MVR transit lounge: Visitors!

I need to start this post by saying a huge 'thank you' to everyone who came to see us while we were in London on our flying visit.  We knew things were going to be a bit manic; arriving with eight suitcases that would be unpacked, sorted and repacked within two weeks, and so we couldn't plan to make any trips outside of London in the time we were in the UK, so we are really greatful to everyone who was able to make time to come to North London and see us.

Grandpa Crunch
DaddyB was able to come down to London on the train and stay with us for a few days which was really great (for him, us and Leila!).  He and Scott to Leila for 'Music Time' at the Library one morning, but most days we just went to the park to play! Leila is loving having two parks near-by and her favourite thigs remains the swing, but she is enjoying climbing and running around too.

Fabia and Sam
Fabia and Sam were able to make it up to London on the one weekend we had there which was really good timing. Leila really loved playing peek-a-boo with Fabs ad having a tinkle on the piano before it was loaded in a white van and driven down to Brizzle!  For lunch one day we had Leila's favourite couscous salad and Leila decided that she would use this time to try and say Fabia's name. It ended up being "Faa!" but the funniest part of all this was that she would only try and pronounce it when she had a mouthful of couscous.  It got everywhere!  Soon after they left Leila moved on to Sam and quickly went from "Saa" to "Saammm".  It's amazing how quickly her language it suddenly coming along.

Auntie and Niece Selfie

Peek-a-boo

At the paino

Faa, Yaya and Sssammmm

What made the visit from Fabs and Sam even more special was getting to spend some time with Fabs whilst we are both pregnant (I don't think this will come around again!!).  We got to chat through things and I learnt from her about their plans for maternity benefits and hypnobirthing, and we got to share our expereinces of best and worst buys baby products! I'm really gutted that we won't be close to eachother for either of the births, but we wll have skype and all three nieces and nephews will meet eachother soon enough.

Leila with the bumps!

Park Party
We were able to have a little meet-up at Finny Park with some of the old Latymer and Uni gang.  It was partly our poor organisation and planning that we didn't make the meet-up any larger, but actually it was the perfect group of people as everyone knew at least a couple of other people and we were able to chat to everyone.  Leila enjoyed playing around in the open space and then persuading various friends to do things for her; such as Katie to take her to the exercise equipment for 20 minutes, or Bex to give her some Party Rings!

Auntie Chin, Laura, Bex, Ali, Leila and Katie

It was really brilliant that Craig and Debs came along too as we haven't seen them in years!  It meant we got to meet their two kids and Leila had someone to play with. Maggie was very sweet and held Leila's hand as they walked around the park, and Lewis was a real chatterbox for Leila to try and follow!

The Wilkies and the Allsops!

Gail and Grace
On Sunday Gail and Grace came down for the afternoon.  It was really lovely to see them and to see Leila with them 'one year on' from their last visit. Gail gave Leila a new Julia Donaldson/Axel Shaffer book (Gruffalo author and illustrator) which she loves and weeks later is still on the 'bedtime reading' list!  Down at the park Leila enjoyed being pushed by Grace in the swing and showed off her skills on the rope bridge. no matter what we tried (and how many time we showed her videos of Angus the dog playing in the water!) , Leila still wouldn't smile or look at the camera for a picture!

Zoe, King, Imogen and Max
 On our last day in London I was able to meet up with Zoe, King and their twins Imogen (Imo) and Max.  It was really great to see Zoe as I hadn't seen her since she had the twins and had probably only seen her once or twice since we moved to Egypt (as she and King moved to Canada that same summer).  We met at Zo's parents house where they were staying and had a bit of a play there.  Leila was a bit shy at first, but soon got to 'helping' Max with his puzzle.  When we said it was time to go, Leila got up and held Imo's hand to take her to the door.  Max then grumbled about being left out and so Leila extended her other hand. Super cute!  All three of them enjoyed swimming and the Clissold Park Toddler Pool (not Lido) was great for them as it had shallow splash area as well as a deeper pool that Leila could wade in at chest height.  After swimming Leila was having her snack in the change cubicle with me but was upset that I wouldn't let her leave the cubicle to share her snack with the twins.  A few doors down I could hear Zoe talking with Imo who kept saying "Where's my Leila?"