July.

July started with the chance to shoot a beautiful wedding, the middle had a fabulous day trip to the beach with my Mama, husband and son. Sachin finished school, we bbq'd with friends. The backdrop to it all was sunshine, warmth and a garden

blooming with life.

Jumping

Or 'dumping' as Sachin calls it (we haven't quite mastered the J sound). The happiness this simple activity brings him is really quite astounding. We spend time making a landing pad with every duvet and blanket and pillow we can find, and then he gets ready. He climbs onto the bed, bends his legs. He shouts "1, 2, 3 GO!" He jumps. Over and over and over. Sometimes he dives, head first. Never afraid of how his body will land, never jumping without anything short of complete abandon. I often wince, I always encourage.

Please God, just don't let him progress to base jumping....

more low quality iphone pics of how we spend our days over here, on my Instagram

Three

And just like that, our baby turned Three.

For the first time we celebrated his birthday just the three of us. After a busy few months of travelling and being surrounded by friends, it felt like a quiet day would suit.

The night before, while S was sleeping, we snuck in to fill his room with balloons. He woke up the next morning and came to the door as he always does (he has a stair gate on it so he can't get out) called for us, and barely registered they were there. We all went and sat amongst the balloons and woke up a little.

My little sister was staying and left after we'd opened presents and cut the cake. The boys and I wrapped up warm and headed out, somewhere new we could explore and get a little lost together. We got two trains and a bus and arrived a big country house. It had an amazing adventure playground that was completely empty except for us. He threw himself into everything - the high rope bridges, big slides, tunnels. He seemed a little braver after turning three. 

M and I spent the day as we usually do on his birthday, discussing our disbelief that years are now passing since he came into the world. We talked about the night I went into labour, the morning he was born. Re-visiting the story with tears and giggles, as I hope we will do forever more. As much as a celebration it is of Sachin, it's a celebration of us, too.

It was a really good day.

The French Vacation {Beach House}

 I mentioned in the last post that we planned this holiday around a little beach house we found on the west coast of France. Well this is it. When I saw it online I fell in love, it just looked so inviting. After finding out it was a 4 minute walk from the sea we were pretty much sold. We were so lucky to have found this place and spend time somewhere with a little bit of magic about it.

We had a little routine here. Every morning M would walk the 2 minutes to the bakery and come back with fresh pastries whilst I made tea and put out cheese and jam. We would eat breakfast under blue skies, and Sach pottered around the garden had been filled with sand. It felt like our own little slice of beach, and he loved climbing ladders, building sandcastles, generally getting dirty. I don't think he spent any real amount of time on this holiday without a dirty face and a smile plastered across it. He had the space to go off in his own little world, safe and content whilst we ate and chatted and slowly came to life.

We filled each day with something different, but came to spend our evenings here. Sach exhausted from the adventure of the day and collapsed in bed, the two of us would light candles and put on jumpers and head outside. We would lay the table with plates of food that we picked up earlier - tomatoes, cheese, wine, meats, bread. We would listen to music or get lost in the peace and quiet. I think it's rare to really get to relax on holiday once you have kids, but we found that here. I don't think any of us have ever been so very content as we felt there.

And now I want to go back.

(You should all go too, check out the website here. Incidentally, it would be the most perfect place for a family photo shoot. Just saying....)