Nursery dress rehearsal

Did a dry run for the nursery today. Mummy left me there, together with a few nappies & bottles and stuff, at 10ish. Had my 11 o'clock feed there and then a little siesta. But mostly I did a bit of crying. I guess this is going to take a bit of getting used to, not only for me, but also for the teachers who need to get to know me and my habits a bit better. Mummy picked me up at 2 and we went home.

Had a little walk round the neighbourhood with Daddy while Mummy was at the gym, and picked her up on the way out. Back at home we got a few things ready for the big day tomorrow: Daddy ironed name tags onto my clothes while Mummy fed me, and we all hashed out a timetable which goes something like this:

• 6:10 Daddy gets up & gets ready
• 6:30 Mummy gets up & gets ready
• 6:45 If I'm not awake yet, Daddy wakes me up gently and changes my nappy and dresses me
• 7:00 Mummy feeds me and Daddy leaves for the office
• 7:30 Mummy and I catch the bus
• 8:00 Mummy drops me off at the nursery
• 8:15 Mummy gets into work
• 17:45 Mummy leaves work
• 18:00 Mummy picks me up, Daddy arrives home around now
• 18:30 Back home!

Fridays both Mummy and Daddy leave work earlier, and so will I. Daddy plans to leave a bit earlier on Mondays to pick me up, and maybe one other day a week as well. Some Tuesdays I'll also leave early with Abuela & Abuelo. Mummy became really sad and did a bit of crying when the fact that tomorrow we part for nearly 10 hours 5 days a week. The fact that she also has to go back to work pales in comparison.

Daddy can drink again, so he had some wine this evening. By stretching the definition of "one month on the dry" he realised his last drink was 7ish in the evening on the 25th of January, so he decided he could start again today as of 7pm, rather than wait for tomorrow.

Superman

Last Tuesday we can have lunch with Abuelo & Abuela, so that's where we spent the afternoon. Yesterday Daddy went into H&M as they have a cool superman pyjama, but they didn't have my size, so today we all met at Nuevos Ministerios to look at the H&M there. Also Daddy wanted to pick up some tickets for a free concert in Chamartin which they were dishing out at the tube station (none left for the main stage, but he got a couple for the big screen just in case).

Found the pyjamas in the size we wanted (next one up from my current ones) and also got me a few socks as my current ones aren't up to the job. Then we all had a nice walk home. Got stopped by a nun (there are loads of nuns in our neighbourhood) who said very nice things about me.

Mummy has got us into a weekly subscription of organic produce so she & Daddy eat even healthier. They also enjoy the challenge of getting a bunch of random season vegetables (sometimes some they've never heard of) and matching them to recipes. Every Tuesday we will pop into a health store near home to pick up our bags. This time we got some fruit as well as vegetables, all as locally sourced as possible.

Apple

Building day today. Mummy couldn't wait until I was 6 months old so she built my new cot and got it all ready. We also received the missing piece from the urban vegetable garden - and as Mummy discovered as she put it together it turned out there wasn't a missing piece after all, it was hidden from site inside another piece. After that Mummy planted some tomato seeds (Tito had given us some the previous weekend) in some yoghurt pots to get them ready.

Our landlord came to pick up her 5 tonnes of mail but she couldn't say anything about the dishwasher as she hadn't had a chance to talk about it to her husband.

Didn't like today's fruit purée very much. Mummy changed the pear (it's made of pear, orange & banana, plus a spoon of cereal) for apple. Maybe we need to use a juicier type of apple.

Canencia

Huge driving day for Daddy today - he drove us all the way to the mountain pass of Canenecia, a few km after Miraflores de la Sierra. A bit of bad news though: somebody had broken the small front window on the drivers side. Presumably to put their hand through and open the door, but the doors were locked and nothing was missing, not that there was anything worth stealing in the first place.

Mummy and Daddy haven't been to the Canencia mountain pass before, only to the Morcuera pass which is nearby, and Miraflores itself. So they were pleasantly surprised as it is very pretty.

We hadn't expected any snow so we hadn't brought the gaiters or walking sticks, but we found a nice branch for Mummy (as she was carrying me) and started walking. Stopped for a lunch break at el Hornillo, a hostel/refuge in a lovely setting with great views. Soon after that the path splits and, since we weren't really heading any way in particular, took one of them without looking much at the map.

