Cyberdog

Wow. New t-shirt for our little techno punk who loved the pumping teutonic beats and pierced and coloured-haired ghouls and lovelies in Camden's Cyberdog cavern.

Saturday lunch - a crab

Elias asked for crab for lunch. Whilst he took pleasure in helping to break it open, he didn't actually eat any.

The Nativity

Xmas decoraisins

Bought our tree today from Claude. Decorations followed as soon as we got home...


... whilst these guys were taking down the scaffolding on the building opposite.

Spiders

Elias likes spiders right now. We build a new web daily.

Autumn fades into Winter

When I posted earlier in November it was very much Autumn. On our country walk the colours of the leaves were spectacular. This weekend Suffolk was a much more wintry place. The boys built barracades, dens and played at being witches indoors.
Outdoors we took some crumbs for the winter animals and picked some evergreen leaves and red berries to decorate the cottage.

Brighton

Elias and I spent the weekend in Brighton with Ben and Amelie. Lots of play, fine food and wine, bracing winds and a beautiful sunset. Oh and awful trains.

Swimming

Our Sunday morning swim

Shaving

This month I am growing a moustache in aid of The Prostate Cancer Charity - see www.movember.com where you are welcome to sponsor me.

Eli has been increasingly interested in this until yesterday morning he went into the bathroom on his own, climbed onto the edge of the bath opened the bathroom cupboard and got out a razor and tried to shave. Result: cut lip. Very lucky that it was a small cut. Remedial action: razors moved to higher shelf.

Lavenham

Saturday and Sunday in Lavenham with Ben and Jude. Much fun. The boys dancing to U2, big long Saturday walk, Tummyache and more.



We took the spidercatcher on our walk and Eli caught one himself for the first time.

Abba

I met Benny from Abba last night. I told him my three year-old son loves the song Money Money Money, and it is the first pop song he has taken a shine to and likes to sing.

Halloween and Jacob's birthday

October snow

This is on Parliament Hill yesterday...

Children's Zoo

Dear Paul

Thanks very much for your enquiry. Unfortunately we do not have the resources at present to enable your son to visit the Children's Zoo and dig a hole. We do think this is a brilliant idea and something that we would like to look into for the future but at present, we are unable to offer this to you. Please accept my apologies. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact me on the number below

Thank you

Regards

Lucy

The day of living and dying

Saturday was a strangely intense day. In the morning Elias and I went to Angie Ackland's funeral in South London. In the pm it was back to Highgate for Steve and Gudrun's wedding.

At Jude's table

It's been 18 months since Eli was last here, but he and Stef went back with jude and Penel to play.

"welcome to see you..."

I was playing guitar and Elias, all of a sudden, leaped up on his chair and, using my guitar stand as a microphone let rip with a compelling punk explosion. If you think you can handle this 3 year old Johnny Rotten check out the video below...

Dead fox

This fox is dead. It was in our garden yesterday. In the cold morning it was already swarming with flies. A barrage of hitherto unasked questions started flowing from Eli - why is it dead, how do you get dead, etc?



When I left for work Eli was on my old mobile pretending to call the Council to get them to take it away. "Hello. Yes. We got a dead fox. You come get it? Ok. Thank you. Bye".

Masks

At home

Fancy dress

On Sunday Eli went out to Olivia's party dressed as a policeman and came back painted as a lion.

Staycation

There's nothing like a holiday of a few days at home. Canal boat ride form London Zoo to Camden and back, Whipsnade Zoo and a trip down to the New Forest to see the Grandparents and cousins. It's amazing but at Whipsnade wallabies run wild so we went off the beaten track and got this close to a young one.

Trees and Wet suit

We went climbing trees yesterday.

Elias avait envie de grimper aux arbres hier! alors c'est ce qu'on a fait avant d'aller manger un gateau et boire un the a Kenwood House.

Wet suit in the bath. Of course. - Combinaison de plongee dans le bain bien sur!

Lego

Well it's suddenly become September and, aside from picking blackberries and apples from the garden to make crumble, train sets and Lego have become very important. Most days we have a Brio train set AND a Lego Duplo circuit set up in the living room. The water tower, I think inspired by Ivor the Engine, has reached ever more impressive heights as this photo shows.

Horns

Scared of TRex but happy to play at being the horned one.

More on the bike

this one's a video.

A few random ones...

...from a few weeks ago in Switzerland and in Oxfordshire

Chez Grandpa et Grandma, avec les cousins

Birthday party

So on Sunday we held Elias' birthday party. The weather was questionable so we went up to the park beforehand where we have held it the last two years and once the rain started we decided to use the playgroup building instead.
**
Dimanche on a celebre l'anniversaire de Elias. On voulait faire cela au park comme les deux annees precedentes mais malheureusement le temps n'etait pas beau alors on a fait ca dans la salle ou Elias va au playgroup. Ca a ete un succes pour les enfants et comme d'hab c'etait aussi une petite celebration pour les parents (profitons, bientot il ne nous voudra plus pres de lui pour celebrer!!!) tres agreable!- A notre retour a la maison, un magnifique arc-en-ciel nous attendait.

Le cadeau le plus attendu (depuis des mois!) etait un velo 'avec pedales' qu'on est alle acheter en famille le jour 'j'. Depuis Elias adore son velo, sait y aller sans les stabilisateurs et il fait craquer tout le monde avec ca.

Three years old today! First Bike.

So Elias got his first proper bike today. We went to Cycle Surgery in Camden to pick it up. The guys there were under strict instructions to take off the stabilisers and hide them in a bag before we got there. We spent the morning by the garages gradually picking up speed.



Well I then went to work, but by mid-afternoon he was doing this (click on image below to play video).



To say I am a proud Dad would be an understatement :)

Cassius and Elias. Batman and Spiderman.

Went to see Si and Ness and Cassius and Wilfred on Sunday.

Dueling Harmonicas

Holiday

hey hey! nous revoila! de retour de vacances.
On a passe une tres jolie semaine avec mama zulu et on a vu Anne-Marie, Rene, Evelyne, Mamy et Tonton. Super!
Elias s'est beaucoup amuse. On a nage dans le lac, on a marche dans les fleurs et forets avec Mamy et Tonton, on a joue dans le jardin d'Anne Marie et Rene, on a pris le gros bateau avec mama Zulu, on a rencontre des autres petits enfants avec qui Elias s'acharnait a parler anglais (on a meme rencontre des petits anglais qui sont tres heureux de vivre en Suisse!), et plein d'autres jolis moment avec notre petit 'monkey', et Paul et moi on a meme eu plusieurs petits moments en soirees au bord du lac.
Elias va bientot avoir 3 ans! Pour son anniversaire il veut un velo avec des pedales.