Jessica had her first flight booked before she was born. At a mere 5 months old she owned 2 passports and had clocked up over 20,000 air miles on her first long haul flight to Australia. By the grand old age of not-quite four, she's already been to more countries than I had in my whole childhood. Her favourite nightly activity is her Daddy daughter adventure walk and doesn’t bat an eyelid at snakes, giant snails or the scariest of spiders. Since leaving London she has learnt to swim, hop, read her first words and figured out how to play with kids that don’t speak her language. A warm, caring and loving little girl she is a creature of habit and loves familiarity; clearly this means our travelling lifestyle can sometimes be tough on her. At every new hotel or villa she can be found laying out her trusty “cot gang” of beloved teddies. She poignantly brings as much as she can physically carry (and often more….) everywhere we go. Even a short errand to the local supermarket involves frantically stuffing random items into her owl backpack. We have learnt to accept a smash-and-grab bag of bulging belongings is her security blanket. Jessica is now almost four years old. She loves pretty much everything other girls her age do – pink, Dora, princesses, swimming, mint choc-chip ice cream and especially her doll “Betty”. She talks...a lot. With a vivid imagination, she entertains us with her different perspectives on all the new things we come across as we travel. I owe everything I know about rice paddies and ducks to her inquisitiveness and enthusiasm. She soaks up the languages she hears around her and undertakes Duplo marathons with imaginary characters and made up words. Acting out the joys and tragedies of day-to-day Bali life they work in rice paddies, play at waterparks and have ceremonies. Just in case you were wondering. Funny and brave, I am so very proud of all the new things Jessica has learnt and tried on our trip so far. A proper little explorer, travelling the world one small step at a time.
