Afternoon with Dan

Well, unfortunately, the weather has finally turned. It was yucky this afternoon! Tunder storm and rainy. The pool and all the garden toys that we'd prepared in advance for Dan's visit were all for naught! But, we still had a nice visit with Dan and his family. I made some chocolate dipped strawberries and a fruit salad. Bibou had just woken up from a short nap when they arrived so she was grouchy! But that didn't last long though and soon both she and Dan were playing nicely together.

Since we couldn't be out in the garden, we didn't take a lot of pix and videos as the lighting was quite bad. So here are just the little few we did take. Hopefully next time! But this video does show how well they are together.

Bibou eating Mummy's Curry!

We had a hilarious time at lunch today. It's been a long time since we sat down and ate with Bibou... we generally find it easier to feed her first and then take our own time to eat our meal. But today, I thought we'd just try to eat with her, since I'd already made a large pot of chicken curry last night so all I had to do was heat it up. Bibou joined us and surprised us when she wanted to try our curry... and LIKED it1 She wanted more, and wanted it all over her own chicken and rice. It wasn't very spicy, like what we're used to, but there was a slight 'kick' to it. Our girl just gamely finished very thing (well, with a couple of sips of water between bites!) I thought it was just too cute not to post some pictures and videos. Hopefully, we'll have more pix and video later as Dan will be coming to visit to play in the yard. Unfortunately, the weather is meant to be yucky this whole week now - well, rainy anyway. Enjoy the video.

Bibou helping in the garden

You can tell that I'm so excited about being able to upload videos lol! The novelty will wear off soon, but in the meantime, you'll ahve to put up with me posting lots of videos.

We should be having Dan and his family over tomorrow for gouter yipppeee! So Daddy went out into the garden to mo the lawn and get it ready for guests. We got the pool out too, 'coz it has been really hot. The water should be warm by tomorrow afternoon I'm sure.

While Daddy was working, Bibou and I were playing! We found a water gun and I had fun squirting Bibou hehe.

Here's one of Daddy and Bibou running round the pool.



And one of Bibou on the back of Daddy's bike, going to the park with Daddy. Oh and check out the last of the Wisteria on the fence. It's going going going gone soon!



Ok ok. I promise, no more videos (for tonight :)) after this batch! Here's Bibou showing off her finger painting 'talent'. She's learnt how to paint her hands with finger paint and then using her hands to paint.



Bibou and Daddy goofing around. She's definately her Daddy's girl. Loves to snack and loves her beer! It was really hot this afternoon. It's cooled off a little, but still warm. We've not had a drop of rain all April!

Wahoo! Videos are fun

Here are more videos we took tonight (so excited about being able to upload videos :))!

Here is Bibou rattling off words from her Flashcards. For some reason though, she shouts the words out really excitedly! It's not just today. She does this all the time!



Ok, here's one of her singing twinkle twinkle little stars.

First try in uploading video!

Fingers cross that this works. This is a video of Bibou singing and dancing, with a little encouragement from me :)




Edited : WAHOO... it works! I'm gonna be posting more videos now hehehe. In fact, I'm gonna post another video of Dan and Bibou playing in the pool in the old posts below. Scroll down!!

Bibou and her Pal Dan...again!

One fine Sunday morning, Daddy and Bibou were out shopping at the Sunday market, guess who they bumped into? Dan and his Daddy! And while the two Daddies chatted and caught up, Dan and Bibou (who were really excited to see each other) played with each other. They were running up and down with each other. (in fact, she had soooo much fun with Dan and she was all teary and was moaning for "Dan" for about 10 minutes after Dan left!) Seeing it was such a beautiful day, Daddy invited Dan and his family over for gouter (tea) that afternoon so that the kids can play together in our back garden. We got the pool out (Daddy caved in and went out to get an 'electric pump' 'coz it was just too hot to pump up the pool by hand) and had it all ready for the kids. I made a pavalova and we all got ready for our guests.

Bibou was really excited and couldn't wait for Dan to turn up. We had everything all our for the kids. Finally they arrived and you can hear the squeals of joy and laughter from both of them. They get on soooo well together. There is never any squabbles or quarrels with each other. They ALWAYS share, everything - toys, new adventures etc. Most of all, they give each other the confidence to try new things. For example, before that day, Dan had never had juice out of a juice box before. He saw Bibou take one, and was eager to try it... try it he did and liked it! Also in the pool, his parents was just amazed at how much fun he had... previously, he never liked getting anything wet, and would be really cautious in the pool (ditto Bibou, who, last summer, would only stay at the edge of the pool and 'hang on'... not daring to get wet or sit down or try and swim). Well, wouldn't you know it... both of them (who were also really tickled that both of them had the same swim diapers on) were splashing each other, friendly shoving, loosing balance and sitting down in the pool and laughing all the way. There were just soo much squeals of laughter. oh and Dan had never been on a trampoline before, but once Bibou showed him once, both of them were just jumping up and down.

It is so heartwarming to see both of them playing so well together (especially when you compare them, not just Bibou apparently, when they're with other kids). They really loved being with each other. I love to see how they would call each other by name and say "come try this" and lead each other away to try new things. They trust each other so much. They share everything. We must ensure we get them together more often. Already Dan's parents have said that they wouldn't mind coming here more often seeing there were just sooo much things for the kids here... like a paradise. Given the great weather we're having, we totally agree! Frankly speaking though, I think that these kids will have fun just about anywhere they go. They just need each other. Awww so sweet.But we really must try and get them together more often.

Edited : RIGHT! Now that I've figured out how to upload videos, here are some videos of Bibou and Dan playing. You can see how much fun they were having :

Bibou sharing!

Every weekend has been filled with fun activities for Bibou... with MESSAGE friends. We've hosted a number of BBQs in our backyard and also been to a friend's place out east (near Disneyland). Here are some photos that we'd taken.

Certainly Bibou's at the age where the concept of sharing is difficult... especially when it comes to her toys. She is hugely protective of her stuff, especially with strangers, but it is no surprise nor is it, we think, unusual. We've of course been to other people's places where kids her age will refuse to share too. However, we find that once she warms up to the 'stranger' or if it is someone she already knows and likes, she will wholeheartedly share and even offer her stuff to others. We were particularly tickled and really well pleased to see when Bibou shared her food with others! She didn't hesitate at all. Especially when it came to this HUGE chocolate egg. She did hang on to it (smart kid hehe), and took the first few bites, but galantly offered it to Ella after. She'd take a bite and then give Ella a bite, back and forth. She did the same with Isabelle, both of whom were having lots of fun on my knee at first. Then someone offered Bibou some pain (bread) which she just ADORES. She took a couple of bites and then offered them to Isabelle. They had lots of fun. She got on very well with Isabelle and the both of them were jumping and sharing the whole afternoon.

Hayfever Galore!

Yup. Spring is definately upon us. The pollen is every where! I've been trying to stay indoors as much as possible, for even though I'm meant to be only allergic to 'June pollen", it is so bad that I'm already all stuffed up and eyes are tearing. Even Daddy feels it too!

However, it does mean that we're getting really gorgeous flowers blooming everywhere. Here are some pictures taken of the flowers in our garden. Up front, keeping our little fishes company is a sea of purple - the wisteria and lilacs. Out back, the tulips are gone, but the roses are in full bloom. It won't last for long, but we're enjoying as much as we can! Oh and with all the BBQs and guests that we have...and are expecting this summer, we went out and got a new outdoor table for the garden! It's just perfect!

Enjoying the lovely sunshine

The weather has been GORGEOUS lately. Warm, bright sunshine and we've been taking full advantage of it! The garden is beautiful this time of the year, with everything in full bloom. The tulips are already out and blossoming in the sun shine. We have cherry blossoms out in the neighbour's garden. Wisteria are also out, oh and the roses are starting to bud too. Can't wait for the wonderfully smelling liliacs! Oh and it looksl like we're gonna have lots of blueberries this year. Yippee! Bibou has remembered how much fun blowing bubbles can be and has been asking for her 'bubbles' every time we're out in the garden. She's getting a hang of blowing the bubbles (not everytime!), though it does tickle her each time she does yet a bubble out from the wand. She's sooo tickled that she gives a great big hearty laugh.

Here's another series of photos we took of her in the garden. Try to spot the flowers all over the garden!

Japanese Punk Rock Gal!

We had a very fun evening with Bibou the other night boy was she in top form, singing, dancing, wiggling and blowing kisses. We got some lovely pictures and wanted to share them with you! I absoluately ADORE the first picture, she looks like she's a rock star paying air guitar! Enjoy this series of photos!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone. We just had our second Easter celebrations with Bibou this past week. Bibou still hasn't quite grasped the concept yet, or maybe she just isn't into it yet, but she had fun eating the chocolates :). We went to 2 separate events.

The first was at a fellow MESSAGE mom's place about 5 minutes drive away from us. There were about 10 moms and their kids there. There was a lovely large garden for the kids to play in and Bibou sure had fun, especially on the monkey bar. Bibou's getting really good at it, and in fact, she totally surprised Daddy and I by climbing up and down it really well. She's really very agile. Soon it was time to distribute the eggs, so all the Moms got the kids into the house and Daddy entertained them on the guitar while the 'easter rabbit' distributed the eggs around the garden. Then the kids were let loose. Bibou carried her beautifully hand made by a fellow MESSAGE mom Easter basket. It has her name on it and little duckies too. We tried to get Bibou to search for the eggs, but she didn't want to. Well, she found one and then was just happy to open it and eat it. She just wasn't interested in looking for more eggs! Well, that's good in a way 'coz we didn't need to pursuade her not to eat the tons of chocolate the rest of the kids seemed to have picked up. All of them had chocolately hands and mouths.

On Saturday, we went to the MESSAGE wide Easter Egg Hunt. We had about 530 + RSVPs! ( I know 'coz I made name tags for everyone!). We don't know how many people turned up, but gosh were there lots of people. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very beautiful day (it warmed up later though). We went round hiding eggs and soon the hunt started. Once again, Bibou still wasn't interested in picking up the eggs! Good thing too, I saw kids with BAGS full of chocolate. Tummy ache alert lol! Hopefully next year, Bibou would be more interested in picking the eggs, but I wouldn't be too upset if she still doesn't!

A gorgeous Spring Day!

It is April 1st but Mother Nature sure wasn't playing a trick on us. We had a wonderful gorgoeous spring day yesterday. The sun was shining brightly and not a cloud in the sky. It warmed up really nicely too and the tulips even starting blooming. What a perfect day... to host a MESSAGE BBQ. We were really lucky as Daddy had invited his team members of the MESSAGE magazine over as a thank you for all their great work they do to help him on the MESSAGE magazine. All in all, we had about 15 adults and 8 kids.

Guests started arriving at around 11.00 am. We had the back garden all set up already (well, Daddy did as I was in the kitchen getting the food ready!). We managed to borrow another BBQ grill. The tables were ladden with all kinds of wonderful food. I had homemade burger patties and we had all kinds of fixings like lettuce, tomatoes, onions. All kinds of sauces, from mustard, ketchup, chilli sauce (but of course!) and I even made a special sauce from mayo, mustard, ketchup and chilli sauce. It was delicious!. We had lots of different kinds of salads (coleslaw, pasta, green). Surprisingly, the thing that went really fast were the hotdogs! We had gotten them for the kiddies but the adults liked them too! oh and the desserts! I had made my banana bread (at Daddy's request of course :)), but we also had a pound cake, a plum tart and a gorgeous strawberry tart. Lots of other goodies too like my chip and dip and drinks galore.

The kids had the greatest fun we think. Bibou's outdoor toys were a great hit. The sand pit was always occupied though I think we will have to replenish the sand this year. If only we had a nickel for the number of times we and the other parents said 'Sand stays in the sand pit please!!" There isn't much sand left for this summer. The other very popular item was Bibou's trampoline. The kids all wanted to jump on it. Fortunately, it was big enough for at least 2 kids to jump on. Jumpy jump jump jump! There were times when 3 kids managed to squeeze on it too, but not for long as someone was bound to be shoved off!! Daddy also took out Bibou's painting easel, and we had to scramble to find old T-shirts for the kids so that they didn't get too messy :). Fortunately, Bibou had her smock on.

Another big hit (though we'd forgotten to take it out until the end) was a 'tunnel' that we'd bought at Ikea. Bibou and Ella had so much fun with it. They were squealing with laughter as they chased each other up and down the tunnel. They managed to bond (after fighting in the begining of course) later in the afternoon (especially when the other kids had left). They did everything together and were giggling through out. Though Bibou didn't have her nap that afternoon, she was in tip top form!

Well, after our last guests had left (Ella and her parents), the neighbors' kids came over! They were already eyeing the party as it went on actually! lol. No they were having so much fun, and we had a bit of left over food and all those wonderful toys available so they came over. One of them recently purchased a new puppy, and Bibou was all excited. She wanted to hold the little puppy (name "Citron" or lemon) and play with her. She and Daddy were rolling in the grass with Citron and having lots of fun! Oh and more thing she learnt - after just watching Ella doing it 1 time! She can do somersaults. She saw Ella doing them, and she put her bum in the air and just did it! Unfortunately, I was so excited that I totally forgotten about snapping a pix of her doing the sumersaults. But I did managed to get a picture of her putting her shoes on by herself.

And then, the neighbors invited us over for a late gouter...and MORE cakes. (I couldn't have any, but Daddy sure had my share). What a wonderful wonderful day. Oh and a big thank you to Mamita and Grumps for the lovely dress that Bibou was wearing.