Cow poo, snow, and brand new hats

Well, this last week or so has been very busy:

Last Friday after school me, Mummy and my little sister went to Mummy’s friend’s house for tea.  Mummy made scones because she said that’s what English people eat.  I think that’s rubbish because I’d never eaten a scone in my life, even when I lived in England.  Mummy’s friend’s son is in my class.  He is having a birthday party on Wednesday and I am going – I am very excited about that.  Every time I’m a little bit naughty Mummy says if I do it again I won’t be allowed to go to the birthday party.  I don’t really believe her though so it doesn’t really work to make me good.

In November another friend at school is having a birthday party too.  Mummy says she’s getting a bit worried now because if I get invited to everyone’s birthday party in my class that means when it’s my birthday she’ll have to do me a party for TWENTY children!  I think that would be brilliant, though – I don’t know why she’s worried.

Then last weekend we went to the Retour des Alpages festival in Annecy.  This is when they bring all the animals down from the mountains because it’s going to be winter.  There were loads of animals in the town, I really loved seeing the big horses and the cows and the pigs, goats, ducks, rabbits and everything.  It was a bit smelly though, because there was a lot of animal poo (ha! that made me laugh!).  We met our friends there so I had lots of children to play with, and we ate sausages and drank apple juice which people were making in a big bucket.  Then there was a parade with everyone dressed up in funny old-fashioned costumes and all the cows and other animals walked through the town.  There were too many people though – I could see the parade because I was on Papa’s shoulders, but all the other grown ups said they couldn’t see anything.

It’s a good job they bought the animals down from the mountains last week because on Monday it was really snowy!  We still don’t have snow in our garden but you could see the snow on all the mountains around us, and it was really really cold.  I was really excited because I thought it was soon going to be time to ski but then on Tuesday it was really really hot again and now all the snow has gone.

Me and Mummy and my little sister went to Annecy for lunch with Papa on Wednesday, and we had a picnic by the lake in the sun.  Then me and Mummy and my little sister went shopping to buy me a hat for the winter.  We found one which is really furry and I wore it all afternoon even though it was sunny and hot.  I wouldn’t take it off.  Then the next day I took it to school to show my teacher.  It was hot again but I really love my new hat so I didn’t want to take it off.  Every time we went outside to play I put it on again.  The teacher told Mummy and Mummy laughed at me and now I think she’s hidden the hat so I don’t wear it unless it’s cold.  That’s not very nice.

What else?  On Saturday we all went shopping to buy some ski boots for Mummy and Papa.  Mummy bought herself a woolly hat and even though it was really hot she said she really loved her new hat so she didn’t want to take it off.  Ha! Now she understands what it’s like to have a new hat you love so much.

Then we went to Decathlon to buy me a new fleece.  Mummy says going to Decathlon is like going to Ikea – you go in there for one thing and four hours later you come out with bags and bags of stuff having spent far too much money.  Well she was right this time – we wanted a jumper and we came out with everything from a tennis ball to new skis for me and Mummy. Well they’re old skis really because they were second hand.  I love my new skis!  I can’t wait to put them on!  I can’t yet because I don’t have any ski boots – they didn’t have any cheap ones and Mummy and Papa say they refuse to spend €75 on a pair of ski boots I’ll wear once a week for one season.  That’s not very nice.  I hope we find some cheap boots soon, otherwise we’re going to have to just tie my skis to my shoes, and I don’t think that will work properly.

It was quite late when we came back from the shop but because it was so hot and sunny we went for a walk in the mountains anyway.  Papa carried me on his back in my Léo Bag on the way up, but I walked all the way down.  I had a very big stick.  I like big sticks.  All the leaves in the forest have gone yellow and red and orange, it’s really pretty.

Then on Sunday we all went to my friend Chloe’s house for tea and cakes and we played in the garden.  I rode my bike all the way there, and I wasn’t grumpy or shouty all day.  Well, only a little bit.  (Mummy says that makes a change.)

Next week is holidays, for two whole weeks! Mummy says she can’t wait to have me under her feet for two weeks.  I never know when my Mummy is joking…

Léo xxx

“Do you know?” (I say that a lot)

So.  (I say that quite a lot too.)

I haven’t written for aaaaages again, have I?  I’ve been a very busy boy.  Do you know?  I go to SCHOOL!

I started school on 4 September 2012.  (Do you know?  2012 means the year and it also means the Limpets.  Or ‘Olympics’ as Mummy likes to call it.)  I LOVE SCHOOL!  My teacher is called Sandrine, she is very nice.  She doesn’t tell me off because I’m a good boy but there is a naughty step and sometimes she puts naughty children on the naughty step.  Not me though.  There are lots and lots of other children in my class – I think Mummy said there are 20 in my class and 65 in my whole school!  That’s loads!   (Actually, Mummy says that’s not loads at all and I’m going to get a big shock if I go to school in London where she says they have about a million children in each class.  Ooofff!)  There are three year groups in my class – Petite Section, Moyenne Section and Grande Section.  I am in Moyenne Section because I’m nearly 4, I’m not a baby.

