Holiday!

2years 167days

BRILLIANT start to our holiday today! We set off not too early, Katie strapped in the butterfly carrier full of excitement. The first train took us to our big train into London. I decided we'd have a couple of hours pottering round Covent Garden together, so she got to have her first experience of the Underground.

Covent Garden is somewhere I absolutely love, and it was wonderful to see her having a fabulous time too. She was amazed by all the street performers, although the statue men made her jump sometimes. We went first of all to the Disney Store - and came out only with a couple of little books, result! The painted Easter Egg exhibition was on display, round the outside and inside of the Market. She loved wandering round them, touching a lot of them.

We went inside the Market, to the plazzas where the buskers were performing. Here, we found a fantastic string quartet, playing folk music. Katie stood at the railings, grinning and dancing. The lead violinist spotted her, came and stood on the rails to the stairs and played to her, with the rest of the band smiling and waving at her too (top right picture!). We stopped in Whittards - she loves their free samples - and she chose a cute little Easter mug. There was a photographer doing an outdoors shoot of two models, so that of course caught Mummy's attention for a couple of minutes.

We headed back through the Market Place and here she spotted one of her most memorable moments of the whole holiday. She saw a man pretending to be a dog, complete with a kennel on his head. She said over and over "the man be a dog", with a look of bewilderment. We then got on our next underground to discover none of them were stopping at the station we were meant to be going to, so she got her first London taxi ride too.

The taxi took us to Uncle Simon's cafe bar where he chefs. Katie loved the place and was hugely excited when she realised it contained him. She was on full performance mode, even more so when she was brought a babyccino. We had a coffee and several cakes with Uncle Simon before we all went for a walk through the City. She has been so good today about being in the meitai on my back, snuggling in for cuddles and dancing to her little songs. We stopped at a rather yummy restaurant for some tea, during which time Pooky arrived.

We said goodbye to Uncle Simon after tea and left with Pooky. Katie was so excited to be going to find Lyra and Ellie! A couple of trains and a little walk, we were back at their house. The children were a touch overwhelmed that first night, but in a nice way. Katie didnt last very long before she flaked out and slept extremely well.