Wenlock

2years 290days

Another fantastically full and wonderful day. A really special day, just Katie and I. We were in central London by 8.30 - Katie again in her lion tshirt and union colours - and headed to Green Park. We enjoyed a walk through and Katie asked to see the Princess House again. I took her there and she was appropriately excited again. It was fabulous because there was no traffic due to the road events and such, so we walked down most of the Mall. Near St James' Palace, she wanted photos of the guards. She even managed to make one of them laugh.

We walked to Trafalgar Square, where she stroked the big lion, watched the fountain, chased the pigeons and walked round the fountain. We stopped for elevenses before getting a tube to Oxford Circus. I said we were going to some shops and she asked to go to the Kermit Shop (disney store). We first went to John Lewis, to the London 2012 store. She loved having her photo taken with Wenlock (who incidentally, this one, was forged from the last 2 remaining drops of steel used to build the Olympic Park) and loved the store itself - it had a very large swimming display with big bubble machines, a huge fish tank, and lots of wenlocks, mandevilles and pride the lions. She introduced her Pride to the others of course.

We stopped for a Starbucks, she drained a babyccino very quickly, before we found the Kermit store. One thing thats really struck me about London this weekend was how happy, friendly, helpful London has been. Thanks in large part to the volunteers that are flooding the city. We were looking at a map trying to work out where the store was and an Olympics volunteer came to help. As was the way several times we've been taking time to work out where we need to go. She had a wonderful time in the disney store - there were giant Mickey Mouse and Donald dressed as Household Guards. Katie wanted her photo taken with them too. She's been quite the tourist, posing for photos with things this visit! She spent ages playing. In the princess mirrors, with the karaoke. She fell asleep in my arms two minutes after we got out.

After a short nap, we walked down to Selfridges. She spent ages looking at the British themed windows. We watched a police parade at Hyde Park corner, and she played in the 2014 winter olympics display. We headed in to Hyde Park to the BT London Live for the next of our incredible Olympics experiences.

I told Katie that we were going to the Olympics Party. She was really excited at the idea. She was really brave through security, and they were really good with her. They ID tagged her, and allowed Monkey to have one too so she would wear hers. I was impressed at how she accepted the bracelet had to be worn to keep her safe and then rigorously made sure it didnt come off, even when changing clothing layers. As soon as she was through the gates, she got swept up in the excitement. She danced to the live music, she cheered the athletes on the big screen with me. We saw both the moment where Beth Tweddle became bronze medallist and the medal won in the showjumping, which brought a big shower of paper streamers over the crowd. We walked to the Creative Tent where she made clay medals and covered them gold, she did a big "olympic painting" - on which she painted two balloons and proudly told me "mummy, thats two purple balloons". They very definitely were. We had a park picnic, of a huge bowl of yummy chinese noodles and 99 ice creams. After we'd finished, we were watching the large stage and a host came on, who then introduced three of the cycling team pursuit gold medallists. Another large shower of paper streamers and a fab photo call by them all - very exciting!

It began to rain, but it didnt deter her. She put on her puddlesuit, danced about the park and enjoyed everything around her. She watched some Team GB athletes helping run the Have a Go stand. We enjoyed the evening so much. So many people all sharing in the excitingness.

After tea time, we walked to Paddington Station - again helped by the incredible volunteers who were to be found most of the route there. We took our train to Slough where we had booked a hotel to stay the night. Our first night in a hotel just the two of us. We snuggled, she drank a full pint of milk from the bottle, ate a lot of cheese, chicken and snacks, then curled up with more athletics before a sleep. We are SO loving our Olympic adventures.