New Home!

Finally I get to write a little something about our new home – since so many of you asked!

We left our beloved Teddington and after many conversations and a little bit of luck, we bought a new place in Epsom, Surrey – a leafy suburb 18 miles south-west of London.

It’s a currently 6-bed monster, which hasn’t been touched in 40 years and will require months of refurbishment, hard work and plenty of cash. So you won’t find me splashing money on the latest “it” bag, or collecting shoes, or going out, or travelling… no, no, no. I will be signing cheques after cheques for central heating, scaffolding, window refurbishment and gas pipe work (oh that was just in the last week BTW!).

Louis is happy as anything, currently residing in a bright canary-yellow room which is easily twice the size of his last bedroom. We recently asked him what colour he wanted his new room painted and he replied: “blue, and red. And black.” Hhmmm… am going to show him the Farrow&Ball colour chart and see where we can compromise.

Jon is completely in his element, and very happy with managing the project (that’s where his OCD comes into good use!) and negotiating with builders. One of our prospective builders arrived onsite riding a mean Harley-Davidson, clad head to toe in black leather. I thought he looked cool. Dreadfully cool in fact. So cool in fact that I would have gladly given him the job right there and then! So good thing Jon is in charge of budget!

Anyway, we want to make it the most fabulous family home in Epsom. Oh and we hope we get to welcome you very soon. Watch this space as we keep you up to speed on progress!!

Les Vancances (un peu tard!)

Oulala-lala-lala.... ca fait bien trop longtemps que je n'ai rien poste sur ce blog. La Hon-teu. Mais bon j'ai des excuses... bin oui.

Alors pour récapituler les 2 derniers mois: 2 semaines de vacances en France, suivies de 3 jours au boulot, puis départ pour Salt Lake City pour l'ultra fabuleux mariage de Natalie (photos a voir), puis 3 jours de réunions non-stop au bureau au Colorado, retour a Londres le jour de notre déménagement (oui. vous avez bien lu), puis 2 jours pour tout déballer, ET refaire une valise pour 4 jours de salon a Paris. Voila.
Je ne vais pas vous mentir. J'en ai plein les bottes. Mais pas plus que Jon qui se tape toute la logistique pendant que Maman est entre 2 avions: session d'adaptation dans la nouvelle école de Louis, première semaine dans une grande maison avec des cartons jusqu'au plafond et un chat qui devient fou enfermé!! Ci-dessous des photos de nos vacances à Luçon avec Ella et Frankie-Boo-Boo. Xxx

Luca and Jaca

Ok, this is a long overdue family baby special... and we now have 2:
Baby Jacob (Louis's cousin) was born July 7th. As we waited for his arrival, I asked Louis:
"What do you think Auntie Chichi and Uncle Joejoe's baby will be called?" and he would reply "George"... then when I told him that it was named Baby Jacob, he looked at me with big eyes and went "I don't know this name"... Indeed there are no Jacob in his nursery class, but there is a George!
And so last Sunday we went to visit Baby Jaca (as Lou calls him) and he's totally gorgeous!! Louis wanted to hold him and so he did!

Baby number 2 is no longer a baby, but ever since Caroline and Paul had baby Luca nearly a year ago now, this is how we have called him: "Baby Luca". Even now, Louis will come out of the bath, get wrapped in a towel and say "Do Baby Luca, Mummy" and I have to scoop him up like a baby and swing him saying "oh hello Baby Luca" which he finds hilarious ("noooo, I'm LOUIS"). So here he is, with Mum Caroline, in NYC's Madison Square Park...

English Summer (not!)

Well, the English summer is officially over: it lasted about a week, which culminated in the hottest weekend so far this year a few weeks back (with 33 degrees). Nanny Steph and Grandad Wayney came over for a bbq and Louis used his new giant paddling pool. Nanny got very wet when Louis threw an entire bucket of water from the pool onto her (she didn't mind, though!); we ate our pudding in the garden and we took Bertie for a walk. It felt like holidays...

