"Just like you, lor"

Bibou's waking up much better in the morning these days (touch wood) ... not too much whinging! In fact, some mornings, she would wake up, stretch, throw off her own covers, run to turn on her own lights (she has this thing with lights, she loves to turn them on and off all the time - I guess she feels like she's all grown up, 'coz she's able to reach the lights), run to the other end of the room to turn off her air purifier and take out her night light. Once she's done all that, she'd come into our room and climb into bed with us. She'd first give soft kisses, but then not too subtely, she'd very loudly demand to go 'downstairs' to Daddy. If Daddy doesn't move quick enough, she'd get off the bed, and turn on our lights! The other morning, whilst Daddy was in the bathroom after getting up, she looked at me, pointed to the phone and said "call mahmah now?' Wow, almost a whole sentence. She then went to the phone, took it off the cradle and handed it to me, looked me quick firmly and said "call mahmah now'. Okayyyy. I guess we're calling Mahmah now. So dialed the phone and Mahmah picked up and she chatted away with Mahmah (though poor mahmah still doesn't quite know how to understand her chatter yet). After a while, she passed the phone back to me so I chatted with Mom. Was telling her how independant Bibou was becoming, and started telling her how strong willed she is. Like if she wanted something or do something like peel an orange herself,.... Mom then continued, "you cannot do it for her, 'coz if you do, she'd throw it away and rather not eat it". I went, "how did you know????". Mom said (a tad bit too smugly) " JUST LIKE YOU, lor"! (Oh Boy, Mama Karma!)

I saw first hand Bibou's 'character' at her nannys. We'd arrived at tatas, and Emma (another little girl who's a good 6 months older than Bibou, but way smaller than she is) was there already. Tata was on the floor speaking to Bibou and trying to get her to take her coat, hat and shoes off. Emma decided that she wanted to cuddle with Tata and got onto one of Tata's lap. Ooooh boy! I literally saw red-horns grow out from Bibou's head. Without a word, she walked up to Emma and said "No', and then tried to pull her off Tata's lap. She kept pulling and shoving, ignoring Emma's cries and Tata and my 'scoldings' of "No Bibou. Stop Bibou". She had this look of determination in her eyes and nothing was going to stop her. Then, when she realized that it was futile as Tata was holding onto Emma, she turned and got a toy and offered it to Emma, who got off Tata's lap to play with it. Bibou immediately jumped onto Tata's lap! And then smiled VERY sweetly to Emma who was pouting when she realized that she was tricked. Bibou then patted Tata's other lap and said to Emma "comeon" (in French)... offering Emma the other lap all very innocently and sweet! I was globbesmacked!

The weather has been really yucky lately. After a beautiful 2 weeks of sunshine, gorgeous temperatures (up to 17 degrees! some days), where the trees started budding, the tulips and dafidals were all sprouting out, it turned cold, and wet wet wet. We even had a couple of snow flurries! Our poor flowers, just didn't know quite what to do I'm sure. They can't possibly shrink back into the comfort of the soil now can they??!! We hope they don't freeze. Anyway, so yesterday, it was wet again, so we decided to go to another huge indoor 'jungle gym', not unlike Bibou's favorite place Ludimax. This place had the ths same kind of layout, multi-storied padded structure where the kids can climb, slide, roll, pull, push and just do everything they can to exhuast themselves. This place, called Kooney Planet, had bouncy castles and even better, a large area of 6 trampolines! You should have seen the look on Bibou's place as soon as she got through the entrance. She was actually a little bit grouchy and whinny as she'd just woken up from a very short nap... but immediately all that was gone. She couldn't wait to pull her jacket and hat and stuff off. She plonked herself on the floor and pulled her shoes off, impatiently waking for me to put her slippers on and off she ran. She was soo happy exploring first the little structure that was meant for kids below 3 years old. Up and down she went, diving into the pool of balls, sliding down the mini slide. But soon, she got bored, and wanted to get onto the big structure, which was actually meant for kids above 3 years old. But did she care? Nooooo.... plus she's been on the big structure at Ludimax, so she headed off. The climbing entrance 'steps' were actually quite large, but gosh was she determined to get on. She'd pulled herself and climb and twist and turn until she got on. And into the 'jungle' she went. She was undaunted at how large nor 'difficult' each activity was. She was having a blast of a time. She even came down the big slide (she had been afraid the last few times at Ludimax). After a while, we brought her to the trampoline area. Boy was she in 7th heaven! Especially when Daddy bounced alongside her. She couldn't stop giggling! She wasn't too happy about having to leave I tell ya! It was still pouring, and so we brought out the umbrella and she insisted on holding it herself. It was too cute for words!

