The Big Smoke & Santa

Well, we're all home again. The whole trip went remarkable smoothly really, much to my surprise. I left as soon as Aggie got home on at 5pm on Tuesday, so we made it to my mothers by 8pm. The girls slept the whole way, making the journey very uneventful:-) They both woke up when the car stopped (they always do), but as it was still early, I let them play for an hour, then put them both to bed without too much hassle. I had time to chat to my mother about this & that, and still get to bed before 11. LMB slept right through the night, & LMD only woke once for a feed. Unfortunately my mothers spare bed is situated right under a drafty window and the bitterly cold breeze blowing down my neck all night long didn't do much for my cold or my sleep patterns:-(

The trip into Regent Street yesterday was comparitively stress free. Cousin G was dropped off at my m ums around 8am, so we fed all the girls breakfast together (well, it was LMB's second breakfast, but she does appear to be part-hobbit in her eating habits), then wandered round to the bus stop. I had LMD in a buggy & my mother took a buggy too, but LMB & counsin G happily ran off down the street together, looking particularly cute.

we took a bus first, which the girls loved, then the tube into Oxford Street, which they found quite boring after the first couple of minutes. The miserable tube station staff couldn't be bothered to stop chatting to opn the gate for the buggies, so we had to go through the ticket barriers, which was a difficult manouvre, but I managed it ok. All three girls thought the escalators were the most magical things in the world:-)

Once in central London, my mother (a true Londoner) strapped cousin G into the bauggy & strode off, weaving her way through the crowds in double quick time. Off course, LMB had to walk as LMD was in the buggy, so we ambled behind at a much slower pace, which confused my mother no end. However, she eventually worked out she had to slow down & we slowly coaxed LMB & Cousin G (who was allowed to walk after a while) down Regent St to Hamleys.

They were quite enchanted by Hamley's, which was in full Xmas mode, with multitudes of staff demonstrating loads of toys & games. A few of them tried to make LMD play with some very cute glove puppets animals, but she wasn't remotely interested - although she happily gigled & smiled at the staff. Obviously at 10months old babies can recognise the difference between live things & inanimate objects, even when they have faces & move realistically! LMB & Cousin G found the big display of teddies & started pulling them all onto the floor - some of those things cost £1000's, so we quickly rushed them upstairs to see Santa.

I was surprised there was no queue, as we were able to walk straight into santa's grotto. I was also surprised that we didn't have to pay! Although we were offered the opportunity to buy a photo for £10 (it all goes to charity)!!! which we declined. LMB & Cousin G thought the elves (all over 6' tall) were hilarious, but as soon as they saw Santa they both burst into tears & refused to go near him! I managed to get LMB to talk to him from the safety of the buggy, but that was all.

Of course all young children are scared of Santa - they have no idea who he is, other than a very big, strange man, dressed in wierd clothes & with his face almost totally covered with beard/mustache/hat etc, who they are forced to sit with & talk too - the opposite of the way they are told to behave to any other strange man they meet!

Still, they had a wonderful time playing on the pre-school floor & I got my mother to buy a Thomas Aquadraw for LMB's pressie (which i think she'll adore & will save me a lot of hassle clearing up paper/paint/pen/glue etc). We also had lunch there, (not my choice - I wanted to go to a nice pasta restuarnt round the corner, but my mother reckons central London restuarants don't allow kids?!). The food was OK, although vastly overpriced. However, the whole place only had three highchairs - all of which were in use when we arrived. The tables were very high & the chairs quite low, so neither LMB or Cousin G could quite get their chins onto the table while seated, never mind eat anything, which i thought was pretty rubbish in a toy shop!

After a bit more playing, we started on the treck back again - I bribed them with raisons on the tube, so they say still:-) The bus was quite crowded, and was not a "wheel on" type, meaning I had to unload all the bags & fold the buggy, so obviously LMD chose this time to start screaming! I tried hushing her for about 10 minutes, then finally gave up, threw some old bloke off a seat & fed her. I then had a 10 minute lecture from the lovely lady opposite about how I should have done that straight away, and no, 10 months is no age at all & I shouldn't even be thinking of stopping for another year/15 months, and if she thinks she needs a feed ever two hours, she does! Oh well, better than being told not to fed her I suppose *grin*

Anyway, we got them all back safely, fed them, bathed them, sent cousin G home & put my two to bed. I was going to go round to chat to sister S, but we were both pretty knackered, so settled for an evening in watching rubbish on Tv with my mother. She was really happy that she'd had the time with just the female Aginoths, and I have to admit it was less stressful without the need to constantly intervene between her & Mstr A or back up Aggie when she picks on him, but I am not going to make it a regular occurance, because she is going to have to learn that we come as a set. we had a bit of a disagreement when I first arrived as she showed me the matching Santa party dresses she had bought for LMB & LMD. They are very cute, but she didn't get anything for mstr A - not even a christmas t-shirt! So now I'm going to have to go and spend money on Xmas clothes for him too!