Barbie & Ken

Auntie Natalie's done it again. Whilst out in New York for our girls' trip, she asked if Lou had Barbies, and I said no. I can't remember the conversation but it wasn't totally random so we must have been talking about dolls. Or skinny women. Or plastic surgery.
Anyway... sure enough 2 weeks after our state-side escapade, a package lands on our doorstep with a Barbie & Ken couple, looking suspiciously like Brangelina look-alikes!!
Well, Lou likes them (anything that appears in Toy Story is usually a hit) although so far, he's mostly taking the plastic shoes off then asking me to put them back on again!

Happy Father's Day!

To the best Daddy in the world... Happy Father's Day! xoxo

My Mamou

Last weekend, with some horrid weather outside, Mandoo decided to set up residence on Louis's bed and whilst initially, Savage junior didn't seem too keen on it, he quickly realised it was big enough for the two of them to share...

Les Expressions du Moment...

En ce moment, j’apprends des mots à Louis car il faut vraiment que je fasse un effort pour améliorer son français. Il comprend très bien quand je lui parle, mais il répond en anglais, comme ce matin:
Maman: “Louis, qu’est-ce que tu fais?”
Louis : « I’m not doing ANYTHING ! »
Maman: "Louis, va mettre tes chaussures, on sort"
Louis: "Mummy, I can't find my Crocs!"

Je lui fais répéter des mots et quand ils sont difficiles et qu’il arrive à les prononcer (ce matin, a cause d’un petit accident de cours de recréation à la crèche, le mot c’était “pansement violet” puisqu’il en a un sur chaque genou!!), on fait un high five avec la main… c’est très drôle.
Jon lui fait deviner le nom des animaux, il dit "Louis, how do you say ladybird in French?" et Louis repond tout fier "coccinelle". Il sait aussi papillon, abeille, chat, chien, oiseau et quelques couleurs et puis "horloge"... Je sais, un peu bizarre, mais c'est dans son livre français préféré: Le Camion-Poubelle de Marcel (franchement, ca s'invente pas) et hier chez Tesco en attendant aux caisses, il se met à crier "Mummy, Mummy, look: it's a big horloge!" Et effectivement il y avait une pendule sur le mur...

A la crèche il est maintenant avec des plus grands alors forcement il les copie et nous ramène des expressions anglaises bien comme il faut, genre:
«What a mess!» (« Quel bazar ici ! »)
«What a shame!» (“Quel dommage!”)
«It was an accident. I didn’t mean it, Mummy” (“Je l’ai pas fait exprès, moi.”)
Et la derniere en date : « Shut UP »… bin ca promets, tiens !

Easter/Paques 2011

Avec un petit peu de retard, des photos de Paques 2011 d'abord en Angleterre avec chasse aux oeufs en chocolat dans le jardin avec Ella et Francesca...

Puis chez Papy Michel... les Weetabix du matin, c'est sacre!

Big Boy Bed

Louis est maintenant dans son "big boy bed". On a change son lit a barreaux il y a 2 semaines et il adoooore son nouveau lit, duquel il n'est même pas tombé une seule fois! Le soir, il monte se coucher et on va lire 2 histoires (toujours 2 et souvent toujours les mêmes, qui commencent sérieusement a gonfler Papa et Maman). Avec Papa c'est les histoires en anglais et avec Maman les histoires en français. Cette semaine, j'étais à Paris pour le boulot et malgré un planning hyper charge, j'ai réussi à acheter des livres en français sur les Champs à presque 23h (merci Monoprix!) et j'ai retrouve les livres de mon enfance: les Martine. TROP FORT. TROP KITCH.

Miam-Miam-Miam

Coucou à tous!

Alors enfin un blogpost special Bouffe... Oui, parce-queu-même-queu-c'est-pas-vrai qu'on mange mal en Angleterre!! Et grâce à notre livraison hebdomadaire de fruits et légumes, on cuisine pleins de trucs bizarroïdes qu’on aurait jamais pensé à cuisiner. Voici donc quelques trouvailles:

Les Pousses de Brocoli Violet
Ah oui, ca va faire rire les sceptiques, mais c’est trės bon! A faire cuire 5mns à la vapeur et à faire sauter dans un peu d’huile d’olive et d’ail et fleur de sel. Hmmmm...
 

