Busy being one

To mark his first birthday young squire Albert went on quite the quest.  It began at the station when we had to call the guard to escort us across the tracks.  It stepped up a gear at Leicester Square tube station where I, with Alby in front pouch and buggy filled with bags, had to make my way solo up two flights of stairs.  And it peaked as we walked over the glass roof of the shark tank at London aquarium.
 

Stunned by sharks

 

Transfixed at the tropical tank

We had a fabulous day out – and my heartfelt thanks go to my parents and Mark’s who joined us in the madness of London during half term to stare at anemones, poke star fish, gawp at sharks and mimic penguins.  Whilst Alby’s favourite bit of the day was undeniably splashing about in the starfish pool, mine was watching him bash against the glass of a seemingly empty tank only for an octopus to shoot in and then flapped his tentacles right under Alby’s bashing hands.



Nonchalent attitude to the stairs he later conquered

From the aquarium to a walk along the river to scrumptious food on the Southbank.  Alby spent most of the meal climbing up the stairs in the restaurant or trying to use one of the chairs as a walker (the other diners loved hearing the screech of the chair legs along the floor).  He dissed my seafood platter (disgusted at me choosing fish after a trip to the aquarium) lapped up the Fuller’s on offer and bashed his spoon into his crumble like a pro.

Snug as a bug on the journey home

He fell asleep within five minutes of us getting onto the train.  After managing to turn my cloak into a canopy over the pushchair I sat back feeling very Macgyver-esque.  At this point I extend my thanks to the man who swapped seats with me so that I could sit next to my parked buggy in the carriage, rather than being left in the frozen gangway next to the toilet and to the couple who helped me to carry the buggy up the stairs as the path across the track was closed.