Bibou’s update

One of the most significant feature that we’ve recently noticed is that Bibou has developed a great sense of humor! She’s able to play jokes on you and really make us laugh. The other day, just prior to a BBQ, I’d gone up and changed into a sun dress as it was rather hot. It had, admittedly a rather busy pattern, but I liked the dress. So, here’s how our conversation went :

Bibou : “Mummy, aren’t you going to get dressed?”
Me (busy trying to move some chairs at the same time) : “ Huh? I AM dressed”
B (laughs out loud) : “No, I meant get dressed for the guests. We have guests coming, yes Mummy?”
Me : “Yes, they are coming, and yes, I changed already for them”
B : “Oh” (then silence) So I stopped what I was doing, looked at her and asked : Why, is something wrong with my dress?”
B (Backpedaling really fast now) : Noooooooooo, it’s VERY nice Mummy. Very nice.
Me : “Ok then”, and I went back to work.
Then I heard her say : “ But it’s PAJAMAS!” (I have a very busy patterned night dress that I wear and so I guess she’s associated my dress as PJs!). And she laughed out loud. You could hear Daddy bellowing with laughter from upstairs! Needless to say, I went up to change. And I swear, Bibou kept coming up to me that day to tell me that my ‘dress’ is very nice, Mummy.

As you can see, Bibou’s English has improved significantly over the past year. The stint at the roaming schoolhouse has certainly helped and she does love classes a lot. We must ensure that we sign her up again for next year. She’s articulating more and is able to express herself a lot better. She’s also laughing out loud when she watches DVDs (indicating that she’s now understanding what’s going on). French friends have also commented to us that Bibou’s French is very good (we don’t get to hear her speak in French). It’s amazing too how she is able to switch from one language to another just like that, and sometimes even do ‘translation’. Also I noticed that if she were with us, Bibou would speak English to Seraphine, but French to her if they were with their nanny. She has also developed her drawing / painting skills a lot! She does love to paint and the other day, we took out the painting gear and she started painting…. I was wowed by her painting! And quite flattered too, ‘coz she painted me :)… next to an apple tree. She certainly got her artistic gene from Daddy (def not from me, I can’t draw for nuts). Oh something else she didn’t inherit from me…. balancing skill!!! Recently Bibou has taken to the ‘pedal-less’ bike (that we’d bought like 1 ½ years ago). And she’s been doing REALLY well, able to balance on it. Then the Ms very generously gave us an ‘big girls’ bike, princess and all. Daddy took out the training wheels, got her on it, and OFF SHE WENT! Bibou can ride a bike now (better than her Mummy who can’t ride a bike – no balance).

Bibou had her end of school concert not too long ago (and she will be having another one for her English school in a few weeks). She had to dress up all in white. All the kids in her section (Moyenne) and the one above (grande) came together for the concert. It was sooooo sweet to see all the kids together on stage. Bibou (like all the other kids) stood there so proud and as soon as she saw us, waved excitedly at us. Unfortunately, when the kids stood, she more or else ‘disappeared’ as she was in one of the back rows. But she sang her heart out, as did all the other kids. Later we bumped into Bibou’s teacher in town and she told us how pleased and proud she was of the kids for behaving so well (generally they couldn’t get all the kids to behave during rehearsals!!).
Ah my Bibou…my funny, sweet, sensitive Bibou. The girls do get on fairly well together. They do of course have their constant fights, but they do stick together. They always look out for each other! Every morning, Seraphine must give a kiss to Bibou (whereas she would often say no if we ask one from her). The other day, because the sun was truly really hot, Bibou went and got the sunscreen lotion to put it on herself. Then she turned to Seraphine and told her that she should have some too, and proceeded to put it on her.
Finally. I LOVE this photo of the girls. Seraphine had turned to me to tell me that she had a ‘ca ca’ (poo). So I asked Bibou (who is now my ‘official diaper sniffer’) to ‘please sniff Seraphine’s butt to check”, and Seraphine promptly turned around, hoisted her butt in the air and wiggled her bum at Bibou, who took a big sniff and confirmed that she had a dirty diaper with a big “YUCK. Smelly”. I swear I was in stitches! Never a dull moment at home with my two girls! Pps, and yet another photo, this time of the girls in the sand pit. Seraphine had just done something to annoy the hell out of Bibou. She’s sulking in the corner, and Seraphine’s laughing away! Cheeky girl. Though 10 seconds later…. All is well and they’re back to playing together again. All smiles. In fact, Bibou is also in good spirit, 'coz she just learnt how to cross her legs! Check it out! Daddy told her that she was showing off her panties and she needs to cross her legs... this is her first attempt and she's all so proud! Ah, life’s blissful.

