Grandma Caryl guest blogging again. Finally rested up after our trip to London to celebrate Poppy’s first birthday. Can’t believe she is a year old already! Our flight was uneventful, and upon arrival at Heathrow we gathered our luggage and found the train that would take us into London. Allie and Poppy met us at the station. (I was NOT greeted with “hi Mom, I think I am in labor” this time). Poppy seemed happy to see us! I think she recognized our faces and our voices, but seemed a little perplexed at seeing us in a 3-dimensional form instead of on Mummy’s phone screen.
We stashed our luggage, freshened up a bit, then headed to Borough Market, one of the largest and oldest food markets in London. I LOVE this place! We found the stall that does the raclette and got a gooey toasted cheese sandwich. Tasted especially heavenly after the mystery chicken we were served on our flight. (Really could not figure out what was on that piece of poultry). Managed to power through our exhaustion until it was a reasonable time to go to bed.
Saturday was spent party planning, shopping, decorating, cleaning, and cooking in preparation for Poppy’s 1st birthday party! Poppy’s friends, family, lots of buggies, and a plumber installing a new washing machine filled up the Horvath flat on Sunday. While it might not seem like too much of an inconvenience to have a washing machine installed in the middle of a party, keep in mind said washing machine is located in the tiny kitchen. Fortunately, most of the food prep and cooking was done ahead of time, and the plumber was quite speedy, so it wasn’t too much of a distraction.
Poppy had a great time and received lots of fun presents (toys, clothes, books, puzzles, etc). In spite of having all these new things to play with, throughout the rest of our stay she continued going back to her old favorites – two water bottles (one filled with rice, one filled with pens, both noisy when shaken) and her medicine dropper. Seriously, don’t take her medicine dropper away from her. You quickly become her least favorite person on the planet! She did enjoy playing Duplos with Grandpa Randy. She also managed to face plant on a Duplo tower while we were there, the result of which was her first fat lip. Lots of crying and a bit of bleeding ensued.
We headed to Scotland bright and early Monday morning, with Edinburgh as our final destination. While there we toured Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse (official residence of Her Majesty the Queen in Scotland). All that whisky research Randy and Mat did before our travels culminated in a tour of Glenkinchie Distillery which Mat arranged (the girls opted out of this tour). Poppy got to have a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa one night. We use the term ‘sleep’ loosely here. Not much of it happened. She was a little unhappy not having Mummy and Daddy around, but we managed to keep her calm and lull her to sleep by reading Postman Bear a thousand times! It’s a good read the first ten times, but I found myself questioning the plot later on (why does Postman Bear have to throw his own party and bake his own cake? Do bears really have moles for friends?)
Poppy is very good-natured and has such a fun little personality. She didn’t seem to mind all the buggy-riding she had to do while we were there. She seemed to have a good time on the train to and from Edinburgh. I believe it was during this trip that Mat taught her the fun ‘uh oh’ game. We spent the rest of our vacation picking things up off the floor after Poppy would drop them and say ‘uh oh’. In her mind, that game just never gets old! Our aching backs thank you, Mat. (We really stashed her on the luggage rack just to get a little break from playing this game!)
We returned from Scotland on Wednesday evening. The highlights of the next few days were antiquing at Spitafields Market, a spectacular lunch at Bread Street Kitchen (Mat’s place of employment – left there stuffed to the gills!), Poppy went to another birthday party (social butterfly, that one), the British Museum for Randy (I turned him loose for a day so he could take his time perusing the exhibits), shopping at W. Rouleaux (a ribbon shop – if I ever live in London and start making fascinators, this is where I will get my supplies), a hardware store (not sure how Randy spotted this hole-in-the-wall place, but they had what we needed), a kitchen supply store, Liberty of London (all this time I thought they only sold fantastic fabric!) and lunch at Bone Daddies Ramen Bar in Soho (awesome food).
Our last full day in London (Sunday) was spent hanging out with Poppy and Allie. It was a nice sunny day, so we took advantage of it and did a lot of walking around (surprise!). We went into Chinatown and had what are supposed to be the best dumplings in London. They were really good. Played the "uh oh" game while waiting for our food and tried to keep my dishes on the table while Poppy attempted ripping the tablecloths off. Really relaxing sitting at Poppy’s table!!
We tried celebrity spotting, to no avail, in front of the Ritz (the BAFTA’s were in town – British version of The Oscars) on our way to the iconic Fortnum & Mason. This store has been in existence since 1707 and is a favorite of Poppy and Grandma! The first time we visited the store, Poppy was a wee baby. Shopping was much more pleasant this time around. Think we will make it an annual Poppy and Grandma outing! She had the giggles and was doing her wobbly walking all around the store. She was so funny!
Alas, our day of departure arrived. Had one last crumpet (Allie’s description of a crumpet is spot on – like an English muffin and a pancake had a baby), and played with Poppy while trying to figure out how to sneak out before the waterworks started. Couldn’t quite manage it. Really hard saying good-bye, as I knew it would be. Facetime and Skype are all well and good, but there is nothing like getting hugs and holding hands with my grandbabies in person.
Thanks Allie & Mat for your hospitality! Stay cool, Poppy!
