Summary: Where does the time go? Yesterday the witchling was 6lb 10 of tiny person, and now suddenly she sits on her own, picks up food with obvious glee (plum has now been supplanted in her affections by banana), and expresses opinions on the colour of a proposed outfit for the day. Oh, and she looks delicious.

Fun: Quercus is learning to love the baby rucksack, also known as a back-carry. He manages the witchling really well, slinging her like a pro and charging up hills, complete with brief gallop sessions when she pulls his hair; she loves this in particular, and chortles w ith glee as he jogs along.

Challenging: eBay is proving to be a bit frustrating about the car thing. The seller has now relisted the car, despite having opened an ‘unpaid item’ dispute with Quercus, in which he asks for the money. This goes against eBay policies, apparently, yet they haven’t pulled this new auction, which ends today. We’ve let them know about it, and Quercus has, as requested, emailed them the whole sorry story, but so far, nothing, nada, nil. I’m trying to be philosophical, but the number of times when We Are In The Right Yet It Makes No Difference still irks me.

Thoughtful: The aged parent’s visit was a mixed bag. Some good, some not-so. Good: he actually came and stayed for more than twenty-four hours, which is something of a record in recent times. Not-so: he was here for five days; three of those days, he disappeared for nearly all of the afternoon, leaving on a twenty-minute errand, only to return about four hours later, with no explanation. Our relationship continues to challenge, and sadden, me.

An insight: Having a long list of things to do doesn’t always make it easier to do them, and lists can create their own tyranny.

A website/blog: Cave Mother‘s thoughts on baby-wearing, co-sleeping and whatnot have entertained me in recent weeks; particularly like the idea of a cave baby.

Words: ‘Look! There’s a baby, covered in drool! Look! There’s a baby, whose daddy’s a fool!’ (It’s too easy to send up the simple rhymes of the original, ‘Look! There’s a Baby‘, I fear…)

Note to self: I need to get better at dividing my time. Either I’m Doing Something, or I’m Not. Stop half-doing things – you don’t pay proper attention to either strand, and it doesn’t feel like you’ve achieved anything, or had a decent spot of time off.

Favourite tip/idea from the web: this cake, or a close variation on it. I’ll post the recipe I ended up going with shortly.

Slice of home: Let us not speak of my appearance in this particular shot; suffice it to say that it was a Sunday morning, and I hadn’t, er, quite got myself together. (Editor’s note: that’s a complete lie, really – generally I look exactly like that, even when I have got myself together. It’s such a subjective term, ‘together’, isn’t it? Ahem.) Note also the complete bedlam in the backdrop; I always used to kid myself that when I lived in my own establishment, I would keep it clean and tidy ALL THE TIME, to make up for the permanent chaos my father creates just bythinking about entering a room. See? I even went for extra emphasis there. Just for added whatsit. Anyway, seems I was mistook – our extension, which is a subject for a whole ‘nother post, defeats even my neat-freak ambitions.

If you’re posting a month in review thingy, do let me know via the comments, particularly if your house is messier than mine.

With thanks to Mon for the format; Mon has a proper list thingy of people doing this, by the way, so drop in and say what-ho if you’ve a mo’.