Quick update

Sorry all. Been a crazy month. Work's been piling up. After the exciting summer, we're now all back to our normal hum-drum of things. Bibou's back at school. She's not in the same class as Dan; she's 'back' with kids around the same age as her, the younger batch. But apparently, it doesn't stop the two of them! Every day, they wait for recess and then, rush to each other and play side by side! At the after school childcare, they'd play together. Nothing can pull them apart apparently. They help out each other, always looking out for each other. So SWEET! They aren't fighting like cats and dogs anymore! The other day, Dan even recounted the story where apparently Bibou had soiled her skirt and the both of them had sneaked off to find leaves (!!!) so that they can clean her skirt together. Awwwwww. Daddy also spoke to Bibou's teacher (I asked him to!), to find out how she's settling in in class, given that most of her classmates from last year are in another class. Her teacher, "C" (who is yet another lovely lovely lady that Bibou likes), says that Bibou is doing great! (whew!) She's really autonomous, friendly, a social butterfly and gets along fine with the kids. She makes friends with everyone, though obviously she spends most of her time with Dan where possible. She has started making friends with other kids in her class already. And she has! We’d asked her if she wanted to invite anyone from school to her ‘princess birthday party’, and she immediately rattled off a couple of names. Cool! I’ve just created lovely birthday party invites and she’s gonna have a lovely ‘princess and prince’ (did you expect anything else????) party.

Our weekends have been really busy..but last Sunday afternoon was free! So we called up the Bitans to see if they wanted to have tea together. YES they were free, so we all met up at Parc Heller. Daddy brought along Bibou’s ‘no-pedal’ bike, yes a bike without pedals. It’s this new rage for kids, it’s meant to help them find their ‘balance’ (though if she’s anything like me, HA!). Bibou had received the bike last year for her birthday but she just wasn’t into it. She still quite isn’t, but she did try it and managed to coast down the hill a couple of times. But then Dan came, and the two happy lovers were just inseparable! It was a lovely happy afternoon, but we came back home quite late! So I had to whip up a very quick, but not so ‘good’ dinner of pasta and ‘hotdog’. Bibou went out into the garden to pick the last of the tomatoes from the garden. I love the photo of Bibou with the tomatoes in her mouth… it’s funny, but what’s more funny is what’s happening in the ‘background’. While we were busy clowning for the camera, Angel decided to ‘steal’ Bibou’s food!

Ahhh that Angel. She’s certainly grown / changed over the past few weeks. She’s certainly no longer a baby, and has firmly entered into her ‘toddler’ stage. YUP!. No more cute, docile, easy-going baby now. She’s an assertive, demanding, fierce and forceful toddler. When she doesn’t get what she wants, she’s stamping her feet, screeching (and golly does she know how to screech), she pulls hard on you (either on your sleeves, or in the instance of poor bibou – her long braided hair!) etc. But it doesn’t last long and the most amazing part ; - she still has a smile on her face. Yes, the sweetie still always has a ready smile for everyone. She loves, just loves imitating her big sister, and her favorite thing right now is…dancing :-) yup! That’s ‘coz Bibou loves dancing as you know. Every time music comes on, the both of them dance and dance and dance.

Enjoy this batch of pix and videos. Think it’ll be a while before I can come on again.

Videos

Angel on the bouncing ball again.

Hilarious one of her trying to dance like barbie (in the 12 princesses). You get to hear her scream too.

Angel and Yohan on the swing. Guess who's enjoying it more :)

The two unseparable lovers!

Last weekend before ‘La Rentrée”

The last weekend before school began! And the weather was good too (FINALLY!) – it was a nice hot day (well on Saturday at least), it went up to 30 degrees, not a single cloud in the sky. We were terribly pleased to be able to spend such a gorgeous day ‘celebrating’ (commiserating perhaps LOL???) our last day of the summer break, with the Molas’ again. Why not, we’ve always have such wonderful time with them and BBQs are just so yummy with them. I managed to whip up another pot of chilli the night before, just in time for lunch. While I got the food ready, Daddy was busy cleaning and filling up the pool, much to delight of Bibou. She just wouldn’t wait to get into the pool! So quickly, she went to change into her bikini. And came running down to jump into the pool… as she splashed around, I noticed something, she’s got curves! My girlies’ got curves already. And I also love her tight ‘6 pack’ stomach and smooth bottom. That gal certainly doesn’t have my genes :) (definitely don’t have a 6 pack stomach – well, if it is there, it’s hiding, nor smooth butt, not now, not ever! I was always a cubby child). I’m envious of her great body! OKAY.. Focus girl :)…. Yes, as I was saying, Bibou went splashing in the (very cold!) water, waiting for her good friends to arrive… and when they did, the twins jumped right in. After lunch, K and I just laid out on our deck chairs, Daddies strumming and practicing on their guitars, Angel snoozing in her crib for her nap and the 3 kids having fun wherever. What bliss! The thought of returning to work / school still far away in our minds. After dinner, we had to say a sad goodbye to our good friends.

