Wednesday Fun in a mini-skirt

ooo yes, Bibou was in a miniskirt yesterday, and you should have heard Daddy... he said that she better wear all the mini skirt she wants now, 'coz she ain't gonna be wearing them when she's older lol!!

Anyway, I love this skirt of hers, we got it at gap. I thought it was just soooo cute. She's

certainly shooting up so quickly, her feet, ohmigosh, her feet just don't stop growing. Her shoes don't fit any more.

So, we were out in the garden playing... I really noticed that she loves to climb up and down things... anything. Up and down stairs, climbing on chairs...anything and everything! oh and something new yesterday... 'beep beep' for "excuse me, coming through!". Daddy and her played 'london bridge' through his legs, and she kept saying, beep beep. That was funny.

oh and then the both of them went picking raspberries. She still won't eat them though, and she'll pick them for either Daddy or myself to eat. Well, tant pis... more for us. And there certainly is lots this year. Oh yummy raspberries.

I'm hungry, so I'm off to have some grilled salmon that Daddy just finished grilling on the BBQ. Good night.

My Mini Me

Gosh, Aren't these like the funniest pictures ever? She's such a mini me! She loves to observe and then imitate. I guess she sees me too often on my laptop! I was in the kitchen making her dinner, after having set up my laptop. She noticed that it was 'empty' and just hopped on. She started typing on the keyboard, and moving the mouse! That was simply hilarious.

She's in a very good mood today. I think being at ta-tas today, after a long 10 day break did it! When I 'deposited' at ta-tas this morning, both she and Dan were squealing with laughter, like they were long-lost pals. I guess 10 days is long for them. Before we even got to the front door, Bibou was all excited. When we were in the car getting to ta-tas, I just told her that she was going to ta-tas today. She immediately got all excited, and couldn' wait to get there. She was banging on the front door to be let in. Tonight, she ate very well, gave everyone kisses and hugs. We went to the park and she ran around and climbed up and down.... even played hide and seek with us. She fell asleep very promptly tonight! My little mini me.

Fun day in Paris

Growing up, I'd never been on a carousel, or a merry-go-round with my folks (well, if I did, I don't remember it!!) and it has always been my dream to go on it with my child. So yesterday, I took a day off, and off we went into Paris. We headed for the Eiffel Tower as we knew there was one there, but when we got there, we realized that there was another on the other side of the siene that looked even nicer and quieter. We managed to find parking and off we went, all excited. It was a lovely one! a double decked one. Daddy got tickets (even got us 3 rounds of tickets each yippee!). I got on with Bibou first. We chose a horsy for her..there were no restrains whatsoever, but she was soooo comfortable on it. She wasn't afraid at all. She hadn't been on one before, so didn't know what to expect, but she knew it was going to be fun! She hung on to the pole in front of her (I WAS also holding on to her for dear life, afraid that she might fall or something). Once it started and the horsy went up and down, she was soooo tickled. She laughed and laughed and laughed. Then she caught sight of Daddy taking photos and starting screaming in delight and pointing at Daddy. Oh she didn't want to get off when the music stopped.

Fortunately Daddy had gotten a bunch of tickets so we stayed on. Daddy got Bibou off the horsey and put her on an airplane, he hopped on a horse himself and off they went. Round and round. Then Daddy decided to horse around himself! That was a bunch of really great photo opportunity lol.

After the ride, and as it was a hot day, we got some ice cream. Yum yum. Little Bibou's an expert at eating ice cream (gotta wonder how much ice cream Daddy and daughter have been eating this past week!). She can hold the cone on her own (which is fortunate as she would not allow you to hold it for her anyway), lick the ice cream really neatly too. She finished the whole cone by herself (I finished the rest!).

After all the treats, we noticed that there was a children's playground nearby and went on to visit it. Oh my lordy! It was PACKED. There were soooo many kids and their nannies, mommies / daddies. It doesn't seem to get like that in Antony. Golly. But it didn't fazed Bibou at all and off she went, trying to blend in and try the different activities. Daddy found a mini 'rock-climbing' structure and hoisted her onto it, just for fun... but golly, what do you know, she was able to climb up! She's got such great strenght and unlike her Mummy, wonderful balance. I was certainly impressed! She ran around, up and down the ladders and slides and totally exhuasted herself. She had a long nap in the car!

