Travelling Tips / Astuces voyage

Lors de notre voyage en France, nous restions dans un hôtel a La Rochelle. En arrivant dans la chambre, je me suis vite aperçue que la salle de bain n'était en fait qu'une salle de douche! La question c'était de savoir comment je pouvais faire pour que Louis prenne un semblant de bain... Je n'avais pas sous la main un bouche évier universel (eh oui, ca arrive) donc on a improvise: J'ai pris le capuchon du biberon pour boucher le bac a douche, je me suis assise en tailleur avec la tête de Louis bien calée sur mes jambes repliées pendant que Jon l'aspergeait d'eau! On a bien rigolé, et Louis n'a rien noté d'anormal...

During our recent trip to France, we were staying in a hotel. Our room only had a shower and so I knew that giving Louis his daily bath would be a challenge. And since I do not carry with me a universal bath plug (I know, crazy hey?), we had to improvise by using the milk bottle cap to plug the shower tray. I then sat down in the shower and propped Louis' head on my crossed legs whilst Jon gave him a sponge bath. Et voila...

Mile High (Poo) Club

Hello everybody! We made it to France and Louis was very good on his first flight, and didnt cry once. The return journey was spoiled by a rather stinky poo, which just HAD to be dealt with. So off I went with screaming child and overfilled changing bag to the back of the plane where only one of the 2 loos had baby changing facilities. The one loo fit for babies was held up by some woman and a 1 year old and she was taking FOREVER (as in, the air hostess was rolling her eyes). With minutes to go until we were due back in our seats for landing, I asked her how long she would be (she'd left the door ajar). "I'm not sure" she replied. I thought, right, she clearly is useless so I managed to get into the normal loo and proceeded to change Louis on the toilet seat. That was interesting. First I took a whole bunch of hand towels and tried to cover the toilet seat, then I propped Louis on there but he is big now and so it was a case of balancing him on the seat. I kind of held on to one of his legs, somehow thinking that should he roll over to one side, I could pull him up to safety!! Anyway, we got it done and made it back to our seat before landing...

Allons Enfants de L'Arnachiii-iiie

Bon et bien après une semaine de rhume, fièvre, toux et éternuements constants ou nous avons tous été malades, nous partons en France demain et Louis prend l’avion pour la première fois ! Comme m’avait prévenu mon cousin Jeremy, voyager avec des enfants c’est l’expédition (sa voiture était pleine comme un œuf), seulement quand on part en avion avec RyanAir (15kg par personne et bébé ne compte pas) c’est un peu plus complique… ou disons plutôt qu’il faut savoir faire des valises et emporter le minimum. Enfin, Louis va pouvoir rencontrer la famille française… chouette !
After a whole week of being sick (all 3 of us), we are today packing for our trip to France tomorrow! Yeaaaah... Louis gets to meet the Frenchies. Travelling with a baby is a bit of an expedition, but when you fly RyanAir, it's even more challenging: 15kg baggage allowance each and baby doesnt count. So I better go and perform a miracle... Happy Xmas. x

Je suce mon poing

Louis a trouve son poing mais pas encore son pouce!!
Louis is trying hard to suck his thumb... we're getting there slowly!

C'est presque Noel!

Et bien ce week end, je suis allee acheter un sapin. On sera en france pour Noel mais bon c'est le premier noel de Louis alors sapin oblige - et ce pour pas mal d'annees a venir!!

Country Living

This week, Louis and I visited my friend Julie and her family in Staffordshire. They live in a gorgeous little village and have completely renovated this fabulous big house and made it into the cosiest country family home EVER. It's just fab. Julie and I have known each other forever (22 years to be exact, although upon realising this, we both agreed we didn't look old enough to have known each other that long!!). Julie and Felix have a 3-year old daughter Ingrid, who is cute as a button, and a baby boy, Arthur, who is 4 weeks older than Loulou. Needless to say, with 3 kids in the house, there was never a dull moment although Jules and I managed a few hours' shopping one afternoon... it was (almost) like the good old days when we went shopping for hours as teenagers.

Cette semaine avec Loulou, nous sommes allés rendre visite a mon amie Julie, qui habite dans le centre de l'Angleterre dans un petit village adorable. Ils viennent de rénover complètement une vieille maison qui est maintenant absolument magnifique. Avec Julie nous nous connaissons depuis 22 ans!! Ca nous a mis un coup au moral quand on s'en est aperçu. Julie et Félix ont une petite fille de 3 ans, Ingrid, et un petit garçon, Arthur, qui a 4 semaines de plus que Louis -- autant dire qu'on s'est pas ennuyé!!

