Hiatus....

There has been quite a break in between posts just recently...

We have not been doing anything so new that it is worth posting about, but for those family who want to know what we have been up to - a bit of this, a bit of that. Over the weekend we went back to the Cité des Sciences to the kids interactive museum, where the boys had as much fun as ever. Such an excellent diversion for a rainy grey day in Paris. We spent the week on the Champ de Mars, enjoying really divine spring weather. Lots of playing in the parc, picnics for lunch, and catching up with little friends in the area.

We are also working on toilet training. I think the biggest hurdle to this process is me. I am somehow too tired and juggling too many kids and a dog to feel like facing the extra clothes I need to take out for accidents, and constant need to ask if they want to pee. So we are a bit slack on this front, though I do realise they are ready and mostly keen. However, around the apartment they are brilliant, and very motivated by these sticker charts we have been directed to. I have downloaded charts with matching stickers, along with other stickers too. The boys LOVE to pee and then fill the sticker chart in celebration. If you are interested here is the website address: freeprintablebehaviourcharts, which is fabulous for other behaviour charts as well.

We are off for a holiday this coming week to Ile de Ré, so possibly lots more interesting posts ahead...

Favourite flowers Champ de Mars

The trees are in full bloom on the Champ de Mars. I can't help but break into a huge smile when I go out, it is so beautiful. Must admit though, the onslaught of tourists arriving for the summer is a little trying and space consuming, not to mention the rubbish they seem to leave in their wake. Still, it is beautiful and in Spring you certainly realise how lucky you are to live here. Here are a few blossom perspectives on the Eiffel Tower:

HAPPY EASTER

Happy Easter everyone. Here are the boys breaking into the bunnies that they received on Sunday morning. Cutely, on Monday when I came out of the shower I could hear them talking in the living room, where they were talking about their bunnies and how cold they were, and a bit too hard. It appears, they went into the fridge on their own, found them wrapped in foil and stuffed up the back of the fridge, where I put them hopefully to be forgotten for good! Absolutely no way it appears, they are already chocolate hounds at 2.

On Saturday we also joined in the Easter Egg Hunt that Message (expat group in Paris) organises. Below are a couple of shots of the boys egg hunting, which they absolutely loved - what child wouldn't!

Tulle tutu

On another blog (babycino) they posted a tulle tutorial, which for weeks now I have been meaning to make for the boys. I figure all kids need tutus, not just the girls! A week ago I actually went out and bought the materials, and had just started to feel the guilts over once again buying craft materials that I might never use, when luckily my good friend Rebecca was visiting from London and was keen to make her daughter a tutu over a glass of wine on Saturday night with me. Her daughter chose orange and purple, which turned out to be a very beautiful bright choice, while I make one blue and green (for an ocean skirt) and another red and orange one (a fire skirt). If you are also interested here is the link.

... and just one too many wines later:

Painting

Recently we have been doing a lot of painting together. It has taken me some time to get paintbrushes etc.. together, but thank goodness for Ikea, on a random trip there I found paint and brushes, and so has begun our Matissean inspired adventures. Recently I managed to catch O in action, forget the paper, on a voyage of discovery of his body as a canvas:

hmmm, my tummy can be painted

now my hand

then there is the other hand and arm

oh wait, my foot is right here

ah ha the other foot

more glorious paint for up my legs

and back to the beginning again

Domain National de Saint Cloud

The weather has been so glorious that we met up with friends and went to the Domain National de Saint Cloud for some space and picnic time. It is really so lovely there, and I think my favourite parc on the outskirts of Paris. S and I first went there about 6 years ago with a Parisian friend of ours, and we loved it, but somehow have not managed to get back there until this weekend. It took visiting again to remind me just how much I love it there, and hope this spring/summer/autumn to make much more use of the space (little farm, bikes, pretty gardens, forest, tree climbing for older kids and a whole lot more). The thing I love the most is that it is a cross between a forest and formal Chateau grounds (formally being a chateau space). Ideally for us, we can get there early, have a lot of free space to play and feel the escape from everyone in the city, and then come time for us to think about leaving (1pmish) arrive all the French people for their picnics, as they are certainly not heading anywhere on a Sunday before a much more reasonable midday kind of hour! Great space for dog owners as well.

Musée Rodin & jardin

Last week (oh yes, keeping right up to date on the blog!) I dropped the boys off at garderie and thought it about time to make good on my new year promise to myself to use atleast one afternoon a week to 'discover' something about Paris, so made my way over the Rodin museum. To be honest, by the time I got there I felt exhausted, as I had walked the whole way slinging E, and nearly pulled the plug on the whole idea, until I remembered that the garden was free entry, and being so tired I may as well enter the garden and sit somewhere picturesque to revive myself.Well, just entering the garden was enough to revive me, I spent the next 20mins continuing to walk, enthralled by the statues through the garden, the serenity of the garden layout itself, and generally just delighted at entering an oasis in the city. There is even a cafe with outside sitting, so for the rest of my hour I sat enjoying the beautiful spring day, the serenity and the beauty before me, over a reviving hot chocolate. At the bottom end of the garden there is a sandpit and large wooden lounge chairs, so mummies looking for serene kid space should head there asap!

French pscyhe post-birth

I thought some of you may enjoy this little insight into the French psyche on post-birth recovery and attitude to mothering. To be honest, I am not that exposed to it, as we have our own little expat click that shields us from the sexy woman/amazing lover/successful woman standard, and which puts us mostly in contact with the nannies, not the mothers. I do, however, see them on the street, particularly on the weekends pushing clean poussettes with immaculately dressed children through the stylish streets of Paris. 

I do have to say though, l'education perineal is fantastic and should be available to all women (meaning every country) post birth. While I still have to get around to booking my classes post E, I was a wide eyed novice in Belgium after the twins who felt the benefits of the state being so interested in my female anatomy.

Read here: Guardian article