There’s nothing quite like a day trip from the Midlands to London and back in a day to test out long distance train travel with a toddler!
Getting from the Malverns to the far reaches of London and back in a day may seem like mission impossible, but it can be done. We were determined to meet our new nephew and with our limited budget the cheapest option was to London and back in a day. That meant around 4 hours to London and then another hour across London, and then the same back later on in the day, eeek!
If you are planning some crazy train travel with a toddler like this then make sure you pack a train picnic – plenty of snacks come in handy to keep little hands occupied! Also story books and games to keep your little one entertained. It was a long, long day but well worth it to meet the newest member of our family. Did she nap on the train? Errr no. Was she tired and emotional on arrival, yes! That makes 2 of us then.
It was so lovely to see them all at this special time, especially heart warming to see them getting on so well and not the zombies we expected to be greeted by. In fact there’s nothing quite like meeting up with your family and realising that even with a toddler and newborn they are more on top of things than you are up to make you think “I seriously need to get my shit together!”
Their house I couldn’t help but notice is much tidier and cleaner than ours, their tot on good form, the baby a dream of sleepy snuggles, feeds and more sleep. We were treated to home-made toddler-friendly muffins and to the delight of our little one she was even offered a fresh teeny weeny Babyccino. This is the family life to strive for.
The tube travel was probably the worst part of our journey, due to an increasingly tired tot who was not used to all those people hurrying and scurrying across London and a tired Mummy who needed a coffee to stay awake! The only thing to do is grin and bear it, a sling would’ve been useful if our baby had ever deigned to settle in one but alas hoiking the pram up and down stairs and steep escalators was to be our destiny.
We were so honoured to be invited in and to meet our tiny nephew at this precious time that the long train journeys and train travel with a toddler were worth it. Well done guys you have successfully created another gorgeous little one and are already doing a fine job of bringing them up! Now I am off to do some much needed cleaning and tidying, oh wait a second she is awake again. Perhaps later…