Daddy and me at Parc Asterix

Well, it's countdown to my last few days of 'vacation'. It'll be back to work for me (and Daddy will also be looking for one very soon) on Monday. It's been a wonderful 6 months off! It's been rather varied; the first 6 weeks or so was more of a pain, with physical pain (... I was aching EVERYWHERE, so much so that I couldn't even lie down and have a good night sleep), oh and the itchiness (I was itching soooo badly everywhere... we never did find out why, probably 'coz it was the summer period, when i'm most allegeric and compounded by all the raging homones going on in my body) and also the tedious numerous doctor's appointment that I had. Towards the end, I was at the hospital every 48 hours so that the midwives could check on me. In the end, it was a good thing that I was being constantly monitored.... my body was ready to spit Angel out. I had such bad swellings and in the end, it was probably pre-eclampsia as I was literally swollen all over, had constant headaches, protein in my urine etc. As I was just 3 weeks shy of my due date, my doctor felt that it was better if we took Seraphine out. And I have to say that though I still was scared and upset when I heard the news.... I was relieved! The 10 days following Seraphine's birth was the worst, as you all know by now the horrible experience that little Angel went through when she fell sick. The month of June was getting to know Angel time! Thank goodness for the help from our fab confinement lady as she not only cooked and cleaned, she tended to Angel 24 / 7 and really helped me through the difficult first month. I was close to despair at the thought of perhaps I had to stop breastfeeding Angel as she just wasn't feeding well (feedings sometimes could take up to 1 1/2 hours and we always ended up giving her the bottle. But it all went well, (and now Angel's b/feeding like a champ!). Mah mah and kong kong were also a great help in June. July flew by quickly, though most days for me was spent catching up on sleep as I can't remember us doing much! It was more of feeding and sleeping really. It was also Bibou's last month at the creche and ta-ta Latifa. Bam, then it hit us... the month of August where we had Bibou with us 24/ 7. Man that was tough! Bibou was (still is!) at her terrible twos and threes stage, and probably compounded by the arrival of someone new who's stealing away Daddy and Mummy's attention. Don't get me wrong, she loves her baby sister and has no bad word nor action towards Angel, but she acts out in a different way I guess... by being whiney and moany and cry all the time. We had Mamita and Grumps over in August tohelp out and we did a number of activities, despite the horrible horrible weather! oh and we managed a fab short trip down south. THe last 2 -3 weeks has been a hectic rush for me... first we had Bibou's first days at her new school. So there's the getting use to few new things and routine, like getting up early in the morning, have breakfast and get out of the door, getting used to Giselle her new nanny (which she adores and listens to) oh and potty training! We also had to get Angel adapted to Giselle and being away from me... so we started with a couple of short days with Giselle and getting Angel on bottles (with my expressed breastmilk). This week, we started to do 'long days' and Angel has had no problem adjusting. So yesterday, Daddy and I decided to take the whole day to ourselves and take the opportuniy (since we probably won't have another chance to have time alone to ourselves, until we retire probably!!) to... go to Parc Asterix. It's this huge park, not unlike six flags, though they seem to have a bit more rides for children too. But compared to Disneyland, it has more rides catered to adults... like tumbling, upside down rollar costers. I've been dying to go to Parc Asterix and it was perfect. The rides were just so thrilling...there was this long, rickety wooden one that I think is Europe's longest ride. There was also this long and many upside down round and round one (that's a pix of it, with Daddy in front of it), one that resembled being in a bob sled. Those three were the most exciting one. As it was September, there were barely anyone in the parc, so no long queues for us. At most, we had to wait like 3 minutes for ride or something. I think that Daddy and I were the oldest couple without kids there! And boy did we feel it. Daddy kept feeling a little queasy and nauseous after each ride (I was fine, but that was probably 'coz I had the foresight to take some pimperan - anti vomitting pills lol! - our neighbour was laughing at me, but hey, whatever works!). But we still got on all the rides we wanted. I got knocked round a little too, with a bruise on my knee. We also got to meet some of the characters. All in all, we had a really lovely time, just Daddy and me.

