Ever since those first few steps in Vancouver, Gemma's been walking, and it's now becoming her normal mode of transport (although when she absolutely has to be there, it's still the crawl). The style's a little erratic, but fun to watch.

Last night there was a sumo-esque, diapers-only rumble with mate Lucy, whose high-verbal mother is making sure the vocab is making strides - and it is. The gals together were great, sort of sharing and playing, and sort of doing their own thing. Gemma's main word these days is "cat", used first to describe a cat on the street, and then expanded to include most mammals. But a tour of Goodnight Moon isn't complete without pointing out every instance the kittens show themselves. We're also getting her to say the Swedish "hej", which sounds a lot like the English "hey" but with our take of the accent .

We're baaack; two weeks on the West Coast - LA & BC - and 24 hours of consolidated airplane time later. We're sure Gemma was a hit, as measured by those earnest smiles from passengers repressing a look of doom: the coin toss of our seating determining their likelihood of arriving in California as fresh as possible 11 hours later. Her concerns about deep vein thrombosis meant Gemma needed to wander up and down the aisles for a few hours. More plastered on smiles. After 4 or 5 hours she gave up and settled into a sleep for the rest of the flight. I then watched the sleeper hit of the summer. Nice to see Andrea Martin lining her retirement fund. Not so nice to see her overacting.

The West Coast is happening territory for the Punchbuggy Game. So far Gemma is exempt from the blows being traded in the front seats as she a) faces backwards and can't see all the traffic, and b) can't reach us, an especially crucial shortcoming in the Dept. of Retaliation if the "No Punchback" follow-on is forgotten. As there does not seem to be a global governing body for Punchbuggy, we, or I, have adopted the following rules:

- New VW bugs count. Makes it more frequent.
- Cabriolets warrant two punches (this one is under dispute).

Building on the Med conquering success of Corsica, Gemma took to the waves of the Pacific pretty much instantly. None of this wriggling free for the sanctity of hot sand, but rather a continued push to be walked down to the surf, with a gleam in her eye as she watched older kids surf.

Celeb sightings ranged from the obscure (a demographically odd couple Kathy saw on Sally Jessie Raphael once; why, and the frequency of when, this is watched remains a mystery) to the slightly higher Q score entity of Julia Roberts. Julia, two human and one canine pal were dining at the Hydrant Cafe, where in a Californian way one can dine with their dogs, who get a special menu and can wait in the Barking Lot when those with opposable thumbs go to order their food.