A single parent, for the week

Sunday was mostly about getting Olga ready for her first business trip away since Lara was born, 4 days in Johannesburg. Firstly there was preparing the Vegetable Patch, seeing as that's Olga's other "baby" and I don't know what to do with it, other than water it when I'm told to. I busied myself with inflating Lara's paddling pool on the top decking, then we all went for a family pub lunch at Weatherspoons in Wycombe, which I think might become a regular thing. When we last did that, after camping a few weeks ago, we just gave Lara some of our food, but this time we ordered her her own "Kiddies Sunday Roast". It was too much for her, but we made sure the beef and veggies didn't go to waste :-)
Once back at home Lara played for 45 minutes on the decking, in and out of the paddling pool, I couldn't believe she wasn't complaining about being cold, or maybe she was but she hasn't learnt how to show it. In the end I took the executive decision that 45 minutes of running about on the decking in a swim-nappy when the decking was in the shade was enough, and she reluctantly let me put her dressing gown on. Again, like with her little falls and bumps, I was surprised that if she slipped in the paddling pool, and landed on her bum, the shock of the cool water didn't make her cry, although her face was a picture of shock sometimes!
Here are a couple of snaps of her in her element:


Then after a quick tea it was time to take Mama to the airport - Terminal 5 at Heathrow is certainly an easy place to get into and out of, and all this online check-in and Fast Bag Drop stuff has speeded things up. Lara of course didn't understand Mama will be away for 4 days, it will be interesting to see how she reacts to it being just me and Mishka at home over the next few days. Or maybe the fact she's not smiling on this photo means she did know something was amiss?!