All the new friends

For those of you who have been to London, you'll be familiar with the ability of Londoners to stand two inches away from you on the tube and obliviously read their paper. And you'll know what I'm talking about when I say that nobody ever talks to you or makes eye contact. Well, let me just say that isn't the case once you've had a baby.

When I was pregnant, people would quite often smile at me. Now, random strangers have entire conversations with me. Sometimes, it's because they want to give me unsolicited advice. For example, 'are you sure your baby can breathe in that baby sling?', from one lady recently on the train to Croyden (another story in itself as to what I was doing in Croyden). Mostly though, people ask about Bundle of Joy. 'How old is she?', and 'Oh, she's so cute!'. Those people are quite nice actually. After all, what mother would turn down random compliments from strangers about their baby? Though I do have to stop myself from sharing her daily bowel movements with them.

It's the random touchings that I draw the line at. People toften touch her feet or her head or her cheek. When they're not looking, I surreptitiously wipe their fingermarks off. Sounds a little over-protective, but who knows where those fingers have been or what is growing on the tube these days? And she's not quite sticking things in her mouth yet. I do think that a few germs are good. But London tube germs are in a category of their own and I'm not sure she's quite ready for those yet.