Sunday Morning with Bibou

This morning, Bibou decided that she wanted to dress herself! So Daddy let her pick out her clothes to wear today. It was a little bit funny, very colorful mix of clothes, but more importantly, she's starting to exert her independance in every decision that is made. We certainly try to give her the freedom to express herself as much as possible, but ensuring that she's not hurt in any way. She is quite quite stubborn like her Daddy. She will try and stand her ground as much and long as possible and refuses to back down, even if it means a time-out. In fact, sometimes she would choose to go to the corner instead of apologizing! She will do her time-out though despite tears and tantrums... though there are times when she's so defiant, she'll do a jiggle, wiggle and sing in her corner, turning around to taunt you! Arrgggh!

She is still quite determined to help out as much as possible (well, in her own way of course... doesn't mean that she does help :)). Still one of her favorite thing to do is help in the kitchen. I would place her on the counter and she'll hand me stuff while I cook. She's still very very curious, most time, the every other sentence that she utters is 'c'est quoi ca' (What's that?) and will repeat whatever we say.

She's eating very well on her own, using the knife, fork and spoon like an expert. (whether it ends up in her mouth or floor is another matter!) She eats whole fruits, peeling them all by herself first (like oranges / mandarins, bananas). In fact, she insists on peeling them herself, again an example of how she wants to do things herself. Sometimes, she gets upset, like REALLY upset if you try and do things for her.

Her teacher at the creche mentioned that she sings and dances very well. In fact, the other day when I picked her up at her special full day at the creche day, we started singing her favorite English songs and they were amazed that she can even do English songs! (given that they've only heard her sing French ones). She can sing whole songs by herself now.

"She is quite a character"

So says her teacher of Bibou at the creche. Don't we know it, but to hear it from someone else who observes her while she interacts with other kids was an eye-opener. She's very strong willed (she knows what she wants and don't you try to get her to do something else), independant (she wants to try to do it herself), curious (always wanting to know what this or that is, or how to do it and then copy it herself), mischevious and cheeky (no words can describe that!). She's also loyal and protective of her 'friends' though can be a bully to those she doesn't know or like. She would, for example, stand on top of the slide at the creche and declare to everyone that the slide is only for 'Emma and me', and will say 'stop' to the others. The teachers and care givers must explain to her that the slide (or whatever toy) is for sharing. I've been really worried that she'll be the 'big bully in the playground', but the teacher said that (perhaps she's trying to be be nice????) perhaps it is not a bad thing these days, given that she'll be able to protect herself. And she is quite loving and sharing (and not to mention cute!) when it comes to people she knows and cares about...and sometimes even strangers or 'just-met' friends... she just has this instinct and generally is really nice to most kids, she'll even bring out her toys and offer to them (albeit, it is never her favorite one!). She sure knows how to bring on the charm if she wants to. However, watch out if she doesn't like you... and she generally doesn't like whiny brats lol! And she won't tolerate them, she'll stand her ground and 'fight' (like if someone she doesn't like tries to steal her toys, she'll stand firm and won't let go - even if the other child is a boy and much bigger.)

Back home, Bibou's vocabulary is growing stronger. She can sing a few songs on her own now though have to say that even in English, she has a decidedly French accent! She's still very loving, giving kisses and hugs freely to us... and her new baby sister. she loves kissing her new baby sister as the pix here show. She has a bit of a motherly streak in her - she's quite attached to her doll (called 'baby') and the other day, she put baby in the transat and told us matter of factly that she's now preparing 'yum-yum' (meal) for baby and she's going to feed her. She's real tender with baby... and must sleep with her every night. Groan, talking about sleep, we're having a most difficult time getting her to go for her naps during the weekends now. She sleeps very well at her nannys (though there are days where ta-ta says it is quite difficult to get her to go to sleep - she'll also disturb the others by talking!), but during the weekends, she just won't go to sleep. We will leave her upstairs (and the stairgate is locked), but she'll turn on all the lights, play in her room and basically get up to mischief (once we went up and found that she'd opened her drawers and pulled out all the towels and threw them on the floor). Then of course, come near evening, she's so tired she's cranky!

People have often said that Bibou is tall for her age, but we hadn't realized it until a friend came over (with their 4 kids) for gouter on Sunday. Their 3rd child is 4 years old, but when she stood next to Bibou, they were almost the same height! I was astonished! Here's a pix of both of them.

She has a fun sense of humor. She loves to laugh or try to make us laugh! Some of these pictures here are of her definition of "smile". Asking her to smile for the camera just breaks all of us up in laughter!