A very full Sunday

Last Sunday was just jam packed with activities! It was a really nice day too! What luck. We started with a stroll to our town center where the annual wine and cheese fair was on. We'd been for the previous 2 days already and really like it. It's a great fair, lots of booths around the mairie (town hall), which is the 'old' part of the town, with honest to goodness, ankle breaking cobblestones! Actually, it's really quite beautiful. Just havae to watch them cobblestones, especially with the stroller. Every year, the fair centers around a theme, and this year, we're guessing the theme is... Swiss cheese! 'coz everywhere we go, there were lots of swiss cheese! There was even a fondue stall this year. It was all very delicious, and 'smelly'.. as there were lots of stalls selling all different types of cheeses and dried sussages (mahmah would have fainted going through the fair! lol). There were also lots of stalls selling wine (most people go round tasting the wine to buy) and other specialties like foie gras, a couple of honey stalls (they sell differnet types of honey! I swear... there were flower honey, wild honey, tree honey, creamy honey, different type of honey from different trees and plants such as lavender, tileuil (sp?) etc) and one of my favorite stalls, a jam stall...with all kinds of yummy confitures / jams filled with chunky pieces (not runny, watery paste you get from the supermarket). They also have unique, not often found ingredients... my favorite is red tomato with onions. I know, it sounds weird for a jam, that's what I thought, and especially since I hate tomatoes, imagine my surprise when I discovered what the ingredients were after tasting it (we did a taste test many years ago (b4 children))! I bought a jar immediately! It's lovely as a chutney type, but I like it on bread / toast. Yes, so lots of stuff at the fair, but what we do, especially with the girls, is get there to... EAT. They've got lovely food at the fair, and if you get there early enough, you can find seats. So that's what we did on Sunday. We headed for my favorite aligot stall and placed an order. Aligot is basically mashed garlic potato mixed with melted cheese, normally a tomme. It's oh so delicious ... and heavy! So great for the winter (and not so good for the rather lovely sunny day, but hey! It's once a year). Bibou even got to stir the pot (pix of her stiring). I also headed off to get some yummy tartiflette... another heavy cheese dish, made from potatoes, bacon / ham, onion, cheese, creme fraiche and wine (the pix on the left is the HUGE pn of tartiflette). Oh and we got some sussages too. After that heavy meal, we really had to walk it all off!

We came home and everyone was ready for a little nap seeing what a heavy meal it was! After the nap, we met Dan and his family at the park.. another park in Sceaux. The kids had lots of fun just running round and round, their attention span is quite quite limited; they don't stay at any one structure for long, but they're always together.. chasing each other, and now, they seem to be fighting a lot! Though they do make up quite quickly too.

We had to rush back as we had Rebecca and her family over for a quick dinner (in between Rugby games!). I'd made beef rendang (in the slow cooker) and so that was ready when we came back home. We'd also recently go to chinatown and bought lots of chinese vegetables, so I cooked some shanghai bak choy (quick fry with garlic and soy sauce) and broad beans (with garlic, chai bo, and chili brown bean sauce). For once, I remembered to get a pix taken of the food before hey got all eaten up. We had a great time albiet short with everyone. Et viola, a jolly busy Sunday and we managed to get the girls into bed not too late!

Ooo, here's a clip of Bibou and Dan running around in the playgroud.

Bumbo Fun!

Wahoo, for a while now, Angel's been holding her head upright for short periods of time (she started really young), but recently, we found that her head doesn't flop now, ie she's holding her head upright. In fact, when she's lying down, I find that she even tries to lift her head up from the lie down position. She only doesn't quite like tummy time yet (ie lying on her tummy, so I put her down only for a little while). So! When we found that her neck's strong enough, we brought out the... BUMBO! We had lots of fun with the bumbo with Bibou, and couldn't wait to put Angel in it... so we did. The Bumbo, for those who don't know it, is this fab invention; a kind of seat that you can put your baby in, no fuss, no mess. What's the difference between a Bumbo and any other baby seat? Well, for one, it has none of those long, difficult straps! It's perfect when you're just holding the baby and suddenly need to do something else, like answer the door, answer the call of nature, grab something off the stove etc. This, all you need to do is plonk the precious into it and off you go. And the little one is all snug and happy in it. Bibou could spend a long time in it, and wouldn't complain. Unfortunately, Angel is tooooo active to like it. She likes / needs to move all the time, to kick (she kicks off all her blankets during her sleep. Need to get another grobag soon for her), move all the time. She'll stay in the Bumbo for a while, but soon, she'll try to wiggle off it. She'd probably be able to get out of it soon by herself. Yikes.

