encore!

This week, Ollie's aunty and cousin came to visit.  We don't have much space in our house and I always wonder how we are going to squeeze everyone in but it always ends up being alright and it's a bit of a novelty getting the inflatable mattress out.   Ollie's cousin Emmanuelle (the girl of many nicknames, of which Emma seems to be the most popular) is six weeks younger than Ollie and was born in Paris.  She is kind hearted, sweet natured, she has a penchant for snacking and a very cute little vocabulary of French and English words.  Ollie, who is still of few words but really developing his language quickly, really enjoyed having her around and this morning seems to be a bit bored, plodding about the house wondering where all the fun has disappeared to.  He's not much of a mimicker but at lunch yesterday, Ollie listened as Manu reached for more bread and said 'encore!', thought for a minute, then looked at me and said 'a-core!'.  His first French word!  Hard to resist.

And in other, unrelated but still relevant news, Will and I start our tenth year together today.  Nine years ago, on 22 September 2001, and after more than a sensible amount of dithering, we managed to spend an evening together doing what we did best back then - hanging out in a London bar.  I am pretty sure that was the night I fell in love and nine years later we are married with two beautiful boys.  I never thought I could be so lucky.  Each year brings with it new challenges but each year seems to better the last. I have a feeling that this next one is going to be something special.