Our first day out as a family.....

Yesterday was an exciting day.  It was our first day of taking Katie out in the car without Grandma.  She is very attached to Grandma so the question was "would she come with us on her own"?  We debated the best way to handle the situation on the way down in the car and decided that it would be better if Grandma had already left for her meeting before us so Katie didn't feel she was leaving Grandma behind.  Grandma had been preparing Katie for her time out with us so she knew what was going to happen.

Katie was delighted to greet us when we arrived. She beamed at us both.  Her smiles turned to tears however when Grandma said that she was going to a meeting at school for one of her other foster children.  We distracted Katie with a bounce on the trampoline and suggested that Grandad went inside and we would just go to the car once she was happy again.  Katie willingly came with us to the car without any tears at all and was excited when we showed her her car seat "Katie's seat?" she said.  "Yes, that's Katie's seat for Mummy and Daddy's car; our car; Katie's car" we replied.  She happily allowed me to put her in the car seat and we said we were going to the ball park and she beamed.  She was quiet in the car but we know that this is quite common really so we weren't worried.  We arrived at the ball park and asked her to show us what to do.  We had a wonderful time playing in the ball park.  Katie particularly loves the wind machine that blows the ball in the air.  She sat on top of it for a long time, letting the wind blow through her hair and Mummy's hair and squealing with delight.  We played all around the ball park and climbed up all the big girl ladders etc.  Daddy enjoyed his first ever visit to a ball park and I am sure it won't be his last.  Katie asked about Grandma a few times whilst we were playing and we reminded her that Grandma was at a meeting at school and she accepted this happily.

After the ball park we went to the cafe next door for lunch.  Katie had some nuggets and chips and ate really well.  Daddy told Mummy off for sneaking some cucumber on Katie's plate and said he didn't want to upset her but Mummy had a chuckle at Daddy when Katie picked up and ate it saying "it's like the one on Mummy's plate".  Katie was very chatty over lunch and we had a good time.

We went on the choo choo train after lunch but it was so cold that we didn't want Katie to get too cold.  She feels the cold severely, poor love, and still has a cold.  We had a quick feed of the ducks and geese, which surrounded her.  Daddy had to pick her up out of the way so as not to scare her.  We headed back to the car to drive back to Grandma's but, because they were still out, we went to grab a coffee at Costa.  Katie was sound asleep in the car seat so we stopped at a local service station with a Costa bar and had our coffee in the car watching our little lady sleep.  She woke up just as we got back to Grandma's house and delighted in telling Grandma about her day with us.  We played with Katie for another hour at Grandma's house.  Grandma noticed that she was coming to us more for help rather than going to Grandma.  We were all pleased with this because it shows that her bond with us is growing and we all feel confident that it won't be long before she will come home to us.

We said goodbye at around 3.30pm because Grandma's daughter and grandchildren arrived and we thought it would be nice for Katie to play with them.

Grandma sent me a text around 6:50pm to say that our little girl had had her dinner and fallen sound asleep already.

Today Katie is coming to our house for a few hours.  Grandma and Grandad are coming for a coffee and then heading off for lunch.  I'm hoping the rain stops so we can play in the garden or head up to the park.  I wonder what Katie will think of her new home?