This is Soph's favourite mode of transport so she can check the world out and loves flashing grins at chosen passersby! It's also her snooze machine, and if she's grumpy towards the end of the day I am almost guaranteed a sleeping baby within 10 minutes of being put against the warmth and motion of my body. The places she can sleep in never cease to amaze me - noisy shopping centres, on the tube, loud cafes or restaurants, she can be quite impermeable to noise when she's ready for a sleep! As long as she doesn't get overtired, that's a whole different story!

We were in a cafe today with Mum and I put Sophs over my shoulder to burp her post-feed and heard several exclamations from people behind me who were watching her cute 'I'm being burped and concentrating quite hard' expression. When they realised how young she is, the elderly man from the West Indies dug into his pocket and said 'let me give her a blessing with silver' and pressed a 50 pence piece into her hand, which she promptly dropped. Apparently in the West Indies this is one of the ways of welcoming and blessing a new arrival; if the baby drops the coin they will be generous and kind, but if they clutch onto it they'll be selfish and miserly! An Irish couple looked on in astonishment before joining in the conversation to reveal that this is also an Irish tradition! They then each dug out a silver coin and pressed it into Soph's little palm, and she promptly dropped each of their coins as well, much to their delight. It was such a lovely unexpected encounter with strangers, filled with warmth and kindness of spirit.