Yes, so, we put her in the Bumbo and she looked soooo cute. Then Bibou came along, and wanted to play around with it, so we put her in and took some photos. Looking at the pix shows us how 'slim' Bibou is compared to Seraphine (now and then). And that reminded me of the pix of Bibou in her Bumbo for the very first time. It was in Singapore at Kongkong mahmah's place. She was past her 4th month birthday (Seraphine was about 1 week shy of her 4th month birthday when we took these pix). Look at the difference (size for one! and the big smiles from Seraphine - Bibou at that time gave small tentative smiles.) and yet the similarites (the look.. those cubby cheeks OMG). Ahhh my babies. These photos just reminds me how fast the times flies.

My giggly bundle of joy

What can I say that I've not said before. She's a DOLL! She's generally a really sweet angel, and doesn't cry much except when she is sleepy and wants to suckle. I love the way she wakes up... not a peep! Just a little smile and she just looks all around her, exploring everything around her, and especially her fingers an thumbs. (Sigh, yes she's definately found her thumb and is sucking it! I was hoping that she would stay off her thumb, but t least she's not using a pacifier / dummy. That was 1 thing I really didn't want any of our girls to use, after seeing how awful it looked when 5 -6 year olds walking / running around with a pacifier in their mouths. It's a permanent fixture. Ewww! ) She has this adorable cooing sound that melts my heart and that's what I wake up to every morning. Coo, giggle, coo coo, . Sigh, but it won't be long that I'll be waking up to the darn blasting alarm wouldn't I. Sob sob.

She loves to giggle and laugh, even when she's alone by herself like when she's under her floor gym. She'd look up at it, give this funny kick kick dance and giggle to it. Yes, I forgot to mention that she does this hilarious wiggle kick routine when she's happy, and she'll giggle and squeal with delight at what she's doing. She's my funny gal. She loves going out in the pram and so I take her for long walks almost every day, mostly to either pick up Bibou from the park, or do some grocery shopping etc. Oh she's so happy to lie there (quietly though, as though she had so much to capture that she needed to concentrate on what she's doing) and observe everything that goes by (well technically that she goes by). She espescially likes to look at the leaves that sways softly in the air. She's mesmorized by them! But she'll still break way from their hypnotic movements if someone peers into her pram to look and coo at her (and a lot do, she attracks a lot of attention, even strangers!) and she will always oblige them with a great big smile.

Well my littke angel is fast becoming a little... sumo! Yes, we just returned from a doctor's visit for Seraphine. Since her last visit (a month and a half ago), she's grown 5 cms and put on almost 2 kg. She's now 62 cm (24 inches) and 6.8 kg (15 pounds)! ai yo yo. She's at about the 95 percentile for her weight. Even her doctor has commented that she's 'eating at a good restuarant' isn't she. (French doctor's humor). Well, she's still exclusively breastfed, and doesn't eat all the time now. She even sleeps through the night most nights (started when she was a week shy of her 3rd month birthday. I remember that night ... I woke up with a start and rushed to her bed to see if she was 'still breathing', wondering what was wrong that she didn't wake up to feed!). Yes, I say most nights as she still wakes up in the middle on the night sometimes. But mostly, she sleeps for about 9 hours straight. Bliss. I just have difficulty putting her down in the evenings. Sometimes it can take up to 1 1/2 hour!!

Well, here are some recent pix of my little adorable minx! And yes, she still has her 'punk' hairstyle. It just won't go down! What I like it! It's just soooo her! Enjoy.

Oh and here's a recent video of her smiling and giggling.

