This is Roo and Nathan two years and a month ago, on Reuben’s 5th birthday. I prepped hard for that party, baking a special cake, setting a dinosaur hunt and filling party bags with dino-related goodies. Now my second child, the blog, has turned 5 and I didn’t even remember till this morning. Goodness knows whether I’ll remember Eva’s next year. I’m busy, OK? My choir is making their debut at Highams Park Day this week, the choir I sing in (WAM) is singing at Walthamstow Garden Party on the same day and there are so many local campaigns going on that I struggle to remember which side of which argument I’m on. So I have entirely failed to organise the annual bout of LWAT madness like we did for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th birthdays. I promise I’ll conjure something up for the 500th in a few posts’ time Instead then, I’m going to pull a Facebook and invite you to look over some memories. Here’s a rundown of….LWAT’s Top 5 posts of All Time! At Number 5, we have…
The Winner of the Toddler-Friendly Cafe Awards!
Now, this is a project I super-enjoyed as it involved lots of eating cake and drinking coffee and then writing about it. Pity we decided to move house halfway through, which distracted me somewhat. It was a hard-fought contest but the Dish and the Spoon emerged victorious. I hear they have a new, interactive mural wall in there now so I may need to go and visit again soon…Mmm, carrot cake…
4. Getting Around London With a Toddler
Now, this one is a workhorse and no mistake. I wrote it when I was pregnant with Eva and pushing Reuben around in a giant buggy. So I knew a thing or two about stations with huge flights of stairs (yes you, Kentish Town West!) and I think of that every time I see a parent struggling with steps now. And yes, I helped a mother with her buggy just this afternoon. Thanks for asking. But apparently this has been a popular subject among the toddler-wranglers of London, and this humble post has kept bringing them in over the years. Plus, it really makes me appreciate the wonders of buggy-free travel nowadays.
3. Andy’s Dinosaur Adventures
Bless you Andy – a half term visit to a program launch at the Natural History Museum has provided me with one of my most popular ever posts. It was a great bash, and I had a lovely chat with Andy’s Dad in the queue for the cloakroom. Sadly, the kids got chickenpox a few days later and our lives spiralled downwards for the two weeks afterwards. But 2 years on and people are still googling Andy to find out whether that clock is always at the museum. It’s not – sorry about that.
2. Katie Bloody Hopkins
I know what would be a good procrastination while I’m supposed to be writing commercial copy for clients – dash off a sarky blogpost about that woman who shoots her mouth off on “This Morning”. Little did I know that it would generate 30,000 hits in one day and forever ruin the rest of my stats. Thanks for that Katie.
1. 100 Things to Do With a Toddler in London
Luckily though, another hardworking post has managed to keep Katie off the top. We were having a spectacularly bad week the week I took these photos – a bit of blue sky allowed me to escape the house with my newborn and 3-year-old. We got some lovely pics and when we got home, there was a shiny new lodger waiting for us on the doorstep. After that, all was well. And people still look at my list of 100 things to do all the time, especially on Pinterest for some reason. I even made it into an ebook. And what a positive post to be No 1 (take that Hopkins!) Thanks for all the love and support over the last 5 years. I’m aware that I no longer have a toddler, but at long as I have stuff to write about, I think I’ll keep this place going. And start thinking now about what kinda craziness we can pull out of the bag for post 500!