Poor poor Bibou

Oh poor Bibou. She's in the middle of her chicken pox 'attack', and so far, she's been relatively good, considering what she's going through. She's had quite a bad outbreak, though we're thankfully that it (so far, touch wood!), has only attacked mostly on her outer surface. We've heard horror stories of pox occuring inside mouths, throats, ears of little ones. But, her attack hasn't been mild. She's got it all over her face and body. Her worst ones are the ones on her inner lips, outer ear and there is one particularly nasty one on the crease of her big toe. Ouch!

Most of her blisters have crusted over, so we hope the worst is over. But she is bored.. staying at home, especially in this heat! It was heated up slightly again. So, in trying to get her occupied for a while, I made some home-made playdough! It was really easy to make (see recipe below if you're interested), as she seemed to enjoy it. We took out the rolling pin and a cookie cutter, and she was into it. Rolling and cutting it, patting it, and then of course, throwing it all over!

It got really hot this afternoon, and after a while, you can see that we took off her top too. We didn't want her to get all sweaty and then all itchy again. She has been trying to stratch, but fortunately, not too much (yet!). I think the blisters around her bum are the itchest, as she keeps trying to take her diaper off and stratching. (I don't mind her stratching there versus her face. No one can see her scars there!).

Anyway, here's the simple recipe for homemade playdough:

300 grams of plain flour

225 grams of salt

2 tablespoon of oil

4 teaspoon of cream of tartar

about 2 cups of water (with coloring added if you wish. I didn't).

Stir all the ingredients in a non-stick saucepan, adding the water a little at a time, stiring in between. Once it is all mixed, cook it under low heat, stiring all the time. Stir until the mixture congeals and leaves the side of the pan. Lift up and knead until it is smooth.

The End! :)

Extreme Cut

Well, summer's here, and just in time. I finally did it. I cut my hair. What do you all think? First is all the hair I had the night before the cut... and the cut itself. It's very different, and wasn't what I had envisioned, but I told Peter, my new stylist, he had free rein... he could do whatever he wanted, that he saw would suit me. With a big grin, he did.

Must say, I was a bit shocked and upset when I first saw the cut, but I've gotten used to it. It's been great being able to wash my hair and having it dried almost as soon as I get out from the bathtub!

Yippee!

Chicken Pox!!

Oh dear me. Yes, looks like little Bibou has gotten chicken pox. Dan, her playmate at ta-tas had it not too long ago, so it would seem inevitable that she'd get it.

Well, the spots have just started popping up. She's been in good spirits today, but I think that's going to go downhill from tonight as she's already started with a slight fever and she's just started scratching just before bed time.

We're off to see the Doc's tomorrow. We just hope she'll get a fairly mild (but not too mild that she could get it again later) that won't last too long and she won't get too many itchy sores and scars.

Action Gal

Monday was Bibou's creche 'Open Day', where the parents got to visit their little precious in their 'school environment'. (right Daddy totally forgot to tell me about it until 5 minutes before it started so I had to rush from work, and thus the camera was forgotten... so unfortunately, no pix of that day).

It was much like a fun fair day, there were little 'counters' that the little ones could visit with their parents. There was the 'collage' (Bibou spent the most time here, putting stickers on her piece of art paper - I think that her ta-ta being the leader there is probably a good reason why !!), gardening, face painting, fishing etc.

Soon though, Sylvie, the teacher, called out to the kids, "it's song time". THe kids, including Bibou scrambled onto the ground and she led them in a number of songs, all filled with different actions and hand gestures. We were just sooooooo tickled to see Bibou! Unlike most of the other kids (who were probably all older than she is), Bibou knew all the hand gestures. she could follow it all...and was bopping and swaying to the songs. She was soooo in to it. She has such good rhythm and keen observation skills. She watches and learns quickly, especially when it comes to songs. I noticed that she's also recently been picking up vocabulary (English) a bit quicker now.

Anyway, so no pix from the creche, but here are more pix from playing in the garden. The weather has been quite sourching in recent days, so we've been spending more time outdoors in the garden and especially in the pool for Bibou. She loves being in it. She had a new trick last night, jumping and 'falling' backwards onto her bum. She loves it. Oh and you can see her scratched up knees in one of the pix there!

