Julian was the kindest and most loving child I have ever known.  He was kind and gentle with his little sister Bloom, who turns 1 year old this week.  He would share his toys and protect her from danger - "Daddy, Maman, attention! Bloom is playing near the stairs!".  He would come into Bloom's room every morning with us to make her laugh while we changed her.  He would lovingly pet his sister's arm and coo "ahh Bloom, je t'aime".  He would have gone to school with his sister, and we know that he would have always watched out for her.  For an older brother adjusting to a new family life with a new baby, he never seemed jealous and just wanted to share.  He would tell us before going to bed "I Love You SO MUCH, Forevertime, always forever daddy" - it was one of the first phrases in English that he used regularly.  And even sometimes saying a thank you at the end of the day “thank you maman for cooking a delicious dinner, and for daddy playing with me in the office”.


He was strong.  He weighed 19 kg, which for a 3.5 year boy is big.  But he would still let me carry him down the stairs in the morning.  He was fast.  He would ride his bike all the way down to our lake, his feet never touching the ground.  And when we explained that he would need a bigger bike, one with pedals, soon - and that his old bike would be passed down for his younger sister Bloom - he only smiled and said "ah Bloom, ça va être ton vélo!".


He was smart. From walks in the forest with his loving grandfather "papé" he learned the names of impatients, fenouil (fennel), fleur de carotte, sage, tyme, rosemary, the grasses by the lake. We would say "Julian, your ball is over there by the grass" and he would reply "you mean behind the fenouil?". With his mamie he would eat all the strawberries, yellow raspberries, raw green peppers, edible flowers and know them well like the “fleur de bourrache”. Once he got frustrated when his older cousins told him that he shouldn’t eat a plant as they weren’t sure if it was edible - but Julian knew for a fact he could eat some. And he was right, of course.  He spoke french and english with his father.  And he liked to test if his teachers at the creche spoke english too, and thought it was funny if they didn't understand him. He was proud.


He was loving, and always available for a cuddle. He would sit on his maman's lap for breakfast, with his doodoo, and recently was insistent that we lay down with him for his nap or to put him to bed at night.  He would wrap an arm around our neck, and press his body against ours and sigh happily before falling asleep.  Our best naps were with juju.


He grew up on a beautiful farm, surrounded by close family, in the south of france.  His family was large and loving.  Living next door to his grandparents Papé and Mamie, he would excuse himself from the dinner table to go see if they had even more food to eat next door and to sit and read with Papé at their table. In the mornings when his older cousins, who he adored, were visiting, he would wake up early and ask if he could go see if they were awake, to have breakfast with them.  He enjoyed a special kind of independence that made him strong, that he could go between our two adjoined houses to see what was going on, on the other side. He loved his tata and tonton Amandine and Fabrice, his cousins Noé “Nono” and Maxence “Massou”. He loved spending a weekend alone at tata Amandine’s where he would happily play with his cousins, and slept at their house, laughing and never homesick.  He would go on tractor rides with Papé, to see the cows, or walks in the forest to look for mushrooms.  His very first word, before mama or daddy was "Tractor!"


Even separated by vast distances, he loved his father's parents too, Barbara and George (Mooma and Boopa) and Jim and Teresa (Buelo and Abue).  He looked forward to skyping with Mooma, almost every week since the COVID confinement began, playing games and watching Mooma's puppet shows.  They played games together and read books together online and he loved her.  He would ask me, “daddy, can we see Mooma on the télé?” He liked using the english words he knew with Mooma, mixing them up “Mooma, where is the dinosaur vert?”.   He loved his Buelo and Abue too - every picture of a beach house or sunset would remind Julian of Buelo in Florida "look! it's Buelo's house!".  When we visited them in Florida in November of 2019, Julian asked if he could sleep in Buelo's room, they would wake up early and watch the sunrise together over the ocean every morning.


In some ways he was also a typical toddler.  He loved baby shark and “despacito”.  He would ask the smart speaker to “Play Despacito!” and then dance his little butt off while making his sister laugh.  He was just learning about Paw Patrol.  But he was also unique.  He loved Beethoven and would ask me to put on “Bam pam pam baamm” (the 5th symphony).  When he heard Bach or Vivaldi, he would say “daddy, like in our book!” (our little music kids books).  He could use a screwdriver and would help me change the batteries on those books when they would inevitably run out after so much enthusiastic playings.  Walking around with us on the farm, he would point out all the chores that needed doing, seeing a patch of bramble he would tell me “daddy you need to debro (spin-trim) over there” “why Julian?” “because here is too en pente (steep) to use the tondeuse (lawnmower)”  He explored with us.  Came to the mountains with us and even tried rock climbing outdoors with us and our friends, fearless and proud to have reached the 10meter top of a 4a climb (with his dad giving him a boost with the rope of course).  We explored a large limestone cave together with flashlights, and looked for “gargamel”.  He liked it when we all turned off the lights to experience the total darkness together, asking if we could “play that game again!” after we turned our lamps back on.  He wasn't afraid of that darkness.  But now we will all miss his light.