II.

This time last week, our little man turned a whopping two years old! Pressies were opened, cakes were eaten, songs were sung, and candles were blown. It was a quiet winter day with snow on the ground and Siberian temperatures, like on the day you were born. These past two years with you in our lives have been more exhausting and challenging than we could have ever imagined yet at the same time they have by far been the most wonderful, magical and blissful years we have ever lived. Who knew it was possible to love someone the way we love you?

Happiest birthday big boy!

May these past two years together only be a teaser of all the fun and love-filled years that are still to come.

Ps: a good article on what it means to be a parent. 

23 mois.

So here it is: the last month of counting in months. I can't believe that we are a mere 31 days away from your second birthday. That it was almost two years ago already that I gave birth to you. We sent out your party invites today as we will be celebrating your birthday with your little friends next month. I am already looking forward to all the preparations and the party chaos. And given how often you are singing "aaappy biiiir'day" to yourself at the moment, I think you are pretty impatient for your big day too.

Joyeux (dernier) moisiversaire my little monkey!

1 mois - 2 mois - 3 mois - 4 mois - 5 mois - 6 mois - 7 mois - 8 mois - 9 mois - 10 mois - 11 mois - 12 mois - 13 mois - 18 mois - 20 mois - 22 mois

ps: I hope you don't misread the "do not copy". It is just that, despite the little note I have on my blog, I have often found photos of L. on Pinterest, and I would feel more comfortable to have my little boy stays on my blog only. 

Celebrations.

Bonjouuuur! I hope you are all having a great start to the week after a lovely weekend. We celebrated my birthday – again – on Saturday and had such a fun evening by the Canal Saint Martin. It’s been so mild in Paris lately, my friends and I were lucky to be able to sit outside for a couple of hours sipping glasses of bubbly before heading to Hotel du Nord for a fantastic meal in a great 1930’s decor (I highly recommend this restaurant if you ever visit Paris). And just as I thought my birthday celebrations were over, my sweet colleagues sprang a surprise “joyeux anniversaire!” on me this morning and treated me to a gift voucher from Zara. Shopping spree it is for me this weekend :-) Birthdays, what delicious treats you bring! So far so good with this 'turning 30' lark, if you ask me.

ps: sorry for the lack of visits to your blogs lately. It's the same old story: so much to do, so little time. I hope to be back on track soon. In the meantime, thank you for always sticking around. 

{images from Hotel du Nord, pterjan, and PhF1}

three-oh, ho ho ho.

It was my birthday last week. The big 3-0. Don't tell anyone, but so far it feels very much like being 29. Mr. Franglais and I both took the day off work for my birthday (I always do that; me no likey workey on my special day) and enjoyed a quiet afternoon being tourists in our own city. We walked, ate, walked some more, ate some more, and I spent all afternoon bearing a happy smile on my face as I snapped away on my brand spanking new lens (thx luv!). We celebrated my birthday a second time with my folks during the weekend and will do so a third time next Saturday with my friends. My birthday has been a welcomed little distraction from all the stresses of buying (at last though, yay!) a flat. So it's now official: I'm 30 and...broke, ha!

Pictures: jardins du Luxembourg, restaurant Alcatraz, Pont des Arts, cupcakes from Chloe's, parc Monceau.

Twenty.

My little boy is 20 months old since yesterday and continues to amaze me with his expanding vocabulary. He's become excellent at boosting my ego, exclaiming candids "Hmmm, c'est booooon!" at every homecooked meal and "Ooooh, c'est pretty!" whenever I make or draw something for him. The other day I also accidentally bumped into him and my "Sorry darling" was followed by the sweetest "Sorry mummy". The cuteness kills me, I tell ya. The boy is still over the moon crazy about music, begging for "more, more, [squeal] moooooore!" as soon as a song finishes and his manic obsession for pens is also still well in place. He finds immense pleasure in counting e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. he sees or collects ("three, four, five, six, eight, ten!") and he has started naming the colours as well (though so far his world seems dominantly red). I'm so proud this little fella. Less so maybe when he drops heavy toys on my toes and bursts out laughing while I am in utter agony. Or when he draws and throws food on our white walls and then goes "oh dear" not meaning a word of what he just said. Toddlers - ever so challenging and charming at the same time. Happy 20th month birthday to my cheeky boy!

ps:  be sure to check back here tomorrow for the petite surprise. You wouldn't want to miss out.