Bibou's first day at School!

My Bibou's all grown up now. She had her first day at school and all went very well. There were no tears or hesitation nor anxiety separation.. nothing. It was more of a 'can I go in now, can I can I, like WOW look at all those new toys". It was certainly a bittersweet moment. But we are very proud that she has settled into school so quickly. Of course, it certainly helps I'm sure, that Dan is with her and that both of them are confident and unafraid as there is something familiar in the room that allows them to be stressed free. Even their teacher has commented that they both were very inseparable. I think she was also hinting that they could be just a little bit too inseparable... ie, once one is up to mischief, the other is bound to follow very very soon. But she is a very very nice lady and in fact, many MESSAGE moms who have kids in that school all tell us that she's the best. And for that, we're grateful.

Bibou wasn't 100% toilet trained the first day.. and in fact, on the first day, she had her first accident in the coridor before entering class. Daddy quickly brought her to the (really cute) bathroom, sat her in the toilet and she did number 2 there! And didn't have any more accidents that day. Actually, if I remember correctly, she didn't have any accidents at school all week. They do take the kiddies to the bathroom very often.

After school, the kid's nanny, Giselle picks them up and takes them to (Dan's) home for a quick gouter and then, if the weather permits, off to the park to run some more. Very soon, Seraphine will be joining them with Giselle, when I return to work (in just 2 more weeks, boo hoo!). Giselle is a really super nice lady, it is obvious that she loves kids and is super good with the kids. She does a lot of activities with them etc. And she is experienced enough to handle all 4 of them! (hats off to her... as the 5 of us couldn't handle the 4 kids at Eurodisney!).

Anyway, no pictures of Bibou at school yet as we've not been organized. Here are recent pix of Bibou and Angel to make up for it.

Last day of vacation - with Dan

Yes, it was the last day of vaction for the kids. They go to school the very next day on September 3. It wasn't too bad a day (ie, not raining!! it was cool when the sun goes behind the clouds), so we hooked up with Dan and his parents and we decided to go visit the jardin d'acclimatation! The two kids were so excited (as usual) so the car ride over the the jardin was filled with "where's dan?" but it wasn't all that long a trip and we got there fairly quickly. Ah the two 'lovers' (as Dan's Dad calls them), they rushed to each other and started gabbing non stop. They chased each other and were just so excited to see each other. We managed to get the kids to calm down and stay off the roads while we strapped the younger ones in their strollers and off we went. Fortunately, there weren't many people at the queues, probably a combination of it not being a very sunny day / next day is reentree (people coming back from vacation and preparing for school and work) / it was just past lunch time. So we managed to get tickets fairly quickly and into the park we went with the two great balls of energy. As they ran in, we took a different path that we had the previous time. And we came upon a great big area of animals. We saw many beautiful birds, farm animals like sheep, pigs, cows, and we even saw a brown bear (which didn't do much, just laid on his big tree branch and napped). With so many wonderful things to see and do around them, the most amazing thing was that the one thing that attracked these two was..... a big tree! They lost interest in the animals when they discovered this great big tree with big branches and they had a fantastic time playing tag and hide and seek! Well, tag with each other and hide and seek with the Daddies! LOL.

We had to hustle the kids so that we would be in time for the puppet show. Dan hadn't seen one before and Bibou really liked it...so off we went. It was actually a slightly different show than the one Bibou had seen previously, so that was good. Both of them enjoyed the show. After the show, it was gouter time (tea time), so we parked ourselves on this lovely patch of grass and had a bit of picnic gouter. The kids finished first and began horsing around with each other... and that got Daddy going (he loves horsing around doesn't he ;))! And soon, the kids were all over him. Oh, did they have fun! He let them climb all over him, and then he stood up, but because they didn't want to let him go, he held them in a 'strong man hold'. It was hilarious and the kids couldn't stop laughing. Then Dan's Daddy joined in the fun and soon, they both had a child on their shoulders and they had a fight... though it wasn't much of a fight as the kids were almost collapsing with laughter while the Daddies soon became doing a dance. Ahhh, wonder who are the kids here.

