3 months

At the beginning of June, we started settling into our new routine as a Family of Four. S was still not working, which made it easier to split childcare duties while enjoying some quality time together.

Junior and Juniorette got along just fine.

We celebrated Father's Day with matching t-shirts from Twisted Twee.

And then the grandparents came back! I had a ticket to Britmums Live (more on that in a different blog post), and they kindly agreed to come help with Junior and Juniorette.

Wearing my "tiara" (Frankenstein bolts from Halloween) for Emma Freud's keynote

Morden Hall Park

And so it begins: a lifetime of trying to get a decent photo of all of us

Aside from grandparent visits, we had plenty of normal days: nursery for Junior in the morning, followed by naps and lazy video watching. Trips to various parks. Playing in the garden.

Finally, on a last-minute whim, we took the train up to Wakefield to visit S's family and friends in Ossett. Juniorette got to wiggle on the carpet and look cute...

...while Junior took over the local playground and commanded everyone to test out the equipment.

May the odds ever be in our favour for future train journeys: we were lucky both ways to get a table with four empty seats (though we had only paid for two). Traveling with two small children is a challenge, but Junior and Juniorette enjoyed the ride. We should do this more often.

france en famille

What is more entertaining (and challenging) than visiting France with one toddler? Visiting France with two toddlers!

Junior, S, and I went to the Breton town of Perros-Guirec on the pink granite coast with my parents, my sister, her husband, and their son. We rented a lovely holiday home with a view of the ever-changing tide and settled in for a two-week stay.

The weather did its best to make us feel at home - we could have stayed in London if we had really wanted rainy, chilly 'summer' days - but we did have occasional sunshine, especially toward the end.

Unlike most of our travels abroad, our focus was less on sightseeing and more on spending time together as a family. So we read books, played with toys, chased balls in the garden, and played on iPads.





At first, sharing was not their strongpoint. There were battles over bath toys.





There were fights over territory.





Grandpa only had one lap.





So did Grandma.





Sometimes time spent alone was more fun.














But by the second week, they were used to each other, and even started enjoying themselves together.














We explored the local beaches.








We took advantage of every local playground.














We cooked some great meals, and ate out when we couldn't face another trip to the Super U.





We laughed, and talked, and walked.








We took a few day trips to neighbouring towns, but we discovered that much of Brittany observes an inconvenient siesta right in the middle of the afternoon, making it hard to coordinate schedules around lunch and naps. But we were well-situated for beaches, carousels, restaurants, and playgrounds between Perros-Guirec, Louannec, and Ploumanac'h, so we didn't need to venture far to keep ourselves busy and amused.


As with most toddler-related activities, some of the best moments weren't captured on camera. P kept a running commentary on everything we did, and Junior was just content to keep running all the time. Junior befriended every dog. P read every book, même les livres en français. They discovered that rolling a toy car along the top of the radiator makes a satisfying grating noise. They put olives on their fingertips before eating them.


Two weeks came and went too fast. We were lucky to have a few extra weeks with my parents in London, but seeing Junior and his cousin together was definitely the highlight.


À bientôt!

barcelona

We spent a lovely long weekend in Barcelona for our seventh anniversary. Junior was (mostly) a great traveller - he ate, played, chased every pigeon, befriended several dogs ('woof woof!'), and ate and played some more. We managed to see the major tourist sites while running behind him and returning all the toys he took off other children.






strawberries in the market









la rambla del mar



funicular de montjuïc



museu nacional d'art de catalunya



park güell









planning the day's itinerary



"what do you mean, 'share'?"



casa battló



la sagrada família











The weather was perfect, the food was delicious, and it was remarkably easy to get around - even with a baby buggy. We were swept to the front of queues and given accés preferential. Junior made friends everywhere and I got to practice my (very rusty) Spanish. ¡Muy bien!