{images above taken at 19th month old}

18 mois.

Eighteen months old. Not so much of a baby anymore this little boy of mine. I know I say this all too often but it is hard to believe how quickly time whisks by when you have a child. To think L. now plays jokes on us, eats by himself, talks, laughs and gets up to no good... we've come such a long way since this. Each day I watch him learn and each day I smile as he proudly shows off his new tricks. This little boy brings so much happiness into our lives that life without him would be so dull in comparison. He's our daily dose sunshine and I am endlessly amazed by how much love is in our life now that he's a part of it. Happy half birthday little boy!


1 mois - 2 mois - 3 mois - 4 mois - 5 mois - 6 mois - 7 mois - 8 mois - 9 mois - 10 mois - 11 mois - 12 mois - 13 mois

13 mois.

And so the monthly portraits continue. It has already been a whole month since L. turned one, and five tiny posts later (you may have noticed I have been somewhat absent from blogland lately. Pardonnez-moi!) here he is at 13 months old. He is almost walking, but still prefers to crawl when he wants to get somewhere quickly. When he decides to 'take off', part of me will miss the crawling bubba but I am also looking forward to the day we will be walking hand in hand together in the street.

I find he has changed so much in just a month. I remember thinking the same at six months old - it was as if from one day to the next he became so grown up. Again today, I feel like he has become so much more of a little boy since his birthday. He loves to play tricks and is always giggling (my heart melts when I hear him chuckling to himself). He is repeating more and more words (in his own babbly way) and whenever I speak to him in French as a joke, he gives me the strangest look as if to say "why on earth are you speaking that language to me?!".

The boy is also quite obsessed with music though he is still in search of his musical style. At the moment he's into cacophony - loves listening and bouncing to the sounds of all his musical toys playing at once - although his cherished music still remains his dada's guitar playing. In the mornings, before heading off to work, the three of us often boogie woogie to our happy song for a cheerful start to the day. Happy times!

11/03/11 update: he is officially walking! :D

First birthday - partie 2

And finally partie 2 of the L.'s first birthday: the party with our (and his) friends. It was so much fun to have a house full of babies, though it did all of a sudden make me feel old!

When I originally thought about organising a birthday party for L.'s big ONE, I had such a clear idea in my mind of how I wanted things to be. I was motivated: scouting every blog out there in the search of inspiration for the perfect birthday party. I even practiced my baking skills (I never ever bake). And then, well, the usual happened: I got caught up in life's everyday hustle and bustle. Too much work, not enough energy, lack of time, sleep and slowly, I was no longer in control. I am envious when I see those perfect mums on other blogs and I sometimes try to keep up with them, but no matter how much I try, I just-can't-do-it. Exhaustion always seems to take over, especially since I have started my new job when all I want to do as I come home is spend time with my boyz, eat, and go straight to sleep. I know it is just a phase, that when the project I am working on is finished I will be able to enjoy life outside of work again, but in the meantime I have to say that this experience has actually been positive because I have decided to give up on trying to be a wonder woman (remember this post?). I keep failing anyway and to be true, I'm quite happy with my messy flat and unorganised life. In fact, the improvised birthday party we had for L. is the perfect example of the success of my non-perfection. Aren't improvised parties always the best ones anyway?

With the help of our friends, we created a simple but colourful party atmosphere. I spent many hours baking and was delighted with how my number 1 cake turned out!



              

              



Isabella set a beautiful table full of goodies whilst the boys impressed us by making a banner in just 30 minutes (!)...







We blew up about 30 balloons which perfectly decorated our living room and amused the birthday boy.

