Family Update – June – My Baby is One!

Has anyone seen the sun? Any idea where it might be hiding? I need vitamin D!

Wriggly (1 year old)

· You are one today; a whole year old. It seems so long ago that I gave birth to you on our bathroom floor (definitely not what was on my birth plan!), yet it seems like you were a tiny baby only moments ago.
· One day, I came back from work, and you had changed. You had grown. Your face was not as chubby as it had been the previous day. You looked more like a little girl than a baby.
· You eat pretty much everything I give you, but you will not allow me to spoon feed you. That makes yoghurt a particularly messy affair!
· You look just like your brother when he was your age.
· You have les dents du bonheur as we say in France: when people have a big gap between their front teeth, we refer to it as their happiness teeth. I love it!
· You are the happiest baby I have ever met. You are constantly smiling, laughing, giggling or beaming.
· You are sleeping very little at the moment. It is quite tough when you are up until 9 or 10 p.m. and then wake up at 2 a.m. I really struggle to get up when my phone starts buzzing at 6.30 a.m.
· You are starting to produce sounds that have meaning. “Nanana” means water and you have just started calling your big brother “daba”.
· You have been waving, saying “Bye, bye!”
· You have started pulling yourself up to your knees against the sofa.
· You are not showing any signs you might be ready to walk and I am quite happy with that. I just want to enjoy every single stage of your development. It is fascinating to observe the small changes that happen every day and the new skills you learn.
· Your first birthday party was just what I was picturing: intimate and relaxed: bliss!

Jumpy (2 years 7 months)

· You are such a chatterbox!
· Your mood can go from rage and pure joy  in seconds.
· You are becoming incredibly caring and you surprised me a couple of weeks ago when you asked, “Have a good day Maman?”
· A few days later, you asked “You happy Maman?”
· You really like Harry Potter and keep telling me: “I wanna watch Halicocter!”
· You are full of fun!
· You are really determined to use the toilet. I wanted to wait for the summer holidays. I will let you run around outside whilst potty training but it seems like you are really ready.
· One morning, as I was putting my hair up into a ponytail, you declared: “You’re so pretty Mummy!”
· You exclaimed, “Oh. My. Goodness!” after Wriggly spilt your daddy’s cold tea all over the carpet
· Your cousin did your hair one afternoon. You looked so pretty!
· “Mummy, I want to cook you!” I doubt I would taste very nice.
· You keep jumping out of your cot bed and ‘putting on’ make up when you’re supposed to be in bed.

Beanie (4 years 8 months)

· In an attempt to support my efforts to explain to Jumpy she had to stop playing with my makeup, you told your sister, in a serious voice: “You’re not allowed to put makeup on at night. You’re only allowed in the morning!” Not quite there yet…
· You have been incredibly motivated in your swimming lessons since you won the trophy three weeks ago. You love being a winner, and you are now trying your very best to swim as far as you can and follow all advice given. Proud, moi?
· As I was coming out of the shower and had a towel over my hair, you declared: “Mummy, you look like a dinosaur!” Thanks, sweetie!
· When you tried pulled pork last week, you shouted: “Mummy I love this so much I could marry it!”
· You have high expectations: “I want a unicorn for Christmas. Not a toy one, a real one!”
· You came home with a drawing done at school yesterday. The detail was rather impressive. When asked to describe it, you told me, as if it was really obvious, that you had drawn the queen of the animals. I asked if you had received any help, and you replied that nobody had helped you; you had seen the queen in one of your dreams, and just drawn her.
· There is an awful lot of bickering going on at the moment between you and Jumpy or Crevette. We will definitely have to work on your patience and kindness to your siblings…

Crevette (6 years 10 months)

· You are such a responsible little man! You were invited to go along to a party with Beanie, and you spent the whole afternoon looking after all the little ones.
· You found four caterpillars in the garden and we tried to keep them so we could observe the life cycle of a butterfly. We did some research about caterpillars, what would make them thrive. We learnt a lot, but they escaped their new home the following day.
· Your Daddy took you to the park for a bit of ‘father and son’ time a few weeks ago. You were over the moon. The next morning, you said to me: “Mummy, I can’t wait for after school to play football with Daddy. I love it!”
· You have been swimming so well I keep looking at your technique wishing I could swim that gracefully! Last Saturday, you swam 150 metres and won the cup for ‘best swimmer.’
· You started being sick as we were all heading out of the door last Wednesday. Daddy took the girls to Maria’s and I stayed with you. You felt really poorly all morning and I have to say that despite the fact you were really unwell, I enjoyed looking after you and giving you cuddles.
· You started feeling better towards the end of the afternoon. When I realised I was on my own in the living room and you were singing in the kitchen, I checked what you were doing. You had chosen a recipe in a French magazine your tata Cé had bought for you, and you had managed to find all ingredients. An egg had fallen on the kitchen floor, but other than that, you had it all under control.
· You made mini lemon tarts for Mummy and Daddy’s anniversary.

Us

· We have done so much in the past month. We have been busy, but overall it has been ‘good’ busy.
I finally met my friend Reneé in the flesh, and we got on so well I did not want to leave at the end of the day!
· My little ones are growling at each other at the moment. I do not like that one bit! It is pretty much like having a pack of wolves around. Even baby joins in…
· On the day I found out my blog was a finalist in the Brilliance in Blogging awards (woop, woop!), I also won an iPad with ‘Can I eat there?’, a fab site helping those with allergies find a safe place to eat.
· I resigned from my job of 12 years, my vocation. It makes me really sad, but I simply could not afford to work…

· I have managed to secure exciting new projects and opportunities for Le Coin de Mel. I love my new freelance ‘career!’ and the fact it is so varied and regularly involves my family.
· I have a few events booked for the next few months. Exciting! Learning new skills and meeting like-minded people is exhilarating. I will be going on a photography course with Canon, BritMums Live, BlogCamp Creative, River Cottage, BlogStock and Food Bloggers’ Connect.
· I said goodbye to my lovely Y13 students a couple of weeks ago. I have known them since they were in Year 7. They know me so well they got me the nicest card and best present I could have wished for (not that I was expecting anything): afternoon tea with my best friend, who also teaches them French.
· My cousin Maxime and I went to see Paul MacCartney live and we had bought the best seats available. They were completely worth our money!
· We spent a few days with family in Devon and I slept a lot!
· We went to the Roald Dahl museum and loved it.
· We all got sick one after the other at the very start of June. Hubby quite rightly described the horrific few days as ‘PukeFest’.
· I had the honour of speaking about food blogging and using good images at BlogCamp Bristol. The 50 or so bloggers in attendance were brilliant and played along as I presented them with silly activities.
· I will be delivering a session at BlogStock in September, and I am really looking forward to it as it will be all about working collaboratively to make our blogs better.
· For our 9th anniversary, Hubby got me some pretty flowers, my favourite chocolate and new plates in blue-beige tones I love. He could not have been more spot-on!
· My mum arrived yesterday and she will spend a few weeks with us. We are all happy to be together!