I go to school every day except Wednesdays and Saturdays and Sundays.  Do you know? Saturday and Sunday – that is called the weekend, and that’s when we do nice things with Mummy and Papa.  It’s also when they drink wine because they say they deserve it because they have had a very long week, working and looking after me.

Do you know? At school we do lots of drawing, and playing with cars, and painting (which makes a big mess!), and stories, and playing outside, and singing, and lots of stuff.  I have my lunch in the canteen and I eat everything.  Except courgettes.  I don’t like courgettes.  And cheese.  I don’t like cheese (Papa says I’m not really French because I don’t like cheese.  I think he’s joking.  I am French.  French-and-English.)  Sometimes I have a nap at school.  I never used to have a nap but then Mummy told the teacher that I was grumpy and shouty when I got home and so now the teacher makes me have a nap.  Humpfh.  But it’s OK really because I have a little bed there with my name on and I like that.  And I don’t sing when I’m in my bed because the teacher said I’m not allowed because it will wake up the other children.  Sometimes I forget though and I sing, and the teacher says SSSSHHHHHH, which means you have to be quiet.

We have had lots more friends come to stay with us for their holidays.  There was Lisa and Caroline and Jan and Hannah.  Hannah is a baby but a big baby, not like my baby sister, she can walk.  She’s much more fun than my baby sister and she can even play Lego with me.  Though mostly she just puts it in her mouth.  When all our friends were here we went to Chamonix again, and ate ice cream again.  It was brilliant.  Do you know – I threw stones in the river, because that’s my favourite thing to do at the moment.  I took lots of photos with Mummy’s camera.  I’m really really good at taking photos – here is a photo I took in Chamonix:

Here is a photo that Mummy took in Chamonix.  She thinks it’s better than mine.  It’s not, obviously, but I don’t tell her that or she might get sad.

I think Mummy and our friends also did good things whilst I was at school, like go to a castle and to the beach.  They tried to pretend they hadn’t though, so I wouldn’t get angry and shouty.  When our friends had gone though it was sunny again so Mummy and Papa took me to the castle and when we were there I took some more photos. Here they are:

           

It has been very very sunny again and on Sunday we went to Aix-les-Bains to see Mummy’s friend Lucy, and I played on the beach and swam in the lake which was brilliant.  Now though it’s cold and rainy again.  Yesterday was Mummy’s birthday and we wanted to go to see some caves but it was raining and raining and when we got there it was closed.  That’s a shame.  But it didn’t matter really because Mummy made me a cave behind the sofa and I sat in it and watched Spot on the DVD player.  That was much more fun.

Do you know?  It snowed in the night!  Me and Papa were very excited and woke Mummy up very early to tell her.   I don’t think she was as excited as us though because she said “Already?!”.  And then said a bad word.  The snow is on the mountain in front of our house.  It is not in our garden so we still can’t make a snowman.  That’s a shame.  I hope it will snow properly soon.  Mummy doesn’t.

Léo xxx

Schoooooooool!

I am very excited.  I have been jumping around all day I am so excited, just ask Mummy (she had to go for a lie-down because she said she couldn’t handle a little boy who jumps so much.  She put me to bed for my nap at the same time but I didn’t go to sleep, oh no – I sang. And talked to my teddies. And sang.  Loudly.  Mummy said she never got her nap therefore.  She wasnt happy).  Anyway, yes I’m excited because yesterday I went to see my school! It is still the holidays but Mummy and Papa took me there yesterday to register for the canteen.  I am going to go to school next week, I will be in Moyenne Section which means I am not in the baby-baby class, I am in the baby-big-boy class.  I will go to school every day except Wednesday, because people don’t go to school on Wednesdays in France.  I don’t know why.  Maybe they work so hard every other day that they need a holiday on Wednesdays.  Or maybe they just want to go ski-ing on Wednesdays.  Or watch lots of TV or something.

I was very very shy when we went to the school and I wouldn’t talk to anyone, but really it was because I was just too happy to be at the school.  I went for a wee in the toilets because I always love to look at new toilets.  I also looked at the drains in the playground because I like that very much.  Every time I go for a walk with Mummy I make sure I stop to look at every drain we see.  It annoys my Mummy but I don’t really care.

Also this week I went to the beach with Mummy and my baby sister, and we met Papa there for lunch.  I had such a good time, throwing stones in the lake and watching the paragliders in the sky.  It was very hot and sunny.  Mummy wouldn’t buy me an ice cream so I screamed.  It didn’t work though, I still didn’t get an ice cream.  Humpfh.

Today it rained and rained and rained and there was a HUGE thunderstorm with thunder and lightning.  It was brilliant, I wasn’t scared (well maybe a little bit).  Me and Mummy also made a pirate hat and patch and telescope.  I have worn my hat all day, even when I had my nap.  Here it is!

Léo xxx