Angel's a crawling away.

Please, can someone tell me how to turn back the clock? My baby’s no longer a baby! !!!! Just this weekend, Angel started crawling! Really crawling. For the longest time, she couldn’t really crawl, just moving by dragging her feet in a half lotus, half kneeling kinda position. It was weird, but it worked for her! (Bibou didn’t really crawl too, she did this funny movement in a sitting position…she would shuffle on her bum!) She would, from a sitting position, reach out in front of her and pull herself forward, with one knee bent and dragging the other behind her. But now, she’s figured out how to crawl and she LOVES it. For now, though, she’s only able to do it for a few steps at a time, and needs to return to her sitting position to ‘repose’. She also does this funny ‘shaking of her bum’ thingy, like she’s trying to start her engine, or gearing herself up to move forward. But it wouldn’t be long, I’m sure that she’s gonna be crawling really quickly. It’s uncanny how similar Bibou and Angel are! Like Bibou, Angel didn’t / couldn’t crawl until ‘late’; I think most babies start to crawl between 6 – 10 months, but both for them weren’t really interested in crawling until later, both also preferred to stand and both starting cruising around the same time as they started crawling. Yup, Angel has also started to cruise and has also, this week, taken her first step while cruising. Yippee. The downside is of course, we’ve got to watch her every single minute now, as she goes QUICK! And she’s a real curious one, she just wants to find out about everything, pick it up and BANG on it. She loves banging. Bang bang on the table. Oh and THROWING. Yes, she loves to throw things, her utmost favorite thing to do is pick something up, and throw it away or down (especially when she’s on the changing table and then look at it). A recent trick we've taught her and that she's picked up, is doing 'high five' with us. Now, whenever we say 'high give', she'd stick her hand out, palms out. So cute. Oh and recently we noticed that she’s been ‘helping’ us while we are dressing her! She would help by holding out her arm, always first the right arm and then the left arm, helping to insert into the sleeves. And at night, while having her bottle, she will hold the bottle on her own (Bibou didn’t). We knew that she was one very opinionated baby (god forbid we try to force her to do something she doesn’t want to do), I think she’s also gonna be one very independent girl. We’ll see. Needless to say, my baby’s fast growing up.

Like her sister, Angel is also quite the dare devil. The weather was finally ‘nice’ enough last weekend for us to get to the park. The girls had a great time on the slide. I was just so pleased to see Bibou so protective of her sister and so wanting to be with her all the time and wanting to slide down with her. She’d say, “I got her / you”, hugging her tight while sliding down. Angel would close her eyes coming down the slide, but would still give a great giggle. She can and will go down on her own too; and it’s just hilarious watching her! She’d sit on top of the slide, and scoot, scoot closer to the edge until she slides down. I’m glad that one of the videos came out! You can watch the video below. Bibou never ceases to amaze me with her agility. She showed me how she can climb up the rope (I doubt I can do it!). She was most proud to show me.

Enjoy this update of photos and videos. oh btw, yes, I sneaked in an old photo of Bibou.... you can always tell which baby is Bibou - she's the one with more hair :)!

Here she is crawling!!

Here's a video of her standing by the coffee table and taking a few tiny steps. She's starting to cruise!

i LOVE this video of her scooting and then sliding down the slide by herself.

Here's a video of the both of them coming down the slide :

Here's Bibou the 'ham'. She's sooooo agile, able to climb stuff that even boys older than her can't do!

Attack!

Well, it certainly has been a rather eventful few weeks culminating into a nasty asthma attack. It all started Easter weekend. We were up early for the annual MESSAGE Easter Egg Hunt. I’d prepared all the name tags and we were super excited about the event this year, as we were sure that Bibou was now finally old enough to understand all about chocolate egg hunting! (if you remember from previous years, Bibou wasn’t into it at all, and didn’t ‘hunt’ for the eggs). This year, oh yes, she understood it all, in fact, she was very clever too, as she realized that Mummy was the Easter Egg ‘hider’, and all she had to do was follow Mummy and pick up the eggs that she throws / hides. Smart cookie eh. I had to keep trying to hide from her! But we had fun. However, the weather wasn’t too nice at all! It was damp and cold, and then it started drizzling (and slowly became heavier). The girls were all nicely covered so I was the only fool to be standing in the rain unprotected and over a long period of time. Then the next day, while taking Angel on a walk in the park (boy did I miss that! Thank god winter is finally over), it started raining and so I got soaked again. Needless to say, I got sick. First, bad cold / sinus infection (everything was blocked and I had NO, ZERO taste – I couldn’t taste a thing – cooking was a challenge) and bronchitis (which is ‘normal’ for me unfortunately). Angel went down next, with high fever and apparently an ear infection that poor girly. Josephine was next, with also a high fever, but ‘fortunately’ all she had was a bad sore throat and the ‘flu’. We had called the SOS Medecine, which is the emergency doctor on call, whom you can call and they’ll come to your house for a visit. Isn’t that great! And it’s free too! Gotta love the French medical system. So the doctor came and saw the three of us and provided loads of medication. However, over the weekend, I took a turn for the worst and the pain was so unsettling that I couldn’t function anymore. We called the SOS Medcine again, and another one turned up, who prescribed a new type of medication that I’d not taken before. Bad mistake… I must have been allergic to it, ‘coz on Sunday night I didn’t sleep as I just coughed all night. The next morning, thinking that I must be over it, I went to work, only to find that I had difficulty breathing. It deteriorated very quickly, and when my boss P came into my office to speak to me, he realized that I was in very bad shape and rushed to get the 'pompiers' (the fireman actually, but they’re medically trained and come in an ambulance). By then I was in and out of consciousness, my fingers and hands were numbed and I was just gasping for air, air that wouldn’t go in. I’m just so lucky that P kept calm (he’s always very calm) and talked me through it. I vaguely remember him calling out to me, telling me that I can breathe, I’m ok, and that help was on its way. I couldn’t answer him though. The pompiers came soon (I think!), and once the oxygen mask was on me, I felt better already but a bit shocked to see where I was. I was still pale etc and they whisked me to the hospital where I got another oxygen mask filled with ventoline. I was also put on some strong steroids which I don’t like, but hey, at least I’m not gasping for air.

What a trip! Anyway, the girls are doing well now, as I am. Here are some new photos of the girls and a video of Angel giggling away playing ‘coucou’ or hide and seek. She’s just adorable isn’t she? She’s getting very vocal, always wanting attention and wanting to be carried. She is VERY voiceful about what she wants. She’s still not crawling, but is cruising against furniture quite well. Oh she’s eating very well still, and even enjoyed a rib bone, much to the chagrin of her father! Now both my girls are born bone chewers just like their mother and grandfather! LOL. Bibou is so sticky with her younger sister. She treats her like another baby doll I guess. She just loves being with her, holding & kissing her and was most thrilled when she could take a bath with her sister. Now she’s constantly asking to have a bath with Angel again. Finally, there’s a picture of their new nanny.

Happy Birthday Kongkong!!

It was kongkong's 70th birthday recently. We had organized a huge birthday party...it was in Singapore unfortunately, so we couldn't attend, but I had a lot of fun helping to organize the party from afar.

I heard that my instructions for the decorations were followed to a T and that the ballroom turned out gorgeous. I can't wait to see the pix and will post them when I get them.

But in the meantime, here is the video that we'd sent on in advance to be played during the dinner. We also organized it such that we were able to call in during the dinner and spoke to Kongkong 'live' through a speaker phone. We then sang happy birthday again. Kongkong was reawlly surprised and happy!

Happy birthday Kongkong!