Bubblicious

Louis continue d'apprecier ses bains...

Princess Asiya

Princess Asiya was visiting from Amsterdam. Don't ask me why we call her Princess Asiya (something to do why how spoilt she was when I first met her 14 years ago whilst studying in New England!!). Asiya is a great friend and also happens to be a great photographer so she did a mini photoshoot with Louis and here are the results!
Mon amie Asiya est venue nous rendre visite. On l'appelle Princesse Asiya - et cela depuis le premier jour ou je l'ai rencontrée a l'université de Portland il y a 14 ans maintenant - rapport au fait que petite, chez elle au Pakistan, elle avait sa propre bonne qui s'occupait d'elle 24h/24! Bref Asiya est surtout une photographe accomplie alors je vous poste les résultats.

It's Justin to the rescue...

It's 5pm and Louis has been screaming his head off for about an hour. I have tried everything: he is fed, changed, winded... in short, everything is good. So WHY is he crying?
I decide to try one more trick: stick him in his moses basket in the kitchen and blast some loud music (not deafening but you know, loud enough that it makes you wanna get up and dance!). The iPod is on shuffle and the track is What goes around comes around (yes... it's Justin Timberlake I know, but it's a good track, not that my brother, who works in the music industry would agree; he gave up on my music taste a long time ago). For all it's worth, Loulou is fast asleep about 10 seconds into the track... although to be fair, anything with a beat works. He has been known to fall asleep to Britney's Gimme More -- Aunties Natalie and Kris in California would be proud... :-)

Gymnastique matinale

Louis commence toujours sa journee par quelques excercises pour garder la forme...

La vache Marguerite

Voila la vache Marguerite qui est toujours la quand on me change la couche, elle me chante aussi une chanson que Maman a invente:

Je suis la vache Mar-gue-ri-te

Je suis une va-che co-mique

Quand je te tors le bout du nez,

Je peux en tirer de lait

(Je sais, ca rime pas, mais on fait comme on peut...)

Meme pas mal...

Aujourd'hui Louis a eu ses premiers vaccins, une injection dans chaque cuisse. C'est Papa qui l'avait sur ses genoux, Maman n'a pas regarde. Il a rien dit a la 1ere piqure et a pleure quelques secondes apres la 2eme (Louis, pas Papa!) et a meme fait un sourire a l'infirmiere avant de partir. Quel dragueur...
Today Louis had his first injections, one shot in each thigh. He sat on daddy's lap whilst Mum looked the other way. He barely cried after the 2nd shot and even managed a smile for the nurse before we left. What a little charmer...

Cheeky Monkey

This is me when I was 3 weeks old with my cousin Thomas who is 3.

Mon cousin Thomas, le coquin qui a 3 ans avec moi a 3 semaines.

Starbucks-Me-Up!

OMG... yes, Teddington is officially on the map, people! We are getting a Starbucks and it's going to be THE place for Yummy Mummies to hang out. Let the Battle of the Prams begin...

Dimanche un vendredi

Aujourd'hui Papa est en conge alors c'est un peu dimanche, et Louis a fait sa sieste matinale dans le lit de Maman et Papa, ce qui a vraiment l'air de lui plaire!!

Today Daddy is off work so Louis had a bit of a Friday-come-Sunday morning lie-in in our bed. Naughty, naughty...

Me and the gang...

Here are my buddies from NCT, starting with the last one born from left to right: William, Samuel, Megan, Me, Lucas and Freddy!

Voici tous mes amis de la classe de preparation d'accouchement, par ordre du dernier bebe ne, de gauche a droite: William, Samuel, Megan, Me, Lucas et Freddy!

Sortie du Dimanche

Aujourd'hui dimanche nous sommes alles dejeuner au restaurant car mon amie Asiya est avec nous ce week end. Et on est alle manger francais au bistrot RETRO a Teddington: superbe soupe de celeri, suivie d'un faisant aux chataignes et choux rouge, et une tarte tatin pour finir... Maman etait contente. Louis a ete tout a fait adorable et a dormi presque tout le long! Voici quelques photos prises avec le super-appareil-magique-que-tonton-toctoc-a-offert...

Morning Gymnastics

Thank you (again) great grandma Sylvia for my play gym, I have grown to really like it now and I can happily stay on it for 10mns before getting fed up, which means Mum can have a shower that's more than the ususal one and a half minute long!! Priceless...

Louis se plait bien maintenant sur son tapis d'eveil, ce qui veut dire que Maman peut se permettre une douche un peu plus longue le matin (c'est a dire un peu plus que la minute et demi accordee normalement) et ca, ca a pas d'prix, mes amis!!

