More train!

Last weekend was a very exciting week for Tom as he went to London to visit his Grandparents. We picked him up from nursery on Wednesday afternoon and whisked him down south in what was a very smooth journey, helped by the fact he slept for most of it. When we got there Grandpa was home and Tom was surprisingly not shy and got to work in the garden, playing with the wheelbarrow, his tent and a space hopper - more than enough to keep a young lad busy. He was very nervous of the cats though, a hang up we think from the weekend and his war wounds from the pub cat (which he proudly showed his Grandpa). After a good run around during which his Grannie came home, Tom sat up at the table for dinner - tomato pasta - as you can see his hands and his mouth enjoyed the majority of it!

Thursday Pat and Bob took us to Beale Park (near Reading) a park with some animals (birds, sheep, goats, pigs etc) a miniature train, a HUGE sand pit, 2 paddling pools and a 'Little Tykes' play area full of all their play equipment, in short a great place to take a toddler. Tom had a great time and his stamina held up for the day including a side trip to watch trains from Pangbourne station. I couldn't convince him to go for a paddle, but he had a wonderful time in the Little Tykes play area and had two rides on the miniature railway. We were all shattered by the end of the day.

Friday, Matt and Bob took Tom on a double decker red bus to Clapham Junction where he train spotted for a good 40 mins. Apparently he was very well behaved and didn't loose interest once. I took the chance to go to Kingston to get some clothes (as you can see from latest photos of me, I've been getting very scruffy recently) Not my idea of a fun morning, but I managed to get myself some new clothes which fit better than the old clothes. Tom had a long afternoon nap and then spent the afternoon playing in the garden. Tom had his favourite for dinner tonight - curry. It was going well, until he gurgled on his yoghurt and brought the whole lot up again - it was projectile vomit as well and went everywhere! Made a wonderful mess of Grannie and Grandpa's dining room! Just as well it was hot to dry the rug.

Saturday - Matt's birthday - we visited one of Pat's friends in the morning (has a 4 month old kitten whom Tom was scared of) then explored the local playground before lunch, nap and then a ride on a bus and then the underground 'dark!' to South Ken and the Natural History Museum. We thought we would show Tom the dinosaurs and big mammals - see what he thought of them. He loved them: 'roar...Roar...ROAR' was his reaction to the dinosaurs - funny, he doesn't know what a skeleton is, but was able to immediately associate it with an animal. There was a fully animated life size T Rex at the end of the exhibition, we thought that he might be scared of it (seeing as he was scared of a 4 month old kitten earlier) but no, he was absolutely fine with it! How does his mind work?

He also enjoyed the big mammals - especially as there was a good exhibit about mammoths (or was that us that enjoyed that bit?). We met up with one of Matt's friends at the museum, then they went off to meet up with some Japanese translators and Tom and I went home.

Sunday morning saw us in Godalming Crematorium with Jude, John and Shirley for the scattering of Nanny's ashes, then to a nice little tea room nearby which specialises in Welsh Rarebit (fantastic). Next stop was RHS Wisley for a look around the gardens (looking particularly wonderful). Tom was tired by this time, so he had a ride in a pushchair (first time he had been in a pushchair for 6 months) He loved it and made his displeasure known every time we tried to get him to walk! Oh well, so he was king for a day. It was really weird to see Matt with a pushchair, and he said it felt very strange too. We stopped for a drink and a bun before heading back off home (Tom fell asleep in the car). Then a little play, dinner, bath and an exhausted sleep. Matt and I then went out to the Afghan restaurant down the road for a wonderful birthday dinner.

Monday and already it was home time. We walked up to Waitrose to get ourselves a picnic and then headed out. Stopped at Charlecote Mannor (National Trust) to eat it and then carried on home. Anyway a very pleasant week was had by all. Tom certainly knew how to play up to his grandparents (refusing to eat) but also hugs and kisses. He slept really well which was fab, and was in good humour most of the time and the weather was faultless - hardly ever a cloud in the sky, I think we all got a tan.

Words / phrases of the week: Taxi, more train, wow train,

Thanks to Pat and Bob for looking after us so well and to Jude for bringing back everything we forgot (cake, Thomas annuals etc)