Les topinambours
Alors d’abord, une confession: en Angleterre ca s’appelle des Artichauds de Jerusalem – faut avouer que ca tape un peu plus que “topinambours” et que j’ai pas realisé ce que c’etait jusqu’au moment ou j’ai regardé la traduction et alors la: le choc. Et bien passés au four (à mettre dans un plat, crus avec huile d’olive, sel et poivre), ils étaient a se rouler par terre ces topinambours!

Eton Mess
Petite description: L'Eton mess ou " le bazar d'Eton " est un dessert ancien du patrimoine culinaire britannique. C'est un dessert qui fait référence au célèbre Eton College situé dans le Berkshire à quelques kilomètres de Londres.C'est en quelque sorte une sorte de Pavlova déstructurée traditionellement avec des fraises, mais ce week end, j’ai fait une version top que même Jamie Oliver en serait vert d’envie!! Ma version est une version light puisqu’au lieu d’utiliser de la crėme fraîche, j’utilise du yaourt grec brassé, des meringues ecrasées, des framboises ET, ingrédient magique, de la compote de rhubarbe faite maison. Y’a pas de mot pour le décrire…

Et toujours les muffins a la banane et canelle
"Louis, tu en veux combien des p'tits muffins?"

Will & Kate

Haaaaaaaa, yes. The Royal Wedding.
Well I couldn't possibly not write about it. My US friends and colleagues were obsessed with it. And whilst many Brits will tell you that they couldn't care one bit, well some of us do. Not about royalty. Or protocol. Or even the ceremony. No, no, no... we care about the magical feel of the ocassion, the love story. We care about whether a 6 months pregnant Victoria Beckham can pull it off (she can). We care about whether or not Catherine would dare to wear McQueen... and we now care about Harry & Pippa.

So there was definitely a sense of ocassion floating around. First off, if we go by the number of street parties that were planned in Richmond-upon-Thames (85), we now officially live in the most royalist borough of London. And yes, even our road was to have a street party on April 29, but with a long-overdue visit planned, we upped stick to the countryside for the week end.
So we went to stay with Auntie Julie, Uncle Felix and Ingrid and Arthur and we had a blast. We all watched the Royal Wedding on the BBC from early morning. The kids waved flags and we waved champagne flutes. Auntie Julie's lunch of fish and chips served on specially-sourced-for-the-ocassion Union Jack picnic gear looked a royal feast and the kids loved it!
So here's to royal weddings... let's hope Pippa doesn't play hard to get and we could be in for another regal treat quicker than one can say Sarah Burton!

Louis & Francesca!

Busted!

Last week end, we took Louis to a birthday party. That morning, I had gone slightly mad in H&M and Zara Kids and bought Lou some great new shoes and clothes and he'd picked a rather cool hat in H&M which he refused to take off for the rest of the day...
So we get the party and there are about 30 kids there, all high on chocolate and it's chaos... Lou's going around, playing with his rugby ball, impressing all the dads with this kicking skills ("You gotta find him a club" I hear one of the dads say to Jon!! hhmm... no, he's not even 2 and a half!!)...
Then this woman comes up to me and says:
"OMG, your son is soooooo gorgeous, I was telling my friend he looks just like one of Brangelina's kids!!"

Damn... and to think that so far, I'd got away with having Brad's love child after a mad fling over 3 years ago.SO BUSTED!

Let them eat cake!

Recently I have been baking cakes. Frankly, because it was winter and there wasn't much else to do on a sunday afternoon stuck at home and also because Louis likes his cakes... Oh all right... ok,... and also because we struggled to get through the weekly delivery of fairtrade bananas from the lovely Abel&Cole and as a result, I can now produce a lovely, golden, and moist banana loaf in less time than you can say "les bananes, c'est magique!"...

Anyway, tonight, Jon and I were in Louis' room playing with his train set, which includes a wooden block representing Buckingham Palace amongst other London landmarks (don't ask, it is indeed The Palace) so Jon says:
- "Louis, do you know what this is? Who lives in there?"
- [Louis] "The mens"
- [Jon] "Ugh... well, not quite but it's called Buckingham Palace. Can you say it?"
- [Louis] "Buckingham Palace"
- [Jon] " well done, and do you know who lives there?... The Queen. Would you like to meet The Queen Louis?"
- [Louis] "Yessss"
- [Jon] "And what would you say to the Queen if you saw her?"
- [Louis] "Cake, please!!"

