Time for an Angel Update!

Right, it is time for an Angel update isn’t it. It has been a while. That’s because I’m absolutely exhausted.. sleep deprivation is one tough torture! Angel is having a lot of sleep problems right now, and I think it is a few factors combined – the biggest being that she’s probably still not gotten her ‘rhythm’ (as her doctor has said) ever since we’d returned from Toronto. (ie she’s still jetlagged!). Add to that the fact that she’s been ill, really ill. First, it was the gastro flu (so, bad diarrhea, vomit etc), and now, it’s turned into a ‘real’ flu, with stuffed up nose, green running nose, hacking and chesty cough. Poor girly girl! Then to top it off, she’s probably still teething, given that she’s constantly constantly chewing on things, anything that she can get her hands on – toys, chew toys, her bottle’s nipple, her finger (ok, not really chewing on her finger with her new teeth, but she’ll stick her fingers into her mouth and ‘chew’ on it with her gums), and worst of all… my nipples. Yes, my nipples. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! I’ve got really sore nipples right now. I’m guessing (HOPING!) that she’s not doing it on purpose (as in, gee, let’s all hear Mummy scream in pain by biting her nipple), but she’s doing it out of pure frustration / pain / in search of relief, as she’s doing this with her bottle too. She’s chewing on the rubber teat with her gums, I’m guessing in search of relief! She’s already got 4 teeth that have appeared, all in quick succession one after the other. We’re having a little breather as we’ve not seen any appear yet, but I guess it’s ‘coming’ and that must hurt too. Still, we have to be grateful that she doesn’t have too much other symptoms, such as fever, blotchy face and bottom (no idea where that connection came from, but it is one of the symptoms) etc.

Besides her milk (she’s still breastfed as you’d probably concurred from above!! But also has a bottle of formula at night), Angels starting to eat a lot of solids… that is of course pureed. I try, though not very successful, to make homemade purees for her. Today, I made peas and carrots. Yum yum. Other times, when I don’t have a lot of time, Angel gets freshly frozen vegetables from Picard. (another great tip from MESSAGE moms!). Have to say that she’s not as adventurous not as ‘good’ an eater than Bibou was at that age (I remember Bibou just devouring everything that was put in front of her, even sucking on a lemon (she still went for more!)) She’s more tentative, not as adventurous and in the beginning, was really difficult to get her going. Now, she seems to like it and will finish her meal (but only if we’d mixed a little bit of my milk into it – and I’ve now taken to squeezing some milk into a bowl prior to feeding her – a funny sight sometimes, but it’s quicker than having to deal with the pump etc). So far, she seems to really like carrots and peas. Oh and last night, I mashed up some really ripe bananas, and she goggled it down too.

Physical development wise, Angel’s progressed a lot in the last few weeks. She’s certainly sitting up a lot now and doing it very well (though she tends to topple over after a while). She likes reaching out in front of her (while sitting) and grabbing everything in sight. She’s doing so well that we’ve decided to take away her transat for her bath and let her sit upright in it. Oh gosh, she’s REALLY loving that. But the biggest advancement is that she wants to walk! She wants to be on her feet all the time! So her nanny has taken to put her in a walker and boy is she a happy camper! You can tell from the video below (well, maybe not… it is VERY dark), she’s grinning from ear-to-ear – and she just rolls so very quickly! Yippeeee. Anyway, here are some latest photos of her and also of the two of them.

A great video of Angel 'cruising' in the walker.

Another video of Angel having carrots for lunch :

Do we have a picasso in our midst?

I think so anyway ( I would too, wouldn't I, being a mother and all??!! But that's probably also because I don't have any artistic talent and thus am quite tickled to see Bibou having them.) Well, picasso or not, Bibou loves to draw right now (it's one of ther favorite activity to do, this and puzzles of course) and she does it all the time. I've taken to bringing back recycled paper from the office and giving it to her to use. Perfect use of recycled annual report that I've proofread to death!

Anyway, here are two pictures that she'd recently drew. The first one is named 'Mummy' apparently. She'd sat in front of me and said she was going to draw me and then she did. If you look closely enough, you can see two eyes, a nose and a mouth somewhere there!

The second one, well, she drew it after she'd walked in on Daddy accidently who was in the bathroom taking a whizz. Go figure hahahaha

Finally, I'd recently created a 'special' book for Bibou off the shutterfly website. It a book that has a number of sesame street characters celebrating Bibou's birthday and has a picture of Bibou doing different activities with the Sesame Street characters on each page. It was really very well done and Bibou just LOVES the book. Here's the look at the cover page.

