Alpha Delta Baby - December 28th

Maia is a pretty seasoned traveller by now. She has been to the Bahamas, South Africa, back and forth to Barcelona a couple times, Devon...erm, Sheffield... you get the picture. Anyway, the trip over to Nassau was pretty good. We had a moderately uneventful 8 hour flight from Gatwick to Atlanta, a 2 hour stop over in Atlanta, then a 2 hour flight to Nassau.

Hurtling towards Atlanta, Maia made friends with the little boy in the seats in front of us (although only after failing to interest the doe-eyed Asian man behind us in playing with her playdoh) and we set up a play area by the emergency exits so they could sit and get jealous over their toys while his mother and I made small talk.

There was nothing suitable on TV (damn you, Delta, Shrek MUST be available for those little screens) but she watched a bit of Chinese kung-fu movie The House of Flying Daggers. All very pretty until they started cutting people's heads off, at which point I beagn to read stories with great verve and vigour. Even the Asian man behind us was impressed.

Arriving at Nassau airport was interesting. We had been saying the entire flight that we were Going To See Alec. 'If you don't put your seatbelt on, we won't be able to go, and then we won't see Alec!' 'If you go to sleep now, when you wake up, we will see Alec!'. So as soon as we arrived, Maia's tired eyes lit up and she attached herself to Alec with the glee of a limpet finding a piece of fresh rock in a nutrient stream.

Totally unaware that a Mitchell/Packington/Siddons family drama of pretty epic proportions was taking place around her, she lay her head on his shoulder and hugged like there was no tomorrow.

Unfortunately for Maia, Alec wasn't taking us home (Dad and Laura were). We then had the delicate job of removing a besotted toddler from her besotee and trying to interest her in sitting down AGAIN. The wail she let out was just heartbreaking, but we managed it.

A long day for a two year old, but she did pretty well.