So there... now, where did I put that April 29th invite again??

Bossy

This is the conversation this evening after bath:

Me: "Louis, come on, let's put your pijamas on!" (starting to put his arm through a onesy)

Louis: "No, Mummy! You got to do the feeeeet first."

Me: "Ok, well here we go!" (now putting the feet through first to finally finish with a fully clothed child)

Louis: "That's it. Well done, Mummy! Good Girl!"

Seriously... I wish I knew where he got it from!

Fitness First!

So... I have just joined the local gym. Yes, I know what you're thinking... Even the people at my new job seemed sceptical - and they've only known me for 3 months!
But something had to change. And so we also signed up to the beautiful Abel & Cole and now get some amazing organic fruit and veg delivered to our doorstep every week. Lou and I open the box together and play "Guess what this is!". So far, he is doing very well with bana-nana-nas (yep, that's what they are called), oranges, lemons, and "tatoes" (potatoes), but when I pointed at the large broccoli stem this week, he said "that's a tree, Mummy!" and well... yes, we've been eating trees for a while now!

Money-Money-Money...

Well, you know it's not a good start to the week end when you lose £50 you just got out of the cash point on a Friday night... so I went to pick up Loulou from nursery in a rather bad mood and told the nursery assistant I had just lost my money. On the way out, Lou says to me:
"Don't worry, Mummy. I get you your money" with a rather serious face!!
And just like that, the world wasn't such a bad place!

Chatterbox

Louis is a real chatterbox these days and he is coming up with the funniest things; below are some of my favourites:

When visiting Kew botanical gardens with Mamie lili and Papy Frank, we walked into one of the giant greenhouses where all the tropical plants were, it was hot, humid, like a jungle really. At this point, Louis looks at us and says: "Mummy... where are the monkeys?"

This morning in the bathroom:
(Me) "Lou, Daddy is going to the rugby match today, with Uncle Joejoe and Grandad Graeme, and Callum"
(Louis) "I want to go to rugby-ball"
(Me) "You're a bit too small to go, Lou"
(Louis) "I not too small, I very bigger!"

And this one today whilst walking in Bushy Park:
(Louis, holding a stick upright) "I get you sky, I get you clouds... oooh, I cant reeeeeach, Mummy"
(Me) "No, Louis, the sky is really up high, you can't touch it"
(Louis, looking at me) "I need a ladder, Mummy"
PRICELESS.

On est de retour!

Coucou a tous!

Bon je sais... ca fait bien longtemps qu'on a pas écrit, tout ca, tout ca, mais bon entre Noel en famille, et ensuite Mamy Lili et Papy Frank, puis des boulots très stressants, et le retour a la crèche après 2 semaines de vacances, puis Maman dans le Colorado pendant une semaine... bin oui, le blog est parti aux oubliettes. Mais rassurez-vous: nous vous avons mis au frais une rétrospective des grands moments :

Réveillon de Noel

Ici le réveillon ca se fait avec les amis et ce n’est pas vraiment un repas : surtout beaucoup de bonnes choses à boire et des bricoles a grignoter (recette « malalatêteulelendemain »). Et le soir du réveillon, Louis et Ella ont laisse au pied du sapin quelques petites choses pour Santa (c’est comme qu’on l’appelle ici, le papa Noel) : une petite tourte traditionnelle aux fruits confits (mince pie), un verre de lait… et surtout des carottes pour les rennes... qui avaient ete toutes grignotées au matin!

Le matin de Noel :

Louis a ouvert son sac à cadeau et une fois qu’il a eu ouvert le cadeau de Papy Michel, il voulait tout de suite regarder Rue du Zoo !

Ensuite papa a trouve cache dans la maison un top super gros paquet que Santa avait laisser trainer et que même Maman elle en savait rien… et dedans il y avait un super-top-kiddimotor-bike-qu’est-impossible-a-trouver-au-moment-de-Noel !! Trop fort, Papa Jon.