Some videos

A shaky, far away video of Bibou's concert. You can almost make her out....

Here's bibou on her pedal-less bike. Have to take some new vids of her on her real bike!!

The Big TWO!

My baby girl has turned two, boo hoo. My baby is such a big girl. Well, she is a rather big chubby girl for her age… she wears mostly 3 year old clothes now, whereas Bibou is slim but really tall. Her hair has grown a little, enough for me to tie little plaits which I just love to do hehehe. She is still such as, or if possible, even more bubbly and loves to laugh. She is such a happy go lucky child. And her vocabulary has been increasing at an exponential rate! In the video below, you can see the exchange between us. We love to ask “ Seraphine, how old are you”? She’d promptly reply with “twwwwwwwo”, while putting a couple of pudgy fingers out. Really cute. She has a repertoire that she goes through with me all the time, and adding new words that she picks up. Oh, and she’s really picked up her sister’s love for clothes and staring at herself in the mirror! Recently, I’ve just completely rehaul her wardrobe and so she’s got a lot of new outfits (they’re really not new as they’re hand-me-downs’ from Bibou…but she’s not seen them before nor worn them, so she was really happy). So each morning, after I’d put on a new pretty dress, she would go “wowwwwwwwww”, smooth down the dress and then rush to the mirror to look at herself!!! Really. Every morning. Oh and she’s also taken to saying “ta-dum” whenever she feels she’s done something ‘big’ and wants you to comment on it. These are really cute things that tickle us every day. Other observations that crack me up : she hates cold floors, (anything cold really, and she will complain “cold cold”) and so when she’s without her slippers and steps on the cold bathroom floor, she’d tiptoe across the floor very quickly to get to the wooden side or the mat! She ALWAYS answers to her name with a ‘HUH?’… She can roll her eyes when she thinks that something is funny or not funny; and she loves her sister to bits (though she loves bullying her); she still loves to dance and sing, and is now able to follow the actions on various of her favorite song. Actually she even can sing twinkle twinkle little star (well, 1 sentence). She’s very sensitive to other people’s feelings though, esp Bibou. The other day, they were both in the garden, while I was in the kitchen and Bibou had stubbed her toe and was crying. Seraphine first started calling me, “Mummy Mummy, then came running to get me, pulled me out to the garden, telling me that “Bibou, boo-boo, pleur” (translation – Bibou has a boo-boo and is crying). She loves tattling on Bibou esp when they’ve had a dispute. And she loves shoes. Just loves shoes. She also loves to help you put your shoes on. If she sees you putting on socks, she’d run to get your shoes and slip them on for you..ditto your slippers.

Last week was a celebration of her birthday. First we went to Disney and had lunch with the princesses. On her birthday itself, Daddy made mickey pancakes and then it was time to open presents. As Seraphine has lately been taking her socks and putting her hands into them, Daddy went out and got her some… hand puppets! Lovely. For the garden, I got her a little slide and the girls been active on the slide, using it as part of an obstacle race with the trampoline! I also baked a cake for her so that she can share it with all her friends at the park with their nannies. I didn’t get to taste the cake even, because according to B our nanny, everyone loved the cake and ate it all up!! And Finally, our cleaner, R, spoilt her even more with a lovely toy which she promptly opened and played with but not forgetting to give him a big kiss thank you!