Bibou the comic

The other day, Bibou received a parcel from Mamita and Grumps. And in it, included a shiny €1 coin for her to put in her piggy bank. So up she went with Daddy and in the coin went into her piggy bank. Thank you Mamita! As Bibou leaves her ‘terrible twos’ stage, she’s entering quite comfortably and quite determinedly into the “TERRIBLE THREES” – the no, no, no, I want to do it my way stage. Sigh, it’s not easy. One really needs a lot of patience BUT we are also often rewarded with lots of great fun, heartwarming gestures. Bibou is also very comical and animated, so we’re often treated to funny actions or phrases. I love calling her on the phone now, as she always asks if “you come home now Mummy?”. The other day as I was leaving the house first to go to work, she yelled out, ‘I love you’ without being prompted. Awww, oh and a ‘have good day’ also. Daddy and I had a quick laugh. Not a laughing matter however is her language skills… or lack of anyway.. in English. She seems to be a lot more advanced in her French and though she doesn’t seem to be too frustrated (to us anyway, but perhaps she is and thus is acting out??) by it, she’s unable to tell us a lot of what’s happening in English. She is very talkative though.

She has also shown to be a very empathic if she wants to be. She’s really observant, and if she noticed that I’m not feeling well, or if I’m upset (but NOT at her of course), she’ll readily asked what is wrong, try and give me a hug or a kiss, or just reach out and touch you somehow. Yes, she’s a very tactile person. Wants and needs to give a lot of hugs and kisses.

We noticed that she’s VERY good at puzzles. She’s now able to put together 60 pieces puzzles in under 5 minutes, even brand new, never seen / done before. That reminds me, gotta go out and buy more for her J we use them as little presents as part of her reward chart system, which seems to work a little! We’ll see.

Christmas in Canada

Okok, it's been a looooooooooooooooooong time. This certainly has been the longest absence ever eh? Sorry you all. It has been a long tough month. Well, first off, we were preparing for our trip to Canada and this being our first trip with the two girls, I'd wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything! I was actually quite anxious about the trip. But it went OK (not perfect, but bearable). We barely made it onto the plane though, as by the time we checked in (we were already pre-checked in - we just had to get our baggages in -CDG is quite inefficient to say the least!), then Daddy had to drop the car off at the long term parking, which required him to take a train and bus back (and he had Bibou with him), we had to get through security and then ran to our gate, only to find that we went to the wrong gate! The plane was going to Montreal. Fortunately, it was the next gate over... by the time we got there, we were the last to get on the plane! WHEW! We got on and took off. Contrary to my fears, Bibou did really well on the plane, playing with her jigsaw puzzles over and over again, watching her own personal DVD player and taking a long nap when we asked her to (well, Ok, after saying ‘NO’ like a few dozen times!). Seraphine did also quite well, no crying (as I nursed her during take off and landing).

After a long trip, waiting for our baggage, waiting for rental car etc, we finally finally got into our rented car, and drove off. The first thing that Bibou said as soon as we were on the road “ SNOW”! She was soooo tickled to see the snow, and asked us non-stop if she can play in the snow. It took a lot of persuasion to get her to wait until we arrived; then of course she kept asking “if we’re going home?’ LOL. But we arrived ‘home’ (home for the next 8 days or so) finally and were thrilled to be met by not only Babie and Edward, but also Mamita and Grumps, who’d come down to see us. Bibou did recognized them immediately and was pleased to see them, despite the overwhelming changes that she’d been through; well, perhaps it was because of all the overwhelming changes that she’d been subdued and calm for the first few days. Haha. But she really got on fabulously with Babie (probably ‘coz dear ole Babie kept going into her bedroom at night to comfort her, while Daddy was totally conked out by his flu and me b/feeding Seraphine); she stuck on to Babie. I was especially touched by a scene I saw out of the (oh-my-gosh-I-wish-I-had-this) kitchen window and saw both of them walking down the street holding hands. Aww. Babie had taken Bibou to the nail salon and had her nails done(in electric blue to say the least!)! Apparently, Bibou was her usual self, showing off her pretty nails and pretty dress to everyone that walked into that salon. Babie had sooo much fun with her! Angel also had lots of fun, especially since Babie had borrowed an exersaucer shaped as a car and she was so happy to bounce bounce in it. She also enjoyed having her bath in the kitchen sink (have I mentioned that I so loved her kitchen????)

We totally enjoyed Christmas, especially Christmas morning where the kids and Daddy received Christmas stockings. We were touched that Bibou got to share in their tradition of placing the baby Jesus in the crèche. Christmas lunch at Mamitas was a blast as Bibou and Angel got totally spoilt by everyone. Lots of presents for them.

It was a totally whirlwind trip, but Daddy really enjoyed meeting up with his family and friends. The traveling was tough, the jetlag even tougher (we’re still suffering from it – well, Angel is, and I’m still suffering ‘coz of that!), but I’m sure Daddy thought it was well worth it! The only regret was not bringing my SLR camera (but it was just too big and bulky to carry and anyway, we had way too much to bring back.. I even had to buy another luggage to bring our stuff back lol) so we don't have a lot of nice photos to share. Here's what we have, so enjoy them!