Then Bibou and Dan went off to play on the playground. Gosh those two just don't stop. Up and down the slides, in and out etc. ANd with sooooo many kids around, it was difficult to keep track of them. It was a little scary sometimes when once in a while, the kids went off radar! Panic modes sink in and you search the area widly. The enormous sense of relief that washes over you when you spot your child is indescribable, especially in current times of horrible news where you hear of kids being taken, kidnapped just within spilt second. I think one cannot be over protective of your child, but there is a fine line. I remember once when Bibou was not even two years old, we'd gone to Ikea (very large large area as everyone knows). Well, Bibou was getting antsy and so Daddy decided to take her out of the trolley seat so that she can walk on her own. Unfortunately, she slipped away from us for just 2 seconds and then we couldn't find her in any of the nearby asiles! She'd ran away, playing hide and seek. I was near in tears, running from aisle to aisle looking for her. Finally Daddy found her, really far away. The most scary part was, she wasn't worried or scared at all, unlike most kids who'd immediately start bawling when they can't fnd their parents. Apparently, she was just wandering around, looking at people and kept on wandering (though she knew by then that she was 'lost'). From then on, we keep a very very tight hold on her (not easy, thus we really very seldom bring her to the shops with us).

Golly, yes, I've digressed. Anyway, so next, as he'd promised the kids that they could go on 1 ride, so off we went to the 'fair'. The merry go round seems to be the only thing that Bibou will get on these days, so that was what we'd chose. She loves the horses and so she chose a shiny white one. She's really happy on it! The giggles she gives are magic. Then on the way out to the exit, we passed by the funny mirrors. Apparently, Dan hadn't been there, so Bibou brought him to it and showed him what fun it was. Very soon, they were both running from one mirror to another, pausing just a second to laugh hysterically at their distorted images. What fun! Then it was time to go home as the kids start soon the next day.

Ah...the lovers :

Baa baa black sheep

Ahhh, it was another fairly nice day and one of the last few vacation days for Bibou, so off we went for another outing. This time, we picked the Gally Farm as we've been promising Bibou that we'd go there, but we never did (well, we tried going there once with Kongkong and mahmah, but the farm was closed to the open public as they were only catering to school's field trips. In fact, we were actually driving behind this bus FULL of children on the road, and I was wondering if they were going to the farm, and when they did turn in, we literally ran to get in front of them. Needless to say, it was futile as we couldn't get in).

When we got there, Bibou remembered the place well, and got really excited about seeing the animals. She spared no time in running up to the donkey (it was fenced in), and searching for hay to feed him. However, still always at the last minute, she'd back away or drop the food when the donkey / sheep / goat (whatever animal that she was trying to feed) opened it's (big) mouth towards her. I tried showing her that you can place the food flat on your palm so that your fingers wouldn't get 'eaten' up, but she's still afraid. But she still had lots of fun picking up the hay and rushing to either give it to me / Daddy to feed or try to give it to them herself (and dropping it at the last minute - perhaps she thinks / hopes that the animal will snatch the food in time before it drops to the ground.)

After spending some time in the fenced area of animals, we moved to the big field where we got to enter a big pen of pregnant goats and little kid (baby goats, not children!). One thing we realized, it was very very quiet, probably 'coz it was already reentree or close to it. THere weren't many animals either. Which turned out to be a good thing as Bibou didn't feel too overwhelmed by them and was happy to move amongst the goads, pet them and finally try to feed them, but again, she'd always got scared just as the goat's mouth approached her hand. Daddy or I'd hold her hand and she'd be braver. Once Bibou was satisfied with playing with the goats, we left the pen to continue onto the other side. As we were walking, we heard this bleating sound and turned around in time to see this flock of sheep running loose. They were moving around finding the best place to graze. Bibou was just amazed by them. But then she caught sight of those little huts which she just adores and went off playing in them forever. We finally managed to pull her away so that we could take a little (really small) walk along the trail, but we rushed through it as she was really more interested in her huts. We let her play there for a while more and than it was time to go (not before browsing through their little shop and marveling at the different types of honey available!).