Retro Chic

Check out the high chair the lovely people at Dad's work got Louis: it's uber cool in a 70's kinda way. We call it the Egg Chair, but it's made by Bloom and is called the Bloom Fresco chair.

Nat - you TOTALLY need to get this for your sista!

http://www.bloombaby.com/

Et bientot... sans les mains!

Depuis une semaine, Loulou a un pic de croissance alors le soir, en plus du lait de Maman, il prend un petit biberon, histoire d'aller au lit rassasie! Seulement hier soir, il a decide qu'il n'avait besoin de personne pour manger en attrapant son biberon des 2 mains! Photo a l'appui.

Cheeeeeese!

Et bien une fois de plus, Louis nous fait les choses comme il se doit: semaine six est la semaine des premiers vrais sourires selon les manuels et la semaine derniere, Maman a eu le premier vrai sourire. Avant j'avais demande a des potes qui ont des gamins plus ages: "Comment tu sais que c'est un vrai sourire?" et ils m'avaient repondu: "Quand tu le veras, tu le sauras". Et bien c'est vrai: rien a voir avec les esquisces de sourire d'avant... :-)

Call me gorgeous...

Voila quelques nouvelles photos de Loulou que je trouve adorables!
Some recent photos of Louis for you all. I know I am biased but I do think he is just gorgeous ;-0

Loulou a 6 semaines

Louis fait maintenant 4.9kg et 56cm, ce qui veut dire qu'il a grandi d'1cm par semaine depuis sa naissance. Il a une grosse tete: 40cm de diametre!

Louis is growing like mad and now weights 10lb13oz and is 1ft10in long!

La vie avec un nouveau-ne...

c'est mettre en route une machine et sortir les poubelles a 4h48 du mat' et trouver cela parfaitement normal!

Life with a newborn...

is deciding to put the laundry on and taking the trash out after a night feed, looking at the kitchen clock and thinking nothing of the fact that it is 4:48am.

And one more for the road

A son's first visit to the pub is a memorable moment for any Dad. Louis visited his first pub aged just 3 weeks! And it wasn't just any pub, it was the lovely pub run by Jon's auntie and uncle, Val and Ian. Below is a picture with Jon, Louis, Val and Jon's cheeky nephew Thomas.
La premiere visite au pub, c'est un moment important. Louis a passe ce cap quand il avait 3 semaines et pas n'importe quel pub, celui que tiennent la tante et l'uncle de Jon, Val et Ian!http://www.cockpub.co.uk/

Sceance de rotage!

La sceance rotage avec Louis, c'est toujours tres drole alors grand mere Lili l'a immortalisee recemment. Ce film est dedie a Tonton Toc-Toc!!

Dogs on ze blog

This is me with the lovely Bertie, Grandma and Grandad's dog

Buses Suck / Mort aux bus!

Yesterday, I learnt something: taking the bus with a pram SUCKS... big time. I was dreading the whole experience (you know, when you clearly don't know what you're doing and the experienced mums already ON the bus watch you battle with the getting on / getting off thing in near hysterics, like you are not fully aware that you have AMATEUR written in big red letters on your forehead already) but I thought, well, how hard can it be? So there I was at the bus stop, waiting for the 281 to Kingston with my £2 change (Oh God, do they charge for the buggy too??!). A new single decker bus arrives, one of those with the wheelchair ramp and I thought... sweet... this is going to be easy. Oh, no!

First of all, the damn driver stops the bus, leaving just enough space between the pavement and the bus so that you have to go down the curb to get onto the bus but the wheels don't fit in the space so I end up doing this ridiculous sideways manoeuvre to get on. Before I can put the break on, the driver starts and I am propelled forward and my 2 quid go flying onto the floor. Great. I already look like a prize idiot. I pay my fare then make my way past the elderly people sat at the front… until I get to the first row of seats. It looked like it would be a tight squeeze but I almost ripped off an old lady's arm trying the go past until I realised it was not physically possible to get through. I went bright red. This bus was clearly NOT designed for buggies. And I was now blocking the front doors. Cue the experienced mum looks from the back of the bus. So I think I just said “Oh, well…” out loud, faked a smile to the audience, then waited for the next stop, got off through the front door (remembering to exit backwards to avoid further embarrassment of dropping kid onto pavement), and back on through the back door to finally reach the buggy space.
Clearly a bloke designed those new “easy access” buses…

Thank God for Pizza Express...

This week was Jon's birthday and so we decided to trek it to Pizza Express (one of the few truly child-friendly restaurant chains, where the chap taking reservations asks you how many prams he should book with your table!!!) for an early evening meal with our respective parents. I was excited: my first evening meal out in 6 weeks!!!! Sooo... How was it, I hear you ask?

