Mummy's not-so-little helper

The team cake-baking was a success.

Not sweet enough, I thought at first. But then the lemon juice and sugar that I poured over the top seemed to soak through and...

Yum yum yum!

Yesterday was a public holiday - for Christ's Ascension! All my life I've gone to church and because it was never a Catholic church, I suppose, I have never celebrated this holiday. Here in France, by all accounts a very secular country, everyone gets a day off work.

So Luuk took off the Friday as well and we're making a long weekend of it. What's more: a long weekend where we don't travel further than Paris! That's the plan for later today - a museum, an aquarium, a glimpse of the Seine and the Eiffel tower (always nice).

Yesterday was sunny and gorgeous early on, and we went to the playground before lunch. Luuk and I sat in the sun while Louis played. In the afternoon the temperature dropped, sun hid behind the clouds and wind whipped in the trees. Luuk read through the Lonely Planet Paris guide and got lots of ideas for things that we couldn't do because of either the weather, my inability to walk far, or because things close on a public holiday. Lots of ideas for other days, but we had a very quiet afternoon.

Helping with the laundry.

(Holy cow - I'm about to pop.)

It was 18 months ago that he was born. He used to look like this:

The mind boggles.

And now... well, at 80cms tall he's not a 'big' boy. But comparatively...

He knows what he likes, in a very grown up kind of way. He was unimpressed with what was on TV yesterday afternoon, so I flicked through the channels and paused on a football/soccer game...

Commentating or arguing with the ref?

Yes, he is saying 'ball' over and over again. Favourite thing.