Finally, 2 whole weeks of vacation! August has been a great month. Zoë is a dancing, singing, talking pixie. There was no shortage of fun - with Jan Jan, Marin, Lenka and Leo, she went on boat rides on the Thames and went to museums and parks. She will be starting nursery full time at the Gower School and moving into the first full Montessori room in September so Jan Jan was making the most of their last month together. We also met up with friends Tessa, Ben, Lizanne and Emily for the 2nd annual Lollibop in Regents Park where we saw giant Kangaroos, danced to reggae music and ate ice cream.On 15 August, we left for France where we spent the first week on the Ile d'Oleron - an island off the coast of France, near La Rochelle. It was a great way to start the holiday. We hung out on the beach, went to the market, rode bikes and Zoë had 2 pony rides. At the end of the week, we headed towards St. Jean de Luz and had an unexpected but lovely stop over in Pyla sur Mer with Flory, the grandmother of Serra, Cecilia and Barbara and mother of Ghetta. Kirsten hadn't seen her in 20 years and it was a great opportunity for her to meet Zoë and Jean-Jacques. On our way out of town, we climbed the dune, quickly took in the view and then ran all the way down. We arrived in St. Jean de Luz where we spent the week with Zoë's best friend Marin and his parents Claire and Cyril. It was a great week which included in depth market research of all of the artisanal ice creams we could find, swimming every day in the sea, walks, great meals and long naps.
Zoë's language skills are progressing - the 2 weeks in France really bumped up her French and she's able to switch between French and English pretty well. Some of Zoë's favourite things to say are: Que ca? (for What's that?) instead of Qu'est ce que c'est? I don't waaaant it is also another phrase used frequently. She also will correct you when you say Holy Moly and tell you it's Holy Moggy.
Her favourite foods this month have been strawberry ice cream, mango sorbet, avocado, peach skin, saucisson, and prawns.
Favourite activities are bouncing on trampolines, swimming with her tube, being chased and chasing others, going down big slides, being held upside down, singing, dancing, serving meals to her baby dolls, playing in the sand and riding on ponies.
Every night, Zoë says when she goes to bed and we leave her room, "no door no light" as in, don't close the door and don't turn off the light. Tonight, when JJ left the room, she said "Pas de porte, pas de lumiere" - Made us smile big time!
Onto September...
