Sleeping Beauty #When2Become1

Crevette is transitioning between two naps and one nap per day.....which means sometimes she sleeps for 15 mins in the morning at the garderie, sometimes for an hour, and sometimes not at all, but then can't.quite.make.it.home. before dropping off.

Home Alone #firstLondontrip

So my first work trip took me to London on Monday and Tuesday this week. Lo and behold, everyone survived, even if they didn't exactly thrive (I came home with a chesty cough and Small Fry had 2 days off school at the end of the week with the flu).

I didn't manage to take a single photo while I was away (of our boring strategy sessions surprise surprise), but El Puma sent me the above on their way to school one morning.

Best bit for me? A full 8 hours uninterrupted sleep.

Pay day! #straighttoarestaurant #maternityleaveisover

Turning 1 #plentyofexcusesforchampagne

6 years ago or so I met my bestest Parisian friends at an international playgroup hosted by the Anglican Church. It was a great chance for a catch up with other mums followed by stories and singing for the babies, but really it was a networking opportunity where I got the support and friendship I needed, and made friends for life.

So with two of those friends now Stateside, I figured I would need to expand my mama-boundaries a little and find crevette some friends her own age. Just by chance, Laura from Book Club had a little boy Téo (on the left) just 10 days after crevetee, and she introduced me to Ashling, who had Lorcan exactly a month later. 

It's been great fun watching these 3 grow bigger together, and along with the wonderful Catherine, they have become crevette's squad.

So cute.

Fair and full is your honest plump face #iftheshoefits #grumpyversion

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face

Girl power #simpleentertainment

Wednesdays are sometimes a little busy here. Usually we are out and about with our 4 Anglophone besties (Rachel, Wendy, Eleanor and Catherine) but sometimes Small Fry has an English class and I look after 2 little girls from the earlier English class while the boys are away.

Nothing as fascinating as watching a baby have a bath.

Easy brownie points for me.

My little DJ #birthdaypresent

How many parties does a 1 year old need? #atleast2

Let's just say she got a lot of practise blowing out candles.

Moon and Abuelo, Maëlle & Druz & Noa were all on their way to Peru, but stopped off in Paris in order to give this little sweetheart an early birthday party. And if you remember, it was actually that lot who set the whole birthday thing off exactly this time last year on their last trip to Paris.

Nothing quite as eventful as that this time, thankfully.

And then on Sunday, 3 little friends aged 10 months to 14 months came and joined us for round 2. That means more cake.

 As space is limited, the older kiddies got their own treat: 

And then there was today, her actual birthday.

More cake, more prosecco (for me), more cuddles (for her) and a great big grin to finish the day off.

May all things to you be as easy as your birth!

My mistake #openpenaten #45mincleaningjob

The Return #worldofwork #comeback2018!

Here is my darling in her 'before' photo...before she got that silky chestnut hair cut to her shoulders by our multi-talented concierge friend, Suelia.

That was exactly a week ago (I think), and in between time, well, work happened.

I think TIME's Person of the Year should have been The Working Mother. How are you guys not the Eighth Wonder of the World? And why is it such a closely-guarded secret about how hard it is to keep all the balls in the air when you return to work? - nobody warned me!

To be fair, I was very, very warmly welcomed back by my team, which brought out all the warm and fuzzies. But all of the team catch-up calls, category catch-up calls, sector catch-up calls and individual catch-up calls meant a LOT of calls that were at awkward times for me, or delayed, or overran, or cancelled, or postponed, or brought forward. And a couple of times I had to be on a call while I tapped furiously but blindly on my phone underneath the table, appealing to El Puma or Small Fry's friend's mum, or Fingerling's uncle's girlfriend, or the concierge, or about 5 other people to help me out with a school pick up that I was about to miss or to lend a helping hand in some other way. 

And then I was told I need to be in London at the end of the month for a night, while Oma is in Germany, Moon is in Peru and the wonderfully hospitable B&B that is Simina's place, will be cold and empty while they are away skiing. For a few moments, I just could not see why on earth I had returned to work after being perfectly happy all year...

Panic over, and I think I am getting some perspective again. El Puma and I agreed to give ourselves the month of January to work out just how many of those panicky moments there are and what structure we need to put in place to help smooth things over. 

And that's basically why there's no 'after' shot yet.

Epiphany #Galettedesrois

So I know the photos doesn't look like it has anything to do with Epiphany, but it was taken on the actual day while all of us were eating galette des rois. And you'll just have to take my word for it I'm afraid. 

Rock Around the Clock #2019 #Troyes #Onwardsandupwards

2019 is the year! And I mean, The Year.

The past 6 years we have been fairly (it's all relative) stable while our 3 little G-Ks were brought into the world. But now that our family is complete, it's time to think about moving on again. This is absolutely necessary because we are now tripping over each other in our tiny but much-loved flat.

Things around us are changing too: the new quartier at the end of the road is almost finished, as is the new line 14, and both are bringing in thousands and thousands of new people to live and work. That in turn is making the parks feel a bit saturated and attracting very expensive and über-trendy boutiques to the area. I still love having most of my living needs met within about 200 square metres of home, and especially that almost each time I pop out I bump into someone I know, but the feel of the place is changing too and for a while now we've been looking to upscale a bit.

So, more on all that later, but first, it was time to say goodbye to 2018 - what a fantastic year for us! Little crevette joined us in January in a rather unique manner, and it just carried on at that speedy yet fun pace. Probably because I wasn't working (paid work I mean). So we'll see how returning to 80% work changes things for us in 2019 (aside from helping us afford that previously mentioned upscaling).

So while we still have the chance to explore around Paris, El Puma found us a lovely little apartment in the medieval city of Troyes (pronounced like 'trois'), located on the Seine river in the champagne region about 93 miles southeast of Paris. There are many half-timbered houses from the 16th century and 12 churches in the city centre.

We knew our hogmanay was going to be pretty quiet with our three littlies, so this felt like an opportunity to get away and see something different without a party and all the hassle of managing that with three tired kiddies. We explored the city first by night and the lit up central plaza.

And then we ate our Hogmanay Alsatian-inspired cuisine (felt very Germanic and Christmassy)...

 ...and of course drank our champagne.

 And did that again for good measure.

 Although not everything went according to plan.

00.01

 New Year's Day dawned cold and quiet and we got to explore more of the town. It was really very beautiful and just the right space for walking around before lunch and our train home.

The Seine

I found this hilarious.

We had such a brilliant 2018 (which flew by), but 2019, our year of new beginnings (and a new decade for me) and adventures awaits. We wish you all health, happiness, love and success in this coming year. Onwards and upwards!