Chaussure

Yes the croissants mean we are still in France but now at the grandparents...


Tristan is very proud of himself as he has a new audience and has learnt some very improtant words to communicate with them (and no none of the English equivelants are used, "chaussure" (shoe/ I want to go outside), bateau (boat) and "la bas" (over there / carry me in that direction now, slave).

His love of tractors was indulged and he ended up with a new tractor toy and also decided that papi has a tractor (yes ok it was a lawnmower but grandparents will say anything to be loved!)

Watering the garden was also a regular activity intersperced with playing hide and seek and going to look at various animals that the neighbours keep and watching the sheep at the end of the garden.

The sheep made a bleating sound exactly like Tristan crying so for the 2 days we were there I was constantly waking up or looking rounmd trying to see where he was!

Water

This is the artistic shot of the holiday. We have been arguing over which of us took this. Manu's right it probably was him not least because I got conjunctivitis within hours of this photo so probably wasn't focusing as well as I could have been.We took a small train to get to the beach - the only way it was accessible and this strange dense fog (a la Stephen King) descended all around us and then went after a few minutes (just coming for the photo!).

Tristan sat in a hole defying the sea to come any closer (it did though, and he ran away!)

Piloting an electric boat.

Meeting up with some of Manu's parent's friends who travel around living off the land. Here they had been diving for spider crabs (we had to help hunt for anemones), they also showed Manu where (on our beach) to get fresh oysters (he collected 2 dozen and is now all kitted out to pop down to the beach to get his lunch!).

Tristan also went harvesting, he was obsessed with finding periwinkles, pulling them off the rocks and reassigning them to life in the sand or in rock pools - well it was cheap fun!

Beach

In France for a 2-week break of reintroducing Tristan to the beach, diy-camp and catching up with relatives. This is week 1 (hence the jumper).


Tristan took up his position - sitting in his pushchair - every morning as soon as he was dressed. He seemed to think that having climbed in and, if possible, clutching onto his bucket and spade would be a strong message about where he wanted to go and could we hurry up about it (it worked!)

Tristan loved the beach, climbing in and out of sand holes (fortunately another family with more energy than us kept digging huge holes which meant all we had to do was wait for them to go and we could recycle their handiwork!)

We built sand castles and he knocked them down

He did a bit of digging and a lot of excited shouting!

Allez les bleus

This is when national rivalry really starts - look what Manu has done to Tristan!!



(By rights he should at least have English shorts..!)

My first wedding

Tristan went to his first wedding in May (Angela and Andrew).

He (and dad) looked very smart. Although it didn't last long - racing down the hill to see who could run fastest / fall over first and in the biggest amount of mud!

Here he is recreating the 'Romeo and Juliet' scene in pajamas with Imogen using the pushchair as a prop in the middle of the meal (it was marginally better than him deciding to DJ which had been his previous activity as soon as he had discovered that the sound controls were within reach of sticky hands!)

smart