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!!