Pox and Ponies

Ok, this is supposed to be the April entry and it's 2nd May - But let's see if we can remember the last month...We have had amazing weather here in London (and in France) and we are thankful to Will and Kate for getting married and giving us an extra bank holiday this year. Between Good Friday, Easter Monday, THE WEDDING and the regular early-May Bank Holiday, we got 11 days off for the price of 3...so this is what Zoë did to take advantage of the short work-month...

It started out great with a visit from Bibi and Mimi (aka Bill and Joan). They flew into Heathrow where we picked them up and made a 2 hour journey to the midlands (aka Derbyshire) where we met up with our friends Michelle and Guy and visited some beautiful historical estates and took some nice hikes (translation: visited the petting farm and the cafe at the estate and walked across a field to look at some cows). The highlights of the trip were blowing out the candles on Bibi's and Guy's birthday cake and feeding carrots to some horses. Wild stuff!

The middle of the month was a bit rough - Zoë contracted chicken pox exactly 2 weeks after her pal Marin had them (who got them exactly 2 weeks after their friend Leo had them). Yes Americans, you read correctly, Chicken Pox. We still have it here in the UK (and Europe for that matter). We learned quite a bit about this wonderful childhood disease...The NHS (that's the UK's free health service) does not fund the vaccination as it believes that a) it's not cost effective to vaccinate UK children against this non-life threatening childhood disease and b) it's better immunisation to have chicken pox than to have the vaccination and then potentially forget the booster every 5 years and risk having it as an adolescent or adult when it's not such an innocuous, non-life threatening disease. All I can say is in retrospect, it may be non-life threatening but several sleepless nights later, 2 days of missed nursery, lots and lots of very uncomfortable itchiness and now a mild obsession with that lovely tasting "'cation" (aka Benadryl), the vaccination is looking pretty good to us. Anyway, Zoë (and we) lived to tell the story. When she was finally deemed non-contagious and able to leave quarantine (our house) we ventured to Ikea. Unfortunately, the non-contagious, healing stage involves lots of plague-like scabby bumps so generally generates a variety of looks including horror, recrimination and sympathy (from experienced parents). In Ikea, it meant that the aisles were cleared as we wheeled Zoë and her scabby face through the store. Thankfully, she was fixated on the ice cream cone promised to her at the end of the maze, I mean store, and was oblivious to her surroundings. (BTW, we do not (officially) condone bribery as a parenting method).

A slight side note here - We are (fill in the blank) to announce that Zoë has completely mastered the art of the tantrum. She can stomp her feet, kick, scream, turn beet red, cry massive crocodile tears and even froth at the mouth. A recent tantrum required 2 full grown adults to get her into the car seat. Another one involved screaming at full volume from the time we left the nanny all the way home on the back of K's bike, up the stairs, through the door and into the house (for a total of 47 minutes). [Parental note - there is an upside to these - Child expends enormous amounts of energy during these sessions, rendering them much easier to put to bed later on]

The month ended well with our 11-for-3 holiday. We decided to skip the wedding (invitation graciously declined of course) and take the car train to France. We first visited our ex-landlords, now friends, the Harmers who have a lovely house in Picardie in northern France. They have 4 kids under the age of 11 + a new trampoline and there was a local village Easter egg hunt. What more could a 2 1/2 year old want? Then we headed to Montpellier (9 hour drive over 2 days) to see Jean-Jacques' parents. Zoë stayed with Mami and Papi overnight (and parents got to sleep in until 8:30 am 2 days in a row, hooray!). She enjoyed Mami's food, including sardines, mussels and brie cheese. We got to go to the beach, the zoo and Zoë had her first pony ride. She had a grin from ear to ear the entire time. And now we're back at home, ready to tackle May, looking forward to a new room with bigger kids at the nursery, a visit from Mims (aka Carol) and a trip to Tuscany with Bibi and Mimi at the end of the month. Life is good in Z-land.

Zoë, the part time terrorist

Zoë's parents are finally getting on the ball and starting a blog, mostly a) so she won't hate us when she is 16 and we can't remember what her favourite things were because our old brains are sieves and b) because we have been shamed by the Fontaines who have religiously kept a blog of the life and times of Jackson for the last 21 months. On y va...let's see how long we can keep this going...

Zoë is playing her role as a 2 1/2 year old perfectly - She should get a Cesar/Oscar/BAFTA. She vacillates between being an adorable, cuddly, curious, silly toddler and a pint sized terrorist. Unfortunately, for her, we don't negotiate with terrorists (most of the time). Somewhat recently, Zoë and Kirsten could be spotted stepping off of a train at a random tube station in order to decrease the volume of howls (from Zoë) so that we could continue our journey. Fortunately, these episodes are sporadic and don't last too long.

Some highlights -

- Language: Zoë's French will soon surpass Kirsten's. She has been responding to questions from Jean-Jacques in French and Kirsten in English (that's English English, not American English). Favourite things to point out are diggers, trains, taxis and cats (we've moved on from airplanes).

- Songs: Favourite song at the moment is Frere Jacques. She tends to leave off the second 'Sonnez les matines' and go straight to 'Ding, Dang, Dong'

- Family: She knows the names of everyone in the family and regularly asks for her cousins Jackson, Julien, Pandora and Pierre-Louis (aka Pierre-Oui-Oui). Thank goodness for Skype.

- Friends: She is really starting to remember people - One of Kirsten's best friends, Tammy (Adle) Stone came to visit with her husband Steve and kids Lucy and Zack from Atlanta. Zoë was just emerging from her shy phase so didn't completely warm up during the visit, but she's been talking about Tammy and Lucy ever since and how they went home on an airplane. Two other friends, Brad and Florence (separately) had offspring recently so we got to meet babies Oliver and Finn, respectively. She's been asking to see them ever since.

- Routines: Zoë needs to know that everyone else is going to bed when she goes to bed at 7:30pm. We used to have a ritual of Bs - Bath, Book and Bed. Recently, 1 book has become 3. And she seems to be attempting to slip a few new things into the routine including sitting on the potty (we like this one), requesting a tissue, putting moisturizer on her face, deciding whether or not she wants to sleep with a pillow and duvet, and listening to several rounds of "I love you Zoë, oh yes I do..." Major delay tactics at work.

- Scatological information: The potty seems to be gaining popularity - we have had several successful #1s...still waiting for #2...To be continued...

- Favourite Foods: asparagus, olives, beets, madeleines, prawns, mushrooms and ice cream

- Physical Development: Starting to get the hang of the scooter and jumping. Had her checked out by a physio recently due to frequent falling down - diagnosed with flat feet and hyper-joint mobility. Nothing serious but something to keep an eye on. Kirsten and Zoë are starting a circus skills class in May to help with strength, coordination and confidence. In the meantime, Zoë loves Friday Football (aka Soccer) at her nursery with "Coach Danny".

- Other health stuff: 11 of the 17 kids in Zoë's nursery class have had chickenpox since the start of the year. They don't vaccinate kids here. Zoë's escaped it thus far, but the true test has come this week with her best friend (and nanny-share) Marin coming down with a mean case of them...Incubation period: 2 weeks...on verra...

- Hair: Out of control and we have no idea where it comes from. Thankfully she allows us to put her hair in ponytails (aka "bunches") and she loves hoodies

- Animals: Loves monkeys, giraffes, cats and gorillas

- Favourite book: Pete the Cat - Wish we could remember who gave this to us. We all love this book which finishes with "The moral of Pete's story is, no matter what you step in, keep walking along, singing your song, because it's all good". Something for all of us to live by. Until next month...