Well I got distracted yesterday when I was writing about Quincy’s eagerness to eat. I bought him some hard teething bread sticks at one point – he showed little interest after a few chews – I think they were too hard and smooth. I gave him a piece of toast during lunch one day. He was SOOO happy! It fit his hand nicely and was fun to gum and kept him quite happy (and me!). He mostly just made it soggy and then I would trade it for a different piece. Whenever he dropped it he let out a cry just like when he is hurt which would miraculously stop when you held it back up for him to grab. So I now have gotten rather lax and let him chew on crusts from French loaves, organic breadsticks for 9 month olds etc. We are still only at the rice cereal stage at home! I introduced a bit of fruit puree into it today which he found tolerable. A week or so ago when I tried him on both a veggie and a fruit babyfood he made the most awful faces. Usually he leans forward to receive the next bite – not then!

This morning after a slow and wet commute in to drop Pete off (he has requested a 7.30 a.m. delivery time tomorrow!!) we stopped off at a café (see a trend?). My excuse is that nothing is open that early. We were in a suburb called Parnell. Shortly we saw a few police hanging out on the sidewalk outside. The buzz was that Clinton might be showing up – he shopped at a few stores there on his last visit (we read that he had about 1200 people in his entourage last time). He gave a 90 min talk last night for the meager compensation of $500,000. Some obscene amount per second. He was flown in on Sultan of Brunei’s jet. Anyway, Aidan’s day was made chatting with the cops. After buying the deerskin purse I had had my eye on (I had an awful morning – really woke up on wrong side of bed – bad back led to too many sleepless nights had caught up with me – but 2 large mocha lattes helped straighten me out) we cruised thru a glass shop and down the street a bit. On our return the cameras were out and sure enough there was Clinton. He gave a sweet young thing a big hug for a photo op – she looked a bit discomforted by it. Then he headed into the glass shop we had been in. He looked trimmed down a bit and very ruddy in his face under the white hair. He is quite the celebrity in NZ. After that stop we (I) decided to check out our local community of St Heliers. It was a bit larger than I had realized and a bit nearer. We won’t suffer for restaurants nearby! I think it will be a nice weekend evening walk there with Pete. There was also a nice library I joined (I owe them $50 “bond” though before I can rent anything). The librarys here are open daily except Sunday and something like 9-5 – much better than in SF. Pete tried out the local bus to get home. Worked fine and goes nearby our house – but with the walks on both sides and waiting and the ride he clocked up close to an hour. Oh well. He found a garage 3 blocks from his building for $6NZ a day – not too bad. So maybe next week he’ll pick up a 2nd car.