wonderful wednesday #6

In true Sesame Street style, this week's Wonderful Wednesday is brought you by the letter C.

Coriander: I made a recipe at the weekend that needed coriander, and my parents picked me up a bunch while out shopping. I love coriander and have happily incorporated it into lots of different recipes, including fajitas, chicken and coconut curry, and has also been livening up my lunches. It always makes me feel a little bit fancy having fresh herbs, although I tend to be a little overliberal with my sprinkling, as the picture above attests.

Cuddles: This morning I woke up with a headache, and so, I chose to stay in my pyjamas, and when the baby took a nap I actually followed the sleep when the baby sleeps advice. It was a lovely snooze on the sofa, snuggled under a blanket, with the dog snoring gently by my side, and I woke up feeling all the better for it. The novelty of cuddling a sleeping baby has still not worn off, and I love the evenings where he drifts off in my arms after his bath, all damp hair and smiles in his sleep.

Cake: Obviously, cake is always good, but this week my mum and I baked, and it was the first time I had baked in a while. It was a successful, and simple, orange drizzle cake, and it was lovely to spend an hour baking together, and also having cake to eat at the end of it! 

Comments: Thank you to all of you for lovely comments on my recent posts. I will reply soon, but it is always encouraging to feel like your words are being read. I sometimes worry that perhaps this blog is too superficial and borders on the saccharine at times, so despite venturing briefly into the more serious realm this week, many of your comments served as a reminder that I can make what I want of this little space and it isn't a reflection of a lack of interest in the wider world if I choose to focus on the positive here. 

Classes: I went to a session on weaning run locally, and my mum came along too. It was quite helpful, if only to reassure me that I've been doing the right things so far, and it is exciting to think in a week or so we can start introducing the baby to food. I always sit him in the kitchen when I'm cooking, and generally have to sing and talk my way through every ingredient to stop him getting restless, so I'm looking forward to him being able to have a taste too. He is also at the point now where he seems to be interacting more when I take him to things. He starts bouncing very excitedly when we go the singing and reading session at the library (though I am certain his overenthusiastic rattle waving is going to cause another child an injury). Friday was also the first time I have taken him swimming where he did more than just let me move him around, having discovered the joy of splashing, I spent most of the session wiping water out of my eyes, and having my first experience of show-off parenting as I kept trying to strategically swim nearer to the instructor so that she would notice, and compliment, his first attempts at kicking (it didn't work).

Camera: I know this is becoming a bit of a frequent mention, but I really enjoyed taking part in #1day12pics again on Saturday, and I have also started to take my camera with me just a little more regularly. My parents and I took the dog and the baby to the park yesterday, and we also went out for lunch with my Grandad today, and both times I picked up the camera on the way out, with some encouragement from my mum. I didn't take lots of pictures, but I'm glad I'm starting to carry it with me without feeling pretentious, and that I'm enjoying playing with it and trying to remember what I've learnt.

If you would like to visit some of the others (highly recommended) then Sally is the originator of the idea, you can search for #wonderfulwednesday and these lovely folks all post too: Jo, Helen, Michelle, Sarah, Kate, Cat, Sam, El , Kerri, Mimmi, Martina, Isabelle.