It’s safe to say that I’ve been a bit hyper organised when it’s come to getting Ottilie’s birthday plans sorted and in my diary this year. Knowing that I’d be entering my 9th month of pregnancy over the weekend she turns two, I’ve been extra keen to get things organised for my little big girl! I may or may not have had some of her presents stashed away since June. JUNE.
Given how Ottie’s all-out obsession with trains and buses has been going strong for a good couple of months now, we decided to take her to the London Transport Museum for her birthday treat! She actually turned two on Sunday 9th, but given how crazy attractions like this can get over weekends, we headed up on Thursday last week instead. And that turned out to be the best decision we could have made, because the museum was super quiet and we had it mostly to ourselves!
I’d been a bit nervous about whether or not Ottie would love it as much as I hoped she would- you can just never tell these things in advance with toddlers, can you?
But in all honesty?…
She LOVED it!
The buses especially were a big big hit- there are a couple that children can take turns ‘driving’ which Ottilie thought was the best thing ever, but she was just as mesmerised by the model train that runs back and forth a track along one of the galleries, by the little cut outs on her stamper card, by the pretend horses that stood harnessed to a century old London bus…she was in heaven the whole time!
Jason and I were so impressed by how well set up for children the whole museum was, whilst also being full of interesting displays for adults too! I think Jason got as much from it as Ottie did, ha!
In fact, testament to how great museum is that we stayed for a full two hours whilst Ottilie ran around exploring and shouting ‘I SEE ANOTHER TRAIN’ at the top of her voice- and as anyone who knows how short a toddler’s attention generally is, two hours is like two days in normal time!
I thought the ticket price was pretty great too, children (under 18!) go free, and if you book online it’s just £16 per adult for a full year’s admission (vs £17.50 if you buy tickets in person on the day). If we lived in London, I reckon we’d be back once a month! Definitely planning on heading back before our passes run out next September.
All in all, it was just the perfect family day out. I may have done that classic hormonal Mum thing of shedding a little tear at seeing my baby’s face alight with joy and excitement when we first got there, and I’m so glad we had some quality time just the three of us before our family grows in a couple of weeks time and the chaos increases 10 fold!
