Cycling in our new park

When we moved to our new home I felt a bit reluctant about leaving our old stomping grounds. There was that amazing country estate just a short walk away, and an old cow's pasture for a playground just a few streets away. I was wondering how would it be in our new home, and how would the new park pan out. 

Thankfully, I can say, it has turned out to be wonderful. 

We frequent our nearby park several times a week. It is just at the end of the road, a few minutes walk away. It is huge, and has lots of walkways to cycle around on. There is a playground, swings, climbing frames, sandpit and lots and lots of new friends to meet.

One sunny day we went there again. Our little miss Pendleton, cycling on her new bike, saying hello to every single person that came towards us - be they on a bike, jogging, walking or pushing a pram. "Helloooooo! Nice to meet you! Bye bye!" rang in our ears several several times. "Ring ring" she'd ring her bell to say hi. And people would smile and say hi back, and compliment her beautiful pink bike...

So yes, I can say this park is just as good, and maybe a bit better than our last one! And you will see us cycling there for many more days to come.... 

"Ring ring!"

So, how is your nearby park?

#countrykids / #the ordinarymoments

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Our little baby piggy

"Oink oink"

We have a little piggy in the house. 

Now, it is probably our fault. Maybe it is an overload of Peppa Pig, our little pink friend, always ready to appease toddler tantrums and negotiate vegetables at meal times. Or maybe it is the nicknames I have given my daughter. Honeypiggy Aili. And Littlepiggy Aili. 

Where ever this has come from, we now have a little piggy in the house. A little piggy whose first words in the morning are oink oink. Who, when you walk into her room and wake her up saying "Good Morning", answers back to you "Oink oink". Who, when you ask her a question, answers back to you saying "Oink oink". Who, when you catch her doing something naughty you want to shout at her about, flutters her little eyelashes, comes and gives you a cuddle and says "Oink oink" in a quiet little baby voice. 

So yes, it seems we have a little baby piggy in the house now. Who comes for a cuddle and oinks at you. 

This little baby piggy is also a great mimic. She can mimic all kinds of pigs. Daddy pig has a particularly loud and deep oink, mummy pig has a higher and quieter oink, nanny pig sounds quite similar to mummy pig, granddad pig has a very very deep oink, and baby pig has a tiny tiny quiet oink.

So yep. Currently we have a little baby pig in the house. I guess there isn't much more to say other than...

oink.

#the ordinarymoments / #fromthemouthsofbabes

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My 2015 - Part 2 (Jul - Dec)

I had a nice time last year. 2015, it was a good year. We bought a house, traveled, renovated, and lots and lots more. In the first half of the year we went to Lapland, completed on our house purchase, and celebrated my daughters second birthday. Here is the second half of my 2015 and some of my favourite pictures from the months July to December. 

July: After we returned from our holiday in Finland, we did quite a few weekend trips around London. I went to a children's clothing trade exhibition, which was fascinating, and we finally visited Coram's Fields, a fabulous children's park in Central London. We celebrated our fourth anniversary, and I was wondering what a big big girl my little girl was becoming. The chats we had with my little one were getting bigger and better, day by day.

August: My blog had it's first birthday - or you could also call it a blogiversary! The first toddlerdom-signs were appearing in our little girl... I remember August mostly for being outside a lot -it was warm and weather was glorious, and I spent ages picking blackberries from our local park, and making all sorts of blackberry concoctions like crumble. Renovating our house was also at full swing.

September: During this blog I've shared lots of toddler outfit posts - the posts usually consist of pretty outfit pictures and musings of a totally different nature, or only tangentially connected with clothing, as I find it is a bit more interesting. It is nice to look back at the posts and the pictures and see how Aili has developed over the year - and in September I did a compilation post of all the gorgeous little outfit pictures I've taken of her during the year. Other than that, we did plenty of puddle jumping, and were almost finished with most of the renovations. Since we travel a fair bit and have plenty of experience of flying, I wrote a few tips on what to pack for long boring journeys for toddlers.

October: October was very very very busy. We finished most of the renovations, moved in, and started decorating. And cleaning. And that feels like it was pretty much it. I was a bit wayward with the blog and didn't have much time for anything.

November: In November I started to share a few finished rooms in our house - like our toddler bedroom. I also shared the cutest ever toddler Halloween costume - inspired by Star Wars. We went to places like London Zoo and the Tower Bridge Exhibition, both wonderful places to take toddlers to. I was so excited about Christmas - and this year I also prepared a Christmas book advent calendar. It went so well I will do one again next year!

