an arch and dangly toys for him to reach for. M is mostly working during the day (at home) but also sings to him and

I feel like I don't know what to do with him really - do you think at 8 weeks old he needs more? What did you do?

Belatedly announcing...

Matteo, born 9 November 2008. For an almost 8-week-old baby he's a pretty cool dude.