However, we weren’t lonely for long. The next day, we had the Ls over for lunch and Kathleen came over for tea. Though the weather wasn’t as nice as the day before (cloudy and threatening of rain), it was still ok enough to have a BBQ (and the kids still wanted to brave the water). Great food, company, and music. Bibou, as always, wanted to dress up in her 'princess' outfit, a new dress that I'd gotten for her, together with her tiara, so off she went to 'dress up'. This girl is just soooo into looking like a princess. I've caught her many times now, applying lip gloss and preening herself in front of the mirror! Oy! Anyway, so the kids played about, jumped in and out of the pool and just tired themselves out with fun. What a perfect day to end our summer break.

All the Videos this past weekend :

While waiting for guests to arrive, Daddy and Angel had fun on their balloon.

Still waiting for Guests to arrive, Angel shows us how she kicks the ball.

Aunty Karen playing tug & war with the kids in the pool. Boy did they have fun!

And another fun day in the pool, this time with L.

Yes, another Elephant song. I thought this one was better! We LOVE the elephant song.

Meeting up with Old Friends and Family

After the fabulous wedding and party, we all managed to get out of bed before 10.00 am and rush down for ‘ breakfast’ (another full English breakfast with sausages, bacons, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and toasts! We’ve been having that everyday. Yummy), and also caught Michelle and Luke! We had a rather rushed breakfast and then off we were to get to Bristol and visit Uncle Michael. It was a rather long drive – about 1 ½ hours, including a little ‘get lost’ time. But finally we got there, just when the girls were waking up! Good timing! It was so lovely to see Uncle Michael, Aunty Theresa and to meet little Kieran who is 11 years old. We unloaded the car, and then had a scrumptious lunch that uncle Michael made… yummy salmon and new potatoes cherry tomatoes. All with oh so delicious home-made mayonnaise!!! Bibou and Kieran got on quite well; he’s a rather delightful child I must say. Really quite funny! He kept us entertained during lunch time. After lunch, Bibou and Kieran spent time… in front of the telly! Oh well, that’s ‘coz the ‘beautiful’ weather (well, it was rather warm and sunny for a little while), turned horribly grey, then black and then WOSH, the rain fell on us. So sad. And it was cold! We had to run back into the house and spent the rest of the dismal afternoon there. The bigger kids were happy watching their shows, while Angel, well, Angel had fun trying to disturb them. All too soon, we had to leave. We packed up, put the girls into the car and off we went. Daddy drove us out to the highway and I took over (my first time driving in the UK for a really long time. Was weird driving on ‘the other side’, even though, of course this ‘other side’ was what I grew up with!). The girls and Daddy were snoring all the way back.

The next day, we went off to Chiswick to visit some really old friends of mine whom I’d not met in a long time. The Bs (who now live in Singapore), had actually arrived in the UK the day before! We were so pleased that we were able to meet up, AND even got dear ole Olly to join us. Olly was still the same, he’s not changed a bit since the last time I saw him… what, 5 years ago! How time flies! The Bs have 2 little girls, S and J who are 5 years and 13 months. The girls, especially the elder ones got on fabulously! They were playing with each other, and I was just so pleased to see that Bibou had put in a lot of effort in speaking English (esp when S would say she doesn’t understand French :)). YES! In fact, we found that since our trip to the Uk (and perhaps the accumulation of spending a whole month with us, without school and nanny, so very limited French), her spoken English has improved significantly. And she’s also articulating a bit more too. We all met at Olly’s place and at his suggestion, walked to lunch (he’d promised that it was going to be a 10 minutes walk – turned out to be at least ½ hour!!! – each way!). The girls had fun on the way and back, running, giggling and playing with each other… especially when the Daddies showed them conkers! We finally came to a lovely pub just next to the River Thames which was directly below the flight path and the girls had fun watching the planes taking off from Heathrow! It was a lovely lunch. Walking back, the two younger ones finally dozed off to sleep in their strollers while the older girls ran around picking up flowers and conkers and squealing with laughter!

On our last day, we dropped by Tunbridge Wells to visit dear ole Gerard. Unfortunately, the girls were both tired and grouchy after a long tiring day (WEEK!). Despite all attempts they were both moan-y and whiny! Arrgh! Despite Gerard having brought some lovely presents for them too. Dinner was a bit painful too. Sweet Gerard took it all in stride too. We left TW at around 9.00 pm (with both girls falling straight asleep immediately!) and head off for Folkstone. Once we got to EuroTunnel, I took over. We got onto our train at 11.00 pm, and with Daddy and the girls snoring away, I drove the rest of the way home (with the help of a bottle of red bull). We arrived home just before 4.00 am (Paris time). Home sweet home.

Uncle Mike giving Angel a spin on his chair.