December: We love reading in our house, and I shared a few tips on how we have managed to grow that love of reading in our daughter as well. December was all about Christmas, Christmas, Christmas and we did lots of fun Christmas activities. We brought out our traditional Scandinavian Christmas home decor, went to Harrods to meet Santa (unfortunately it didn't end too well), did Christmas card crafts and we hosted Christmas in our new home. It was lovely. We started potty-training and it went surprisingly well.

And that was it for my year 2015. It was a bit of a whirlwind, but a great one!

How was your year?

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Our picture wall and the story of our lives

We finally hung our pictures on the wall. Three months isn't too bad a time lag, is it? I know it is one of those running jokes about moving, how you still haven't put the pictures up a year in, but we were getting a bit worried it might be us too. But last weekend we finally buckled up and got down to it.

We decided to have one art wall. Above the sofa, in our living room. I love the way it tells a story of our family. There is a topographic map where me and my husband met (Chamonix, France), a pencil drawing of where he proposed to me (Arc de Triumphe, Paris), the wooden initials used as a table decoration at our wedding, a cast of our new born daughters feet, and a map of our first house together. There are portraits of us, photographs of our little girl, art, all kinds of things that have a meaning for us. Album art signed by Storm Thorgerson, vintage styles metal signs from France. 

We considered having everything in simple white frames but ended up going for a variety of colours, materials, depths, and sizes. This felt a bit more fun, having that unexpected and slightly random variety. And over the years I am sure we will find more pieces to add to this as our lives move on to bigger and better things. 

Are you super-organised and put pictures up soon after a move, or do you lazy around a bit like us? :)

#homeetc

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French preppy style with Jacadi: Toddler OOTD #35

In collaboration with Jacadi UK

It is fun being a blogger sometimes - when for example you get to pop by for a breakfast of macarons and check out a new children's clothing shop! (OK, this isn't a regular occurrence unfortunately ha ha)

So, before Christmas I was invited to come and view Jacadi's new French children's fashion store in London. I love children's clothes and love finding new brands about which to rave. The style we dress our daughter is quite mixed - I love the preppy French style represented by Jacadi, but her wardrobe also contains lots of Scandinavian bold colour splashes. No need to limit your sartorial choices at an early age in my opinion!

I got to pick an outfit to take home and chose a dark blue wool-cotton dress with white and red accents and a cotton-cashmere cardigan to match. And some little hair clips to top the outfit off.

It took a while for me to make my final choice as there were many many dresses I had my eye on. I loved the high quality materials, with plenty of wool/cashmere mixes and thick cotton. In the end a warm preppy dress was the winner as I figured she could use one for this winter. The fit runs true to size - a fact I discovered after I got a size too big a dress for her thinking French kids must be tiny. Never mind though - we shall be wearing Jacadi next winter too. Which is not a bad thing at all!

And OK - although I do love the preppy style my daughter is probably the least preppy stylish toddler there is, as evident by the last picture!

What did you think of the outfit? Preppy - yay or nay?

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Choosing a New Years resolution - my 'word' for 2016

In terms of New Years resolutions I've promised all sorts of things. Had I managed to complete them all, I would now be a marathon-running polyglot with an enviable figure and a fabulous wardrobe. Suffice to say, I'm not, ha ha.

What really resonated with me last year was the idea of choosing a word, or a theme, to your year. Rather than a resolution to do or not to do something, it is a word that is supposed to set the mood and the guidance for your year. It makes intuitive sense - rather than doing something you live with some sort of an ideal in mind. Using that word to guide you along the way.

I am not sure if the word I chose last year really made much of a difference. Much of the things I wanted to do were left wayside once we bought the house and just got swamped with everything. I did do some things with 'well-being' in mind, and some things I just abandoned as they were too time consuming.

This year however we are not planning on anything quite as stressful as a house purchase and renovation so maybe I have better luck!

This year the word I have chosen will reflect on what I need in my life.

Space.

Space to be, to think, to develop. Space in the physical sense, and space in the mental sense.

To find the physical space and the mental space there are some things I need to do. I once read that all those little things you keep putting off, little things like fixing that skirt or mailing that letter, just keep niggling at the back of your mind, sort of mental clutter. Similar to actual physical clutter this distracts you from what is important. This year I will finish all those unfinished businesses, one way or another. And do some much needed decluttering, to liberate that space both physically and mentally. That will help me to find time and space for the more important things in life.

(Well, declutter what we can - as we want more kids we won't be taking all those baby clothes or toys to charity yet!)

Have you made New Years resolutions or got a New Years 'word'?

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