First of all, and before I forget - I'm looking for a good, vegetarian spaghetti sauce recipe. Can anyone recommend one? We've been relying on jars of pasta sauce for years, but lately I've been getting itchy to make my own. (Forbidden foods in our house right now include all dairy and soy products - MrD is allergic, and thus I must avoid them like the plague - and also broccoli & cauliflower, which also cause major unhappiness to the boy. However, I feel convinced that we ought to be able to make a spaghetti sauce without any of those products!)

Second of all, I am currently ridiculously proud of myself, because yesterday I managed to take MrD on a trip into town on my own. Of course, I've gone into town many times with him AND Patrick, and I've taken him by myself into town to meet friends with their babies - but that's quite a different experience, since we all take turns wrangling stuff for each other so that everyone can eat, go up to the counter to order more drinks, etc. This was my first expedition into the city center entirely on my own, and not only did I manage to have a great library trip AND eat lunch at the nice cafe in the Leeds City Art Gallery (despite all of MrD's efforts to take the food for himself - it looked yummy!), but I even managed to try on and buy a new outfit for myself at a clothing store. MrD, needless to say, was not pleased by that particular expedition (especially because he was tired and grumpy by then). I parked his stroller in front of the mirror in the changing room, and he told the little boy in the mirror ALL about how unreasonable his mother was being! They roared together for a while in total agreement.

But! It all worked out in the end, and I came home tired but triumphant. Now, if only I could figure out how to get my hair cut while I had him with me...oh well. I guess that'll just have to wait for a day when Patrick's not at work.

Today it's warm and sunny outside, and taking Maya and MrD on our normal morning walk down to the village felt just heavenly. The ponies were out in force, and we passed two beautiful little knobbly-kneed, nursing foals in the field just at the end of our block. I brought along a banana, and we went all the way down to the grassy park in the center of the village. I sat on a bench and ate my banana, Maya hopped up beside me for big cuddles (always easier for her to get when the baby's safely in the stroller!), and Mr Darcy just half-slitted his eyes, lay back, and basked in the sunshine. On our way back, I saw that one of the nursing foals was lying fast asleep on the warm grass while his mother stood vigilantly beside him, guarding him. I stopped and just gazed at him until his mother stepped in front of him and stamped her foot at me to move me along.

This is one of those days that feel like a true gift.