It was a weekend of catching up - on saturday we had lunch with Ellen and Dean (as well as completely failing to pick up a fish tank from some unspecified address in Ealing). On sunday Sarah and James came round for Sunday lunch. Sam joined us and brought a cheesecake from her Weight Watcher's recipe book.

George seemed to enjoy Saturday more than Sunday. He had a bad day on Sunday, but as James and Sarah pointed out - a bad day for him isn't really bad - it's a long way from him being constantly miserable - he simply smiles a bit less than usual! it also meant George had a rather unfortunate accident (actually there was nothing accidental about it) while we were changing his nappy.

It was good to catch up with people we haven't seen for far too long - we're trying very hard not to let George turn us into recluses. We've known far too many people disapear off the face of the earth as soon as they have children and I can understand just how it happens, but we're trying to avoid it. Dean was surprised at the fact we'd managed to get on the tube with George and not turned up with a trailler full of baby stuff - but I think we're a bit less precious about him than we could have been. We figure he's had open heart surgery - he can cope with not having his favourite hat along with six other hats just in case he doesn't like it. He can cope with not carrying a bunch of what we've decided are his favourite toys even though he doesn't know what toys are yet. he can cope without fourteen different grades of moisturiser...

That said, I'm sure as soon as George starts deciding for himself what to take with him, things will get a lot more complicated!

The strange gap in his skull at the top of his head seems to be finally closing up. Apparently it's something all babies have, but it's a bit disconcerting poking at his brain through a hole in his skull....

Recipe: nut loaf

a handful of cachew nuts

4-5 slices of bread

a spoonfull of Marmite

thyme and rosemary

a handfull of mushrooms

2 eggs

an onion

Fry the onion and mushrooms. meanwhile, put the bread, marmite and herbs in a food processor along with the eggs. Mix the onion, mushrooms and nuts in, press the whole lot into a loaf tin and bake in the oven for about half an hour.

You can pretty much put anything you like in - you can replace the nuts with lentils, kidney beans or chickpeas. you can leave out the mushrooms. you can add cheese or tomatoes. it's pretty foolproof and always tastes good.