Videos

Yet another long overdue update

First, big apologies all around for the very long pause in between blogs. This year has been difficult, marked with first emotional events such as Daddy’s surgery and my pay cut. And then we started with our renovations at home and our house, not to mention our lives have been completely topsy turvy. Construction and dust everywhere! The girls’ room have been halved and squeezed though they’ve been absolutely fabulous about it; they’ve taken everything, every new thing in stride, dare I say even nonchalant about it. This has been a godsend, as we didn’t have to deal with tempers/ fears arising from all the changes. Things got really hairy when we renovated our kitchen as then most of our kitchen stuff got moved into the living / dining room, and that made our livable space really small. Cooking (in my second kitchen in the basement) also became really difficult, especially the first weekend, as I’d inadvertently forget something and had to keep running up and down the narrow stairs to get stuff. Groan. But we made it!!! After four long weekends without a kitchen, I have my new kitchen which I adore! Most importantly, I finally have my oven in the kitchen so I don’t have to run up and down the stairs. I love my new kitchen (though it’s still not my dream kitchen – love to have something big enough with an island and a huge dining table so we can eat in the kitchen while I cook). Our walk in closet is also completed; we just need to finish up painting our bedroom. The girls’ room in the attic is almost done. Hopefully the girls can move in soon. They’re all excited about their new room! They’ve been climbing up and down the new stairs, and marveling about everything!! From the pink walls, to the slanting ceiling (wonder what they would say about them when they’re older though – gives me a sore neck!) and soon, princess beds. Ah yes Princesses. The girls, especially Bibou is terribly ga-ga over princesses. That’s why one of the things we did last week … for Seraphine’s birthday, we spent the whole day at Disney!! Given our previous experience (almost 2 years ago, when Seraphine was born), we were a tad bit apprehensive! But everything went very well. We chose to go on a Tuesday, a school day, so the crowd wouldn’t be too bad (there were still lots of people, but nothing compared to the horrific summer crowds). I was just so tickled as we approached the main entrance of the park and she exclaimed really excitedly “You remember?? We came here long long time ago, with Dan!!!” (Indeed we had, it was 2 years ago and it’s amazing that she remembered!!) We were really lucky to have a good friends, Heather and her 2 boys join us. They have an annual pass to Disney so they know the place really well and showed us all the ‘short cuts’ and good rides. Most of the rides went really quickly, with about 10-15 minutes wait only, which was GREAT! Bibou was no longer afraid of getting onto the rides (in fact, she was really looking forward to them), and Seraphine was just game for everything! They loved all the rides, you should hear the squeals of delight from them (I myself, didn’t quite like the teacup and obitron rides that go round and round… but that’s just me :)). The girls were absolutely mesmerized by the “It’s a small world” ride. So much so that we went back to the ride again later that late afternoon. But the best part was the day I think was lunch, where I had made a reservation for us to have lunch with Cinderella and other princesses and prince. By golly, how the eyes of my little princess lit up when she saw all the princesses and prince. I think she was a little awed too! She was a little bit quiet at first! Especially when Snow White and Prince Charming came by to ask her questions…she couldn’t answer!! Seraphine however, didn’t care much for Prince Charming… I think she thought his costume was a bit too poufy! LOL. He was rather quiet and didn’t do much except hold onto Snow White’s waist or hand! Bibou however drank everything in. She loved all their gorgeous princess dresses and most of all taking photos with them and getting their autographs. And then Seraphine had her birthday cake brought in by the singing wait staff…. She even (tried to) blew out her candles. The dessert plate looked really really beautiful (note the word “looked”…I thought that the taste was a little bit too sophisticated for the kids – really dark chocolate!). And the kids went away with a little gift – wands for the girls and helmets for the boys. After a 2 hour lunch (without any melt downs too!), we continued on with more rides. Bibou especially LOVED the Buzz Light year ride where she got to shoot at ‘Zzzzs”. I think she said that that was her favorite ride. We went on until closing, stopping to watch Mickey and friends sing and dance at the parade (while I nipped into the shops to buy a few things hahaha). Bibou so enjoyed the parade that she started dancing on the street with the characters!! To escape the departing crowd (at closing time), we went off to Disney Village to grab some dinner – at a take-out counter. By the time we’d finished and slowly walked back to the car park, the crowd had really dwindled and had a leisurely drive home. The best thing was, the girls were so exhausted (remember no nap even for Seraphine) that they fell straight asleep in the car, got transferred into their bed and didn’t wake up till the next morning. All in all, a perfect day!

The weather has certainly warmed up a lot now, in fact, we even have had some really warm days (though it’s suddenly cooled down again now). warm enough for sun dresses and most of all…BBQs! We celebrated Daddy’s birthday with a BBQ and also hosted a MESSAGE magazine BBQ lunch.