What I Did Today

This morning we all woke at about 8-ish, so Linnea had had about 10 hours sleep, and brushed our teeth and had breakfast together. I used my old electric toothbrush again and it really is making my teeth much much cleaner. I hope my dentist is impressed; I shall have to make an appointment soon.

As we were eating breakfast the post arrived; my Mothercare account card bill, some junk mail, and a letter from the GP Practice Manager about my two letters of complaint. It says

"Dear Ailhbe [Uhoh, carelessness, tch tch],

I acknowledge receipt [blah blah].

I will be making enquiries [...] however I will be away from the Surgery for a long weekend so will not be able to reply immediately.

[...] All complaints are discussed with the Partners in an open forum so that we can look at the clinical and personal issues objectively."

"the Partners" means 10 doctors, at least one of whom is away on maternity leave (and oh! I mourn her loss!), and includes one of the men I'm complaining about. We have been unable to establish whether or not these complaints will be discussed anonymously or whether my name and full circumstances will be included. I'm genuinely concerned that this will prejudice certain of the other doctors, whom I might need to see, against me - since I wrote not one, but TWO letters of complaint, one including a statement that I will never see a specific doctor again. Rob called the Health Visitors (the only people I can contemplate his calling without wanting to be sick) and learned that "long weekend" means Friday only, so this will likely be discussed on Monday as that's when they have their big meetings. He's going to try to call again on Monday to get them to do it anonymously.

After breakfast and a bit of tidying, Linnea and I settled in to watch Teletubbies. My friend N arrived and we left for the library and Rhyme Time. We were late enough that we couldn't get into the group of singing kids, but Linnea enjoyed looking at books anyway. We all four (N and baby I, me and baby Linnea) got the bus into town, which was made interesting by a minor Security Incident on the network, and pootled off ot feed the ducks.

It was a bit windy today so we had to lure them over to us first, and then we only got through a loaf and a quarter before they all skived off back to the warm, wherever that was.

So we went for lunch, where we saw a bunch of people in costume and formal wear going to a Remembrance Day Tea Dance. There were a few scary looking almost-elderly men dressed up as evacuees, knobbly knees and nametags and all. I spent most of lunchtime chasing Linnea, until N finished her lunch and babysat while I ate. First thing we did after that was go to Mothercare for a set of reins as I can't find our regular set anywhere.

We also visited Smiths and Woolworths and Waterstones and somewhere in all of this Linnea fell asleep. She napped for an hour, waking as N and I arrived at H's house (H took me out for my daily constitutional yesterday, and called today to say she had a grumpy 12 week old and no other company HELP). N is 7 months pregnant and H has a new baby, so of course we discussed labour and birth. H had a homebirth and N is tooooo chicken. I am, of course, terrified that something terrible is going to happen to her, and today I failed to hide that. I need to send her an apology. Linnea and I also risked a milk chocolate biscuit each.

Anyway, we came home to Rob, and lovely sausage dinner. Linnea now asks for Tatos distinctly. After dinner we went...

Swimming! I haven't been for ages, I'm really not getting my money's worth from this membership. With any luck we'll go a lot the week Rob has off work. Linnea has come on enormously in her capability and although the milk in her biscuit showed in a horrible runny nappy and quick evacuation from the pool area (it did not happen in the water), we had a lovely time in the showers. She washed her own hair with shampoo, and her tummy, while I washed myself. She's never done that before. She likes to use every single available shower, and stands under the showerhead until I turn it on.

Home, teeth, Fimbles, and swiftly to bed.

Two Linnea stories I didn't witness: She can do the Fimbles dance. When the Fimbles sing their Fimbling song, she does all the actions a half-second ahead of the Fimble in question. Also, the other night she was running naked around her bedroom after her bath, and made a puddle in front of her chest of drawers. She opened the top drawer, took out a piece of absorbent fabric, and mopped up the spill. The fabric was a plain white cotton top, so that's ok. Isn't she just so incredibly clever you could burst?