blondefish.blogspot.com: January 2014

Peafection #FussyEater

No squashed, broken, flat or otherwise imperfect peas for Monsieur Small Fry. Oh no, only perfectly round ones gets accepted. The others get thrown over the edge of the high chair. Ah, all those perfectly round green peas. Just perfect for squishing with my gums....

Penaten palava #SOSticky!

Anyone who has small children and uses penaten has almost certainly had the same experience as me today.

1 tub of penaten. One child. All goes quiet. Put two and two together. Find child plus penaten everywhere - in hair, on the changing mat, on the walls, on the rocking horse, over books, down the front of cupboards, and now on my jeans, under my fingernails and up my sleeve.

This isn't Small Fry but a photo stolen from the internet to give you an artist's impression, because as soon as I grabbed him I realised my schoolboy error...

102 rue Truffaut #SF's1stHome...And2nd

M-day (moving day) came and went. So did El Puma. Many, many, many times. Down the stairs, across the hall, up the other stairs he carried multiple badly packed boxes, bags and sometimes even the clothes still on their hangers. He got 7 other friends in for the fridge, washing machine, cooker, bed and wardrobe, but 95% of it he did himself. I wasn't shirking. Someone had to look after the baby, right?

So, bye bye our first home together at 102 rue Truffaut.

When did our living room get so big?

My old bedroom was ENORMOUS.

Bring on the new bath!

This is how French kitchens come...

And hello our new home at....102 rue Truffaut. Easiest move ever. Ha. Now the real work begins.

Rub a dub dub #BabeInTheTub

Only a few more days left of bathing Small Fry in a tub. Looking forward to getting a bath (even if it is a half-size one) yes yes.

Fatal Attraction #PlaygroundPushover

You take one girl. Butter wouldn't melt, right?

You take one boy, minding his own business:

He spots the potential danger:

He attempts a getaway:

But she's focused on her target:

And swoops in:

With a push here:

And a shove there:

A tweek:

And finally a yank:

And then the mums intervene.

It's just that I have seen this time and time again at the crèche. Small Fry seems to attract girls to him, who then beat him up. Tough love.

Under Construction #Line14Dig

I'm not sure why I find our local construction quite so interesting, but there are 18 cranes around us and Small Fry finds them fascinating, so I suppose we spend a lot of time watching them hard at work.

Work has just begun on our newest and soon-to-be closest metro station, the awesome line 14. It's the automatic one with no driver, super fast, super clean and super new, speeding you right through the centre of Paris and out the other side in about 20 minutes.

At the moment it stops at Gare Saint-Lazare, 3 metro stops away. They are extending it now to the corner of our park, and eventually plans are to take it to the airport. So coooo-ool. But for now, it means even bigger diggers and tunnel cutters, plus a temporary shut-down of parts of the park. Still, hours of entertainment for wondrous eyes coming up, and Small Fry too.

Man Flu #SickAsADog

A relaxed, healthy and restful Christmas. One week at the crèche and Small Fry fell ill with whatever it is those children enjoy sharing. I got a call to come and pick him up as his temperature had risen to 39 degrees. We made a stop on the way home at the local doctor who squeezed us in, pronounced SF to only have a bad cold, and then allowed me to return the following day to pay as I'd completely forgotten to leave without my wallet. The small upside to seeing him so often recently, I suppose.

Tonton Drouse #PartyBoy

Uncle Drouse came to play this weekend, and he is quite a player. Big night out with daddy on Friday night and still up at 7am, ready and willing to get stuck into the train set and building blocks.

We made it once again to our favourite brasserie for lunch (few excuses to go there needed) and a walk in the local parks.

But it was absolutely baltic, so for the rest of the weekend we stayed inside, sipping champagne and eating Galette des Rois (King Cake: in honour of Epiphany on 6 January. Again, little excuse needed to prolong the party...).

Sale shopping #HighFashionHair

While I was in Marks and Spencers, you know, er, looking around, Small Fry woke up from his nap sporting this fashion-forward hairstyle.

He's in famous company with his short-on-the-sides/quiff-on-the-top hair:

Photo Update #4.1.14

...and we have some photos from Saturday (thanks for sharing Le Poz!)

Life is what you celebrate #AdventuresOnTheRoadAhead

La Moz, Abuelo and Mamie paid us a visit to celebrate Christmas (i.e. more great presents), the New Year (champagne) and the Moz/Poz 39th wedding anniversary. Congratulations!

Unfortunately, we spent too much time eating, drinking and opening presents to take any photos.

When daddy was playing with Small Fry by throwing him up in the air, Small Fry whacked his head off the paper lampshade and ever since then he has been faithfully pointing out all the lampshades in the house, the building, the crèche, the Church, the room where our singing class is held, and even daddy's office. So, instead, here is a picture of the new jellyfish* lampshade for his room - a Christmas pressie from Auntie Stina: