I notice it is quite a while since I gave my last update. I had a reasonably quiet January. It all started with the christening of my friend George and ended with the visit from Christina, Dani and Andi. I am becoming a real expert dragon navigator. My parents believe that it will not be long before I can walk all by myself.
I am spending my Christmas holiday in Austria this year. I start to understand the meaning of the expression “frische Luft” (literally translated: fresh air). When you spend so much time outside breathing cold fresh winter air you are hungry and tired in the evening. But Oma is preparing amazing food for me. I have expanded my culinary universe sampling dishes like Kasnudln, Griessnockerlnsuppe, Tafelspitz, Glundner Kas, Hauswuersteln mit Sauerkraut, Kaspätzle.
My second Christmas still failed to impress me. We went to the church for mass, at home a Christmas tree was lit with real candles and sparklers. I received nice presents, but I was more excited by the colourful wrapping paper.
We are seeing a lot of family and friends and when my parents are out skiing Oma Helga is looking after me the whole day taking me out for long walks in der frischen Luft.
I also had my first experience on skis – on the back of Papa: skinning up the mountain and wedel back down in virgin snow. It was exciting and I am looking forward to actively do it myself.
First of all I wanted to thank everyone for the nice birthday wishes and the presents. Special thanks to Onkel Markus und Tante Nicki for the magical Aqua Doodle and tata Iza for the handmade cross-stitch made with love and the musical books.
My birthday marks what apparently used to be a silent time of inner reflection. As we all know this was turned upside down and it appears to be the most frantic time of the year. These days the festive season is best described by shopping madness, alcohol fuelled parties and hideous christmas songs.
On Sunday morning I woke up and suddenly there was a tree in the living room decorated with lights, crystal stars and christmas baubles. I was very impressed with that and I really like it – but I am not allowed to touch the tree. Whatever my parents think, Wham!’s “Last Christmas” is not so bad and I also like the Christmas decoration in the streets, pubs and shops.
I am now counting down the days to go to Austria where it snowed last week.
My birthday is at an interesting time of the year. The summer is long gone and the winter has not yet arrived and London is wrapped into a misty fog. So I decided to escape to find some beach and sun. And the closest destination at this time of the year is Egypt and the Red Sea. I went to Taba on the Sinai peninsula and the Gulf of Aqaba. The borders of Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are all within a few kilometers. If you are spiritually minded you might want to climb Mount Sinai where Moses dreamt up the Ten Commandments. We had a nice villa all for ourselves and the infrastructure for young guests was excellent. Mamy and I spent most of the time around the pool and on the beach and my parents took the nitrox course and did some scuba diving. Anne, Xavier, Rodolphe and Margaux came to see us for a day. Rodolphe’s birthday is on the exact same day, so we celebrated together.
I am told not much happens in December as celebrations of all sorts slow down economic activity. Well. November has hardly started and I am already in party mood. It probably has to do with the fact that my first birthday is approaching and so is the one of all of my friends. The festive season kicked off last weekend with a Haloween party. I got to admit that I don’t understand what Haloween is. But nobody else could explain either. We all dressed up and enjoyed ourselves.
This weekend was even busier. Saturday was the birthday party of Luca. It was fantastic and I had my first cake of my life: a really delicious plum and apple cake. On Sunday we had the naming ceremony of Stanley. He treated all of us and our parents to a big feast.
Away from the party scene: I am improving my balance and walking skills. Have a look how I walk around the flat with a little help of the dragon.
I believe my parents don’t like to stay at home. Only two days after they returned from Texas we were on the road again. But this time they took me with them. The occassion was the sixtieth birthday of Oma Helga. And she invited the whole family to South Styrian wine region. As I was on my plane to Graz I was counting that this was already my fifth trip to Austria in less than 11 months since I was born (1. skiing in Reitheralm/Schladming, 2. Vienna to see Alessia, 3. Kitzbuehel for the wedding of Claudia & Andreas, 4. Carinthia for the summer holiday).
We spent the weekend at a winery in the scenic village of Kitzeck. The vineyards started right outside the house. This really was an area of outstanding natural beauty right at the boarder to Slovenia. It was a fantastic weekend and I believe everyone (Oma Helga, Opa Robert, Onkel Markus, Tante Niki and Alessia) were quite impressed how I have grown and slimmed down since I last saw them a little more than two months ago.
I probably should not say that. But I think my parents are loosing it. Both of them left me for 5 days to go on a holiday without me. And where did they go. To Texas of all places!
But to be honest: I did not miss them all that much. Mamy and Tata Iza came to London to look after me. They really did a good job and I had a lot of fun. And I got two new pairs of really cool shoes.
Having said that, I was quite happy to see Maman when she finally came back. Thanks so much again to Mamy and Iza for taking care so well.
Finally the weather across Europe is fantastic and we experience a superb Indian summer. On Saturday, my godmother invited me, Maman and Mamy for a barbecue at her house. I enjoyed playing in the garden.
In the evening I travelled back to London to find temperatures of almost 30 degrees. On the October 1st, a temperature of 29.9C was recorded in Kent breaking the previous record of 29.4C dating back to October 1995 in Cambridgeshire.
Such great weather is a fantastic backdrop for exploring our terrace, a lazy Sunday brunch along the Thames or the annual Bermondsey Street festival which showcased a small zoo.
In the meantime, I am enjoying my life in the nursery. There is a lot of exciting new toys, many friends. But to be honest, I also quite like when Maman is picking me up in the evening and we go home together. Last week we had a fancy dress day. I put on my leopard costume which proofed a great success.
I have also gone through my very first haircut. I had no idea Papa was capable of doing that – I am sure Maman provided the mental support and encouragement. In the end, he did a good job.
All the best,
Max
A new chapter is being written. The long days with Maman are over. Over the last two weeks I have gone through my settling in period in the Arc nursery slowly increasing the amount of time in the nursery. In the first week I started with one hour each day. Last week I already took my morning nap in the nursery and stayed until after lunch. Starting tomorrow I will spend the whole day there starting in the morning at around 8am until the evening at around 5pm. It is fine for me as I have a lot of young friends and toys and I can make everything dirty. I just hope Maman will be fine as well.
This weekend Papa and I sent Maman away for the weekend. So she can get used to being without me. I just can’t look after her all the time – she is old enough 
I got a new highchair last week. It is a Stokke, it is green, looks really good. Thank you to Opa and Oma. This is a really nice present.
I am also progressing well: I started both clapping my hands together and waving at people to say hello and good-bye. I can also put myself back into sitting position from lying on the floor and I am also making very good progress on my crawling. Just have a look how I master the dragon (in reverse gear).
As if this is not enough, I started brushing my teeth. My next two teeth, the top cutting teeth are starting to come through and I want to take best care of my teeth.
As always here are some photos on all of the above:
After the summer on the Belgian coast I went back to Lasne for my first appearance at the traditional Summer Party of Jean-Pierre. I was face-to-face with a pig’s head and Papa pushed me around in high speed in a wheelbarrow which was a lot of fun. I also liked the beautiful classic cars.
The morning and the day before we spent with MC, Karim and Emilie. Emilie was so kind to me and gave me a lot of kisses. I had a lot of great toys to play with, especially the balloon.
On Monday, Maman, Papa and I made our way back home to SE1. Soon my life should change forever …
