Adventures in Adulthood, Episode 94

My friend IRB, whose wedding I attended last year, has just had a baby. We're not nearly as close as we were at school but it's still weird to think that someone my age actually has a child, especially IRB, who was more the hanging-out-at-music-festivals type and who never seemed to want to have kids. I bought a card last week but only got around to looking for a present today.

I've never bought anything for anyone more than about five years younger than myself before, so I was a little apprehensive and I almost abandoned the idea entirely, after spending 20 minutes on the children's floor of the Oxford Street John Lewis. In fact, I think people should be required to spend an hour there and an hour in Hamleys on a busy Saturday afternoon before they are allowed to procreate. It would be a highly effective contraceptive. I couldn't wait to get out of there and most things were overpriced and/or not that nice.

Luckily, I decided to walk home via Marylebone High Street, which is a much more pleasant place to shop for small things, like The White Company's kids' store and Blossom. I almost bought a grey rabbit from the former but the medium size was £15.50 and would be a pain to post and the small was still £10.50 but looked a bit lame. Sometimes, though, the French do know best and when I entered the calm, cool Petit Bateau store, I knew I had come to the right place and in fact, all of their babygrows were so pretty I had a hard time choosing. In the end though, I opted for one with little purple stars, as the baby is named after the sixth colour in the rainbow (and because pink is boring for a baby girl). I didn't know what age/size I should buy, so I opted for the three-months-old size; hopefully, that will be acceptable.

But even though I've realised that shopping for other people's babies might not be as bad as I feared, I still prefer kittens. Infinitely so...