Well overall, it was nice to be dining out again but I thought I would tell you (for those of you out there NOT with child and wondering how much your life would change if you DID have a little one) how the evening went: in preparation for the evening, I expressed some milk throughout the day so I wouldn't have to get my boobies out in front of the diners. That was fine. The ulterior motive was to give me more options in the wardrobe department as to what to wear. That was NOT fine. As it turns out, there isn't much in my rather large closet that fits me the way it used to. I am still in my maternity jeans -- the pre-pregnancy jeans are not an option and I need some new tops. Now I haven't shopped for myself for quite a while and shopping with a newborn is quite an experience: basically buy stuff without trying it on (ever tried to get into a changing room with a buggy??!), take it home, try to find 5mns when his majesty does not need your undivided attention to see whether anything looks decent, oh and of course, remember to do this within 28 days if you want your money back on the items you will need to return -- which will be most of them!!!!

Anyway, then there was the little challenge of actually making it to the restaurant: it's a 5mn walk but it was kinda raining, but that meant we could just bung Loulou in the Bugaboo and go. We could drive, but then we had to get the car seat onto the bugaboo and he doesnt sleep as well in it (this is when I was daydreaming that he would actually SLEEP through diner...). Anyway we decided to brave the London winter and almost got swept away by the force of the gale. Umbrellas did nothing to shield us from the rain and wind and the bugaboo got drenched by the time we got there... so did we. Good thing I had no time to do anything to my hair. BUT we had made it out of the house at night and that was an achievement in itself!!

Louis slept thru starters but woke up and cried as our main courses arrived on the table (right on cue) so we passed the baby around and ate cold food (that's a given these days) and Jon ended up giving Louis to the waiter to hold, prompting interesting looks from other diners! Of course, as soon as he was in this dude's arms, he was quiet. Little bugger. We made our way home (same deal as on the way over except it was even colder!) and arrived to find Louis... you guessed it... fast asleep in his pram!

So there you have it: an insight into life in the baby lane. It's not all bad, mind you. I only did 3 nappy changes last night (the record currently stands at 8!!).

Je lunch, moi!

Cette semaine, on est alles au restaurant pour dejeuner avec mamy Lili et papy Francois

Like Fish in Water...

Louis looooves his bath

Bushy Quoi?

Bushy Park - un parc magnifique juste a quelques minutes de la maison ou on va se promener souvent. Il y a plus de 300 cerfs qui s'y promene en toute liberte!!

www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/bushy_park

La c'est moi a 10 jours...

Avec Grand-mere Lili

Where are the waves, duuuude?

Check out the surfer pose from Loulou after his bath...
Voila une autre video de Louis a la sortie de bain (visez la superbe pose Surfeur qu'il nous fait)...

Camera... Action

Thank you Great Grandma Sylvia for my cot mobile, I loooove it!

A star is born...

Check me out!!!

"Y r'semble a qui?" / "Who does he look like?"

La question debile que tout le monde te pose: "Aloooors... il tient du Papa ou de la Maman?". Fort heureusement, papy Michel a donne la reponse de suite en envoyant la comparaison photographique ci jointe. A gauche c'est Maman, a droite c'est Louis. Y'a juste 34 ans d'ecart!

The stupid question everyone asks you when you've just had a baby. Well luckily, Grandad Michel answered it for us all by doing this little photographic montage: on the left, it's Mum (orange was big in 1974) and on the right it's Louis: just 34 years separate those two shots!! All together, now: aahhh!

08.10.08

Un jour remarquable qui a vu naitre notre petit Louis a 9h34 exactement... a 3.2kg, il etait absolument parfait: ni trop gros ni trop petit. Ci joint les premieres photos, prises une fois de retour a la maison (les photos prises a l'hopital sont toujours immondes...)

This was the day our little Louis was born, one day after his due date so thankfully he didn't keep us waiting for too long. At 7lb 2oz, he was the perfect size: not too big and not too small... just right really.

Youpiiii... Un Blog!

Bonjour a tous!
Et bien oui, nous avons nous aussi succombe a la tentation du blog familial... mon cousin Jeremy me tane depuis des semaines donc je m'y colle. Ce blog sera en Franglais, donc on espere que nos lecteurs seront tous des bilingues accomplis :-)

Hello Everyone!
Welcome to our family blog... yes I resisted until now but my cousin Jeremy has been bugging me for weeks now so I thought I would give it a shot! This blog will be bilingual, so we hope your level of French allows you to follow the adventures of the Franglais!