              

In all, there were 19 adults and 7 wee people. I would love to share our groups photos with you but to respect my friends privacy, I shan't. Instead, I'll share these photos with you and allow you to make fun of my terrible baking skills...





Inspired by this very talented Canadian lady, this dude was supposed to be Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar! My friend Ciara made the cupcakes and I made the head and we whipped him together in 5 min, improvising his antennae and feet with liquorice. Our chubby caterpillar friend made quite the impression.

I am glad we marked this big milestone in L's life and our lives as parents (c'était un peu notre anniversaire aussi) and it was great to see how everything turned out so wonderfully. As my dear grandfather would have said: " it was smashing"! And this little cutie had the best of fun...
              

First birthday - partie 1

At long last, I have found a minute to share some photos of L.'s birthday with you. It was exactly two weeks ago today that our baby boy turned one. His grandparents (all four) and uncle (one out of three) came to Paris to celebrate this special day with us.

We went for lunch at Sizin, one of our favourite restaurants in the neighbourhood. It serves delicious Turkish food and contrary to many restaurants in Paris which stop serving at 2pm, here the kitchen stays open until 3pm so we were lucky to avoid the midday rush and have a relaxed lunch en famille. The restaurant staff is also always so friendly. The first time we ate at Sizin, I must have been about eight months pregnant and the sweet waitress brought me extra food saying "c'est pour le bébé, de la part du chef"*! I thought that was so cute.



I love the photo series below taken over lunch. L. was so happy and smiley on his birthday - I think he loved being the centre of attention :-).



I've mentioned before that Paris is not a very baby-friendly city. Ever since L. became more mobile we found it hard to eat out as there were never any highchairs available or there was simply no room for us to enter places with a pushchair so we recently decided to buy a travel highchair, by Totseat. We used it for the first time on L.'s birthday and it worked great: real easy to set up and put away. L. sat at the table with us on his own chair during the entire lunch - it was so enjoyable.

After filling our bellies with scrumptious Turkish food, we went for a walk in hilly Montmartre...



...it was such a gorgeous day.





Later, we came back home to open cards, presents and blow out THE candle. My mum made a delicious chocolate cake which she brought over in seperate pieces, whipped together and voilà: an amazing duck cake! We were all so impressed.







Happy Anniversaire again to the sweetest, most amazing baby boy. And thank you to our families for making his first birthday one to remember. xx

Next up: the birthday party with our friends. Stay tuned!

* "this is for your little baby, on behalf of the chef"!

vingt-neuvième ride.

With entering motherhood, has come a year of endless first times. The first time we held our baby in our arms, the first time we came home with him, the first time he smiled, giggled, rolled over, crawled - everything is always an exciting first time as a first-time parent. Yesterday, was my first birthday as a mummy. It wasn't any different to any other year, but it felt special because it was the first one with L. For the occasion, Mr Franglais and I both took the day off work and had the most perfect afternoon around sunny Paris, with our baby son (it still blows my mind that I actually have a kid).

xx

8 mois.

Baby L. is eight months old today and is changing so much every week, let alone every month. Today, it is funny to watch this little bub who survived only on milk for the first six months of his life, eat fish, meat, veggies, fruits, yogurts with so much appetite. He is still teething lots (three new upper teeth in one week, ouch!) and loves a good chat. This week he also started properly crawling, versus bum-shuffling and pulling himself forward on his hands. It is so amazing to watch him grow. I remember when he was born, a friend of mine had a baby the age that L. is right now and at the time, I couldn't even imagine L. sitting, crawling, babbling or eating solids. It seemed way too far into the future. Yet here we are, eight months down the line my baby is becoming a toddler. Already. And the best part is that each stage is repeatedly better than the previous; and when it feels like it can't possibly get any better being a mum, it marvelously always does.

1 mois - 2 mois - 3 mois - 4 mois - 5 mois - 6 mois - 7 mois

7 mois.

I don't know how he does it, but everyday this little darling brightens my life more than ever.

1 mois - 2 mois - 3 mois - 4 mois - 5 mois - 6 mois