Stopped at the same place on the way back for my feed, but at some rocks a bit lower down from the building where the views were even more spectacular. Not a bad setting for my second fruit purée.

Daddy drove us back home, but since we were in a rush and I was crying (was very hot) Mummy parked the car while Daddy took me upstairs to get me changed and cleaned up. There was some talk of our landlord coming by to pick up her mail and chat about dishwashers (in the end she might buy it herself, so we won't have to) but she was busy. But we did have a visit from Abuelo and Abuela who were in the area and dropped by to pick up the car.

Fruit purée

...and apparently she didn't roll in until past 11 in the morning. Somehow she managed to put on a brave and made it through lunch at Abuelo and Abuela's. Just before lunch Daddy finally took the car for a spin and got to grips with the automatic - he's pleased it's so much easier than a manual.

My 4pm feed was my first fruit purée. Gosh, it's delicious! I wolfed it down.

Daddy drove us home as we will use the car tomorrow. Back home we saw that all this new diet is having it's effect: a quick test on the scales at home make me out at about 5.9 kg.

Wild night out

Daddy did his cycle thing today and found his route to the cycle lane that takes him to work. He took longer than expected so as soon as he got back we had to rush off to Abuelo & Abuela's for my first night away from Mummy and Daddy; Mummy & Daddy had a big dinner with Mummy's cousins (she has over 20, about half of which could make it with their respective spouses). Daddy was supposed to do the driving (as of today he's on Abuela's car insurance), but as he hadn't managed to get any practice in he chickened out.

Then they went on to a Bar of Ill Repute where one of their friends was DJ-ing. Daddy is still on the dry and had to go to bed around 5ish. Mummy was enjoying her first proper night out in a year that she made it a bit longer...

New cot

Oh IKEA, we love thee so much. We visit thee at every opportunity. Hooked up with Tita to go and visit the "Swedish embassy" - Tita wanted to see kitchens. As we weren't distracted by the wardrobe this time we had a look at the cots and got a lovely big blue cot for me, plus all the trimmings. Daddy wants it to be my 6-month birthday but Mummy has other plans. While we were there we popped in next door to another store to check out dishwashers - as Mummy will be working soon as well we need some help around the house.

Got back to have lunch with Abuelo and Abuela and then took Abuela back to our place and spent the afternoon together.

No more ceral experiments

Went to visit Mummy's friend who lives in a hard-to-get-to part of Madrid. But it was a nice day so we walked from Callao (where we had a direct bus) all the way to her house. Did the same on the way back, but I was asleep the whole way.

Daddy came back home very late, work seems pretty hectic for him at the moment. Still, we had time for another cereal mix, but it will be the last for now as it puts me off my milk.

Nursery visit

Had our "traditional" Tuesday lunch at Abuelo & Abuela's, and then met up with Daddy to meet the manager of my nursery to get everything ready for next week. Mummy had been told I was to be placed at another nursery of the same group, just 5 minutes away from the nursery we thought it was (and from Mummy's work), but she was not happy with this as we are operating a precision operation where every minute counts. In the end it turns out I can go to the original nursery, so we save the 10 minute round-trip and all is fine.

Had another cereal mix with Daddy, this time much thicker. I really love the spoon thing, especially getting mucked up from head to toe.

First spoon

Brisk early walk round the neighbourhood and to buy some fruit. Then had a loooong sleep for the rest of the morning. While I slept Mummy put away all the clothes that are too small for me and got out some of the bigger clothes. Today I put on (and fitted) a top for a 6-9 month-old, boy I'm growing!

And not only that, but I am getting pretty good at twisting around on my gym mat. Also my poo is beginning to get a bit drier & smellier with the new diet. Speaking of which, today Mummy made a thicker cereal mix and we tried the spoon. I must say I took to it pretty well.

Mummy's breasts seem to have stabilised now and no longer hurt her, so we can say the weaning process is finally over.

Posted the insurance papers today so Daddy can drive Abuela's car. It's been ages, I wonder if he's forgotten everything...