She keeps BIGGERING

Ordinarily, I believe, when buying clothes for babies, one buys things one or two sizes up and the baby grows into it. Me, I buy things two or three sizes up and watch as she outgrows them within a month.

Her gorgeous warm winter wardrobe is too small. Obviously, 9-12 months is just too small for a five-month-old. Most of the tops fit, but the trousers are too small - even over a disposable nappy, and even more so over a cotton one. I had to buy her a 12-18 months swimming nappy the other day because the 12 months one was leaving great tight welts on her legs and getting almost impossible to pull all the way up.

I'm told she'll grow faster after we introduce solid food properly in another month. I'm not at all sure we can cope.

Her bouncing chair is almost outgrown. Her Bumbo seat is almost outgrown. We've ordered a high chair, which is ok for her weight, but every highchair we can find says "Not to be used until the child can sit up unaided," which she can't do yet. I'm hoping that we won't warp her irremediably by using it before she has the balance to sit on her own. She sits ok propped; otherwise she falls sideways eventually.

Today we went to the Steam Fair and I had a ride on the chairoplanes; she slept in her buggy the whole while. The new cositoes is really very useful. On the way back we dropped in on some friends and borrowed another big stack of Wodehouse. I shall soon be in a position to decide which ones I want to buy and in what order. So much for the shelf-space we gained by giving away 31 SF/F books...