jabs and crazies

we have successfully navigated the british health care system! paige and i have spent the last week or two going back and forth from the doctor's trying to get ourselves registered so we could get her in for a 4-month check-up and shots.
yesterday we were approved to register, so today we spent the day at the clinic figuring out which immunizations are not required in the states but are required here, which ones are not required here, but are in the states and how to get them, how to work out the ones that are required in both places but at different times, and how the little bean is doing all around.
things actually went a lot more smoothly than i'd hoped. apparently, in the british system, each borough has at least one "health visitor," who personally monitors the health and development of the babies/mums in the area. she's who we saw today. she weighed the baby--6 kilos--and made an appointment to come to the flat to explain some more stuff and get to know us better. she'll make sure we know when to go in for "jabs," where to get everything, what resources are available for new parents in the community, and how to take care of the baby in general. it's kinda nice.

in a related story, on our way home from registering yesterday, a man started cooing at paige at a stoplight. when his light changed and he had to leave, he insisted that i take a pear wrapped in parchment paper he'd been holding.
"for her," he said. "please, i have lots at home."
um, okay...
when i got home i unwrapped the pear; it had a bite taken out of it. i threw the pear away.
on our way to the doctors today, we saw the guy again.
he said, "i saw you yesterday! she brought me luck! did you eat the pear? did she eat the pear? can i touch her?"
i smiled and made a non-committal "hmm" sound, and he tickled paige's fingers a little bit as he told me about how yesterday when he saw us he was on his way to his lawyer's because he'd been caught squatting on some property.
"and she brought me luck! they were so nice to me! i love squatting. it's great. (to paige) are you going to squat one day? you can come squat with me. i have more pears."
um...i have to go now. goodbye!
and we went to the doctor's to get paige's jabs.
big cities tend to have a lot of crazy people. and pigeons.

in an unrelated story, baby's been kinda drooly lately.