We have had a good day today, finally getting to the shops to consolidate our thoughts on buying the big items. We started at Baby Unique in Stockport and have pretty much decided to go for the Savannah set - cotbed, wardrobe and dresser to start with. This is the same cotbed we ordered from Lester's yonks ago, but this time with a modicum of common sense.

After inevitably getting carried away in Sainsburys forcing ourselves to buy extra stuff so we could get a free cool bag to put the meringues and cream cakes in (the duck and strawberries didn't fit though) we were able to continue with our plan to head over to Cheadle to John Lewis. Our mission was to choose a sofa, and perhaps buy a bog brush or two. It was a hell of a job not getting trapped by toasters, airing racks, salt grinders and other random stuff like lit-up globes. However we eventually got to the basement to be accosted by John, salesman of the year and David Blunkett lookalike with a beautiful stuck-on beard. Sorry John if you read this... Anyway he single-handedly convinced us that buying a sofa-bed was a very bad idea - and that it not only limits our choices but also compromises comfort for both sofa and bed. He rattled through as many sleep solutions as he could think of and gently guided us to the sofas in the "special purchase" area. He was very keen for us to go to this area.

We pretty much decided on the first thing we saw - a nice classic-looking sofa which is soft, comfortable, and available in large (it calls itself "grand" and is about 8 foot long) and medium. It is called Romsey or Ashton or something. Now all we need to do is get it ordered and paid for.

In spite of Tintin getting heavy and uncomfortable, trying to tell us "enough shopping already" we couldn't resist a browse of the baby department. They had our Loola in blue, slightly annoyingly for less money than for the grey one that we want. There were also a whole bunch of nice things in the sales and after avoiding actually buying anything else we came away with a little clutch of nice soft sea-creatures. We came away (narrowly avoiding the many mentalist Porche drivers of leafy Cheshire) feeling satisfied with having made some move towards getting our home properly equipped.