She's also very recently grown attached (but ever so slightly - ie, only for about a few minutes, and not hanging on like a security blanket) to her dolly. She picked her up (calls her 'baby'), she'd cradle her and give her kisses all over! She then put her dolly in her stroller and walked her around like we do with her. Guess I don't have to worry about her being tooo tom-boyish eh?

Splish Splash

Weekend is here! And what a weekend. It has been a scorcher this weekend, especially today. We were out by the Bois de Boulogne, a big park just west of Paris for a MESSAGE event. Even though we were in the shade, it was just sooo hot. Thank goodness we got there early (10.00 am), 'coz when we left, people were rushing to find parking spot like far away. And get this, when we first got in the car, the termometer read 43 degrees! That was hot in the sun.

So we came home, too hot to even take a nap, we got out the wading pool and filled it right up! Looks like everyone had the same idea, the neighbours had gone out to get a large pool to cool down. Got Bibou into her oh so cute bikinis and she just couldn't wait to get into the pool and jumped right in while we were filling it.

She had loads of fun splish splashing away. There was no hesitation at all. Daddy jumped into the pool with her, she was happy to share it with Daddy, and soon they were both splashing each other and she was squealing with laughter as you can see in these photos. Hopefully, the weather will last for a long time. More fun things to do in the sun. Just gotta get her to leave her hat on.

Harvest time

It's harvest time! Well, not really, but we got some strawberries that are just turing red in the strawberry patch, and some lovely raspberries.

Bibou decided that she would start to pick the strawberries. She noticed that there was something red in the patch amongst the green, so she first looked at it curiously, pointed at it and said something, I think it was 'ball'! We explained, no, it's a strawberry. Something that you can put in your mouth and eat.

We picked one and gave it to her to try. She didn't like it! It was too tart! She's just like me, she does not like anything that is tart at all. But, she being the sweet sharing kind of person she always is (especially when it comes to something she doesn't want or like), she quickly went to pick some more so that she can give it to Daddy to eat.

Big Girl

On Thursday, I was dropping Bibou off at her ‘ta-ta’s’ when we bumped into Dan and his Mom who were also being dropped off. It’s so heartwarming to see the two of them squealing in delight when they see one another for the first time (of the day of course!). They act like they’ve not seen each other in ions! They run to each other, both with big grins on their faces, arms spread wide so that they can hug each other when contact is finally made! Then there is a ritual they go through, kiss, kiss kiss. You’d think that they were teenagers or something!

Once we were able to separate them, we got them to climb up the stairs so that we could get to ta-ta’s. We all held our Mummy’s hands and everyone climbed up the 3 flight of stairs. Bibou had a great rhythm going, she can take one step at a time, like an adult… ie, each foot pushing off on each step. Dan, who’s about 4 months older than her, still required both feet on each step to climb. (did I describe that right? Left foot on the step 1, right foot follows on step 1, rest, then push off to climb onto step 2). I was so mighty proud of Bibou then.

Here are some pictures of Bibou in the nice warm sun with her new summer hat! Yup, the weather’s been warming up really nicely. Yippee!

Oh and on Friday evening... we went to have dinner in Paris with Bibou. We were going to go to Chicago Pizza Pie place that is meant to be very child friendly, but it was closed. So we went to Planet Hollywood... which was very very crowded as it was football night! But we got a place, had some food, had to take the cheesy photo and off to home we went.

The Sweetest Gal

Today, Bibou just kept proving what a sweet little girl she can be. This morning, Daddy was a big grouch without his coffee this morning and made me cry. While I was lying (on my back) on the couch with tears rolling down and pretending to read, Bibou climbed on top of me, sat on my chest, and stroked my face. She then grabbed a tissue out of the tissue box (which was just on top of the couch) and wiped the tears from my eyes and face. Then she gave me little kisses all over my face. That really really touched me.

It was another lovely afternoon, though there wasn't as much sun. Out came the bubbles again. Today, she was facinated by the weedy white flower in the grass. She kept picking them out and then running over to me and giving them to me. Awwwwwww. Then she would take the

flowers and try to insert them in my hair as accessories.

We pulled out a chair and she immediately scrambled to get onto it... and was tickled once she got on it.

My sweet little baby girl. She's precious.