I've finally registered with Goodreads, but I have to admit, I'm still not totally sure of how to use it. How many of you guys are on it? Is it fun and worthwhile? If you are on Goodreads, please feel free to friend me - I'm there under the username "Stephanie Burgis", so I'm easy to find. :)

Yesterday's trip out was fabulous. I loved getting to see all the other babies after a month away - they'd all changed so much - and it just felt wonderful to hang out with the other moms, laughing like crazy about the kinds of things that would have horrified me or left me gasping before MrD was born and my world turned around. The only downside came when a strange old woman came over to our table to interrogate one of my friends about the ethnicity of her baby, and then gave my friend a lecture on how she should move to the father's country (Japan) instead of staying in England! She followed it up with a (massively incorrect) lecture on Japanese history and culture. Really, really weird. She finally walked away, leaving us all blinking in shock. Then, incredibly, when my friend was in line to get a post-lunch coffee, the old woman came back to tell her she was only allowed to have one baby and no more "for the sake of Japan's population". Oh-kayyy...

Of course, as usual when someone is startlingly rude, none of us knew what to say, and my poor friend was beautifully polite and friendly in return, because when taken off guard, polite people will almost always be polite in response to rudeness. Afterwards, of course, we were all able to come up with what we should have said...oh well. I hope we'll never run into her again at that cafe, but if we do, maybe we'll be prepared next time...or maybe, because we're all uptight and polite people, we'll wimp out and just give strained smiles and one-word responses yet again...

I've finally uploaded my photos from our trip to Wales last weekend. Daffodils were blooming everywhere, the weather was sunshiney and beautiful (why couldn't it be that way back in Leeds? sigh...), and we spent UK Mother's Day walking around a little town called Crickhowell (pronounced, to my ears, a bit like "Creck-how"), with a kids' playground set up among the ruins of an old castle. Needless to say, I absolutely loved it.

Here's one photo, as a taster - the rest are up on my flickr account.

Maya in a field just by the Crickhowell town center: