Good morning Sunshine

I love waking up in the morning now to Angel's cooing! She's just sooo smiley now and greets me with this big smile and a coo. In fact, she didn't just smile with her lips, it's a big grin, mouth wide open and she has this way of jutting her chin towards you like she's just so pleased to see me, and wants to be picked up. I haven't been able to capture that look yet on camera but managed to get these pictures which are just as fun and heartwarming. I love the last picture in this series - she looks like she's doing a dance move. We've just started putting her down on the activity mat and trying to get her to play with it. She's not able to for the moment of course, but she seems to like looking at them!

Yummy Garden

The sun came out yesterday! Finally! Though it wasn't terribly warm - in fact, it was a mere 12 degrees in the morning, but it warmed up considerably in the afternoon. We noticed that there were some fresh raspberries that had ripened and were ready to be picked. So off to the garden we went. Bibou absoluately adores raspberries now (she didn't like them last year) and loves eating them especially off the vine! Daddy noticed that the tomato plants were growing all over the place, as with the raspberries plant, so while Bibou and I were picking the fruits, Daddy did some gardening; tidying those unruly plants. This year, we planted tomatoes, cabbage, salad (lettuce), broccoli, parsnips and kongkong's hard work - corn (he planted them himself). So far, only the lettuce has been ready to be harvested and we've been eating them very regularly (since end of June!). They are delicious and really handy. If we discovered time had flown by and a meal hadn't been prepared, we'd pop into the garden to get some lettuce leaves and have a yummy salad. We've discovered a way to pick the lettuce so that it would continue to 'grow' - our neighbour had taught us not to pull up the whole head of lettuce (which is really a waste as we wouldn't be able to finish the whole head and of course once you pull it out, it's dead and we won't have anymore). Instead, we just pluck off a leaf or two from each head every time. This way, each head can and does continue to grow. Our broccoli doesn't seem to be thriving this year (we'll see), but everything else is doing great! Can't wait for the corn and parnsips and of course the zuchinnis. Next, we still have our berries patch - raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and tayberries. Oh, almost forgot our apple tree - which has grown a lot more apples this year! Our herb patch is also thriving : rosemary, lavendar, spring onions, mint, chives, parsley, thyme and chilli. It's just great to have our own vegetable patch! We get to eat fresh food!

Koony Planet Crazy Fun

Well, it was pissing with rain again yesterday. It was downright yucky. Also found out that Dan will be at his Grandparents all week, so we won't be able to play with Dan! Then I thought, why not do something indoors today with Dan so the kids can have fun before he goes away. We called them up and they were free! So off to Koony Planet we went.

The Bitans came round to our home as they didn't know how to get there. Bibou was already strapped in her car seat so we didn't let her down. However, she'd heard Dan's voice, but didn't see him (the both of them were soooo cute... they kept calling out to each other, just checking to make sure that us parents weren't lying about seeing each other!!). So when we started the car and off we went. And poor Bibou was really upset and kept calling out for Dan. At first, we couldn't understand why, and then realized that she thought that that encounter was it! She hadn't realized or wouldn't believe that we're going to meet up again. We tried explaining to her, but she was a little tired (no nap!) and kept asking : "Il est ou, Dan"? (Where is Dan?) every minute or so. Then 5 minutes before arriving at our destination, she fell asleep! Yikes! We were prepared for an unpleasant couple of minutes when we arrived and had to wake her up.... and I had a difficult time trying to wake her up. She was dead to the world and wouldn't budge. Then I stepped aside and was going to ask Daddy to try and wake her up when Dan who was just unstrapped from his seat came running to our car, calling out to Bibou. And lo behold, she woke up immediately, and called out to him and started chattering non-stop to him, like she didn't fall asleep at all! WOW! They were both sooo excited. But not as excited as when they got inside. My golly, they couldn't stop running, screaming and the huge smiles and laughs on their faces were priceless. As Dan hadn't been at this place before, and Bibou had, Bibou was the 'leader' as she led him through all the different structures. They were just running everywhere. Dan following Bibou wherever she went and Bibou stopping to help Dan whenever he got stuck or slowed down. They absoluately adored the slide (Bibou obviously isn't afraid of it anymore), both squealing with delight as they came sliding down. Their cheeks were all red from the excitment and the exercise. Sometimes I found find Bibou bent over and panting, but when I tried to go to her, asking her if she was alright, she'd quickly run away saying YES! After a couple of hours, they went off to the trampoline area. Dan was a bit cautious at first as he hadn't done it before, but soon they were both jumping up and down and having lots of fun. But then, Bibou suddenly tripped and Dan unfortunately couldn't stop in time and jumped on Bibou's ankle! She was crying hard so we managed to grab her off the trampoline and tried to calm her down so that she can rest. However, she was too excited and wiggled out of Daddy's arms and tried to run back to the structure... and to our horror, she kept falling down with every step of her right foot she took and crying. I have to admit that that was the most scary thing that I've ever seen; I was just soo worried and horrified...wondering if she's ok. The worst part was that she refused to stop!!!! She wanted to continue playing and was desperately trying to run and I guess she was crying more in frustration. We had to bribe her with ice cream to calm her down and Dan's mom also insisted that he stayed seated for gouter. We managed to get both of them seated and have their tea while we took Bibou's slippers (Robeez!! - the greatest thing! http://www.robeez.com/) off to check, and it was quite badly bruised. And even after about 20 minutes of resting, she still couldn't run - she'd tried to run away from us to go to back playing. It was with great difficulty that we got Dan and Bibou to stop playing and get their shoes on so that we could leave. We had to go to the hospital to make sure that nothing was broken. (Bibou screamed as soon as the doctor came to her, and Daddy had to hold her during the X-ray, but everything is OK. Just a bad bruise and we've kept ice on her ankle.. and we're keeping her 'quiet' at home today - no such luck though. She's got too much energy!!). Anyway, all's well that ends well. Bibou is AOK, but that's our first ER visit... and I'm sure it won't be the last!

My Bibou all grown up

The other day, Bibou met up with Dan at the park. Dan was with his new nounou (who will also be Bibou and Angel's nounou come September) and she took this picture of the both of them. I melted when I saw the photo. My little girl looked all so grown up in the picture. The pose, the look, her clothes, they all scream 'all grown up'. It is difficult to imagine that she's not even 3 years old yet! However, she's starting to talk a lot better, or maybe it's just that we're so used to her 'language' that we understand her lol. Seriously though, she does maange to express herself with a good amount of vocabulary. However, she has this big tenacity to mix english and french. For example, she would say 'pas yet' (not yet), 'moi too' (me too). It's funny, but we have to keep a watchful eye / ear out! Especially when she's going to school in September ... she'll be even more immersed in French. Well, at least she'll be hearing almost nothing but English this August!

Angel's 10 weeks old update

Here are some really cute photos of Angel. She's a real laugh riot and a half. She gives the cutest giggles and laughs ever and is most smiley in the morning when she gets up. With her cubby cheeks, you just wanna pinch them when she smiles or coos. She's quite 'talkative' too, and babbles a lot when she's awake, and especially when you talk to her. She loves talking back. She's making all these cute sounds like "A-go" and "heeee". Unfortunately, she still has reflux and spits up all the time. Though she doesn't seem to mind them too much. Bibou gets upset when she does though and will come to me to tell me that her baby sister has 'vomitted' and for me to do something. In fact, she's really protective of her sister that way. She doesn't want to see her baby sister in a bad way. The other day, I was in the kitchen preparing dinner or something when Angel decided that she wanted to eat, like NOW, so she started crying and wailing. Poor Bibou was trying to calm her down and said, 'don't cry, Mummy coming ok' and immediately came to me to tell me "come Mummy, Seraphine cry'. Everyone altogether now : awwwwww! Right, everyone enjoy these latest series of photo taken the past few days.

Grande Merci and Au-voir Ta-ta Latifa

On Friday, it was with great sadness that we had to say bye bye to ta-ta Latifa. It was Bibou's last day at the creche, which is closed in August, and then Bibou goes to school in September. The time has certainly flown by! Bibou has had 30 wonderful months at ta-ta Latifa. She's been a wonderful nanny to Bibou, who has grown up with her and learnt so much from her. Ta-ta Latifa has also been more than a nanny, she's been a great friend; her daughter Sonia babysits Bibou for us, always has a kind word and never forgets Bibou's b'day and Christmas - she always has a gift for her. She also came over for a visit when Angel was born (but unfortunately, Seraphine was at the neonatal ward having her medication via the drip so tata couldn't see her) and even sent some food home with Bibou when I came back from the hospital. I also remember my very first week (the 'adaptation' week) with tata. It was obviously my first time being apart from my little baby and it was hard for me, and I broke down crying. Tata comforted me and made me feel so at ease, that I knew that Bibou would be in good hands.

We (both us and tata) have been telling Bibou that the 'end' is near and that she won't be returning to tata anymore (except for course for the occasional visit and odd babysitting). We're not sure if she's completely understood (no tears or tantrums or fears from her yet). We'll see. Well, we're planning on keeping her quite occupied in August. Next week, we hope to hook up with Dan and bring both of them to various places in Paris. Then Mamita and Grumps will arrive for a 3 week visit and that will certainly keep her happy! They will even be here when Bibou goes to school, and this time it will be with her pal Dan. Anyway, so yesterday, when we went up to collect Bibou, we brought tata a gift - a digital photo frame and we'd also uploaded a few photos of Bibou and tata through the years. Tata really liked her gift, and we looked at the photos together. All too soon, we had to leave. It was really sad to go. We will miss her. But I'm sure we'll see Tata soon.

This weekend, Bibou got invited to a birthday party. It was Gaia's 3rd birthday and she was throwing her party in a room above a toy shop! They even had 2 princesses who helped the party along. They had games, dances and even a puppet show. Bibou even had her face all painted up like a princess, and she had fun dancing with Daddy.

I Love my sister

Bibou really is very affectionate with her baby sister. She's just so excited around her, always wanting to carry her, kiss her, carrass her. Coming back through the door every day now, she heads straight to her baby sister first. Not a bad word or action (intentional ones that is) for her sister at all. She'll get upset if her sister cries. We're really pleased with these set of photos of both of them!

Oh I think I forgot to mention that Bibou has a new bed. A "real" kids bed, one that Daddy can't get into! We also got a 'sky' that covers her bed, and it makes it all nice and cosy. Bibou really loves it. This will be her interim bed until we get bunkbeds for the two girls (ie long way off!).

This week, Angel is 8 weeks old (and two months old on Saturday). She's staying more awake now during the day though she would insist on being in our arms which can be quite tiring. Or on my breasts - which is worst as we've found out that she's got reflux and thus we can't feed her as much as she likes. So I try to limit her feeding as much as possible, but it just isn't possible all the time!! At the doctor's, we found out that she weighs in at a hefty 5 kgs already (11.1 lbs). She's a big girl! She's really smiley when she wakes up in the morning. But what really surprised us last week was, in the bathroom, when I was blowdrying her hair - we realized that she can hold her head up for a long period of time now (she's always had strong neck). It's a wow!

Hot Bastille Weekend

What a busy weekend we've had. The weather FINALLY has turned nice (though it started raining again on Monday), the sun was shinning brightly, not a drop of rain and it was nice and warm (actually, it was hot!). So of course we brought out the BBQ pit, the pool and invited some friends over!

On Saturday, we had a number of really good friends over. And altogether, we had about 9 kids including Bibou (but not Angel). Bibou was really excited when she heard who was coming and couldn't stop chanting Emma and Kealan in the morning. She even woke up that morning with a big smile on her face and told me that Emma and Kealan were coming today to swim in th epool. The kids were just sooooo happy to see the pool and couldn't wait to jump into the pool. THere were lots of noises, splashes and jumping about. Unforutnately, it was just too much splashing for Bibou and she was really scared. All the other kids were much older and bigger than her, and though they were really nice and tried to get her to play with them, she was just too scared at their rowdariness. She just stood at the edge of the pool and looked scared and most of all, I think she was really hurt (probably at the thought that her friends were not playing with her.) We adults had a great time eating (my chicken wings and chilli dogs are quite popular now lol). Mid afternoon, all the pops took the kids to the park to play with the water pistol while us Moms relaxed at home and gossiped. It was really nice. It was icecream time when the kids came back and then back into the pool they jumped in. It was then that I remembered that we had another smaller pool and we got that out, and Bibou and the younger twins got in. Bibou was all happy again, (but really not as happy as when everyone left - she went straight into her pool and jumped in. NO words could describe the smile on her face then - it's like 'ahhhhh all to myself now).

On Sunday, Bibou again woke up really happy. This time, it was Dan who was coming for gouter and to play in the pool. Those two were just sooo pleased to see each other again and had lots of fun in the pool, in the garden... bascially in everything that they do! They just follow each other and do what the other does. But the funniest moment of the whole afternoon was when they started fighting with each other! We adults were just howling with laughter and it was lucky that it was captured on video. They both were like an old married couple! However, they made up just as quickly and back to playing with each other again. Dan once again was sooo happy that he didn't want to leave - and was crying again. That made Bibou sad.

Here's the video of both of them fighting.











Another one of the two of them in the pool :