Cheeky monkey updates

What better excuse to post new photos of the girls, then posting a new update about them eh? What’s to say? Loads! The girls have grown so much over the past few months. Besides physically – Bibou has shot up over the summer and is really slender (like really really slender!), whereas Seraphine, who has grown taller, hasn’t quite lost her chunkiness yet, though it’s a bit more distributed now…. I remembered that Bibou was like that at her age. Hopefully, Seraphine has her sister’s good genes. Have to say though, Seraphine loves her food. She eats really well, whereas Bibou is picky. And they dislike really different things!

Over the summer, the girls have grown very very close to each other (as they were 24/7 for the whole two months). In fact, on the first day of school after the long summer this year, Seraphine was rather upset that Bibou had to go to school. She cried and hung on to Bibou, nanny had to carry her out of the classroom. She kept asking when she’d see Bibou again. Then the next day, she decided that if she can’t have Bibou at home with her, she’d stay in school with Bibou! So once they got to school, she began to take her schools and coat off and sat down next to Bibou in class!! It took a while for the nanny to persuade her to come away from the classroom. She’s now adjusted to having Bibou a couple of hours per day and it’s perfect. True, they fight a lot (but which siblings don’t? and most times they fight because Seraphine is currently in a very ‘a moi’ or ‘mine’ stage… everything is hers. Of course Bibou will assert herself once in a while (she does give in a lot to Seraphine)). But they adore each other and always look out for each other. Seraphine more than Bibou though. She wants to be with Bibou all the time. She follows her everywhere, does exactly what Bibou does and says exactly what Bibou does. She looks up to her big sister. She has taken to liking dance too, as Bibou likes it! They play really very well together. Bibou will very patiently sit down and show her how to do jigsaw puzzles for example. She’ll set the pieces together, touching ever so slightly, and then you’ll hear her say, ‘here Seraphine, press down on this now. Wow, good girl, you see, you did the puzzle! You want to do another one?’. ‘OUI!’ Josephine can be really patient with her sometimes, explaining things to her and also trying to get her to improve her English. You’ll constantly hear Bibou asking Seraphine to repeat after her : Seraphine say : flower… and always always congratulates her! Seraphine is constantly constantly all about Bibou. If she receives a treat, she will always ask for another, not for herself, but always for Bibou and then she’ll rush to Bibou, ‘bibou, bibou, here, bonbon’. She’ll always grab Bibou’s bag, shoes, coat etc, and hand it to her if she ever forgets.

Their favorite time of the day? Definitely must be bath time. Yes, still! Splish splash. They would also scrub each other’s back. And after bath? Bedtime! The girls love their bedroom and bedtime routine. Bibou has Daddy reading a story to her prior to bed while I have Seraphine. Prior to the stories, it’s their ‘bon bon” time (actually their vitamins), and Seraphine will never fail to remind us. However, not just for her, she will never ever forget Bibou’s vitamins. She’ll always ask for Bibou’s, take it (never eating it herself) and giving it to her, all the while calling out to Bibou. "Bibou, Bibou, here". We’ll also have a short read, normally one of her picture books (and it never cease to amaze me how much her vocabulary has picked up. She recognizes a lot of items now and can tell me what they are in English – and the same in French with the nanny), before she has her suckle. Normally Daddy finishes the story first, and she’d get a kiss on his way down. When we’re finished, she’ll immediately run to Bibou to have her goodnight kiss. Then, she’ll cuddle up into her own bed. Both girls LOVE their 'big girl' beds. Now, for some reason, Seraphine is a kind of hoarder in bed. She needs lots of stuff, no, scrap that, HER stuff in bed with her. There is always her special bolster pillow, her doll (‘baby’), her bear, and always a few books, currently her favorite is her Dora book, which is enormous. Often times, when I go up to check on her before my bedtime, I would find cups, bags, pencils, other dolls, all in bed with her! She won’t part with them too. She’s a funny gal.

Now at 2 ½ years old, Seraphine is very opinionated. Unlike Bibou, who was (still is!), very timid when being scolded, in fact, she would get very upset and breaks down crying… and throwing lonnnnnnng tantrums if Daddy won’t console her. Bibou’s tantrums can go up to 30 minutes… Seraphine is the opposite. She is very very cheeky. She does not need approval, she is unafraid, oh no. She is VERY cheeky. Reprimanding her would only mean her talking back at you, going nah nah nah, she would then run to say the nearby couch and pretend to sleep… SNORE. She knows how to dodge and make you laugh… she will try and make you forget that she’s in trouble. She is also very independent. She wants (and often able) to do everything herself. She’s been able to eat and drink on her own since… oh since she was 14- 15 months. She’s been able to put her own shoes and coat on for a while now, and now she has started to dress herself, insists on picking out her clothes and her favorite thing is to pull on her pants by herself. She’s real proud when she can. And unlike Bibou, who prefers to be ‘helped’, Seraphine wants to do herself, and will admonish you if you try to do it for her. Up in the morning, want a cup of milk? Bibou will ask for her, Seraphine… she pulls her little s tool to the kitchen, climb s to get her cup (yellow no less), opens fridge door, pulls out the milk and pours herself a cup! What’s the fuss? Why wait? This is great of course, until she decides she wants chocolates and candy out of the candy bowl. Oh boy.

She is very verbal. Unlike Bibou who just whines and whines, Seraphine will speak up and give you a piece of her mind. Unfortunately, at this stage, it is mostly gibberish, or ‘Seraphine’s talk’. But whatever she’s saying, it ain’t whining! You can be sure, when she is able to string her sentences, we’ll be getting earfuls I’m sure. Having said that, she is beginning to speak in little sentences and certainly tries to put her opinion across. The other night, at bedtime, I tried to give her one of the other little bolsters as hers was in the wash. She looked at me sternly and said “No, moi pillow downstairs. Ca Bibou pillow. Ca pas moi. No Mummy”. OKaaaaaay. Oh and she can count to two. LOL. I figured that ‘coz when you give her a bon bon, she’ll ask for ‘two please’, or always asking for 'two books' before bedtime. She's really cheeky!

Bibou herself has evolved. A bit more grown up, a little less tantrums (still have them unfortunately) and definitely a lot more ‘big sister’. She is quite sensitive, versus thick-skin Seraphine. She loves to be helpful, and hates being rejected or ignored. She loves to draw and color, and in fact can do it really well. True to her nature, she loves drawing FOR you. These days, she often comes to me when I return home and hands me a little page, saying, here Mom, I drew this especially for you. Once she asked me I could 'hang it up' in my office, so I did, and took a photo for her to see. So I did. She was so happy. It is rather easy to please her! Most of all, she is hilarious, mostly unintentionally (Seraphine is a clown on purpose). One evening, we were talking about colors and so I started ‘testing’ Bibou “ Bibou, what color is your hair?” “brown”. “ Bibou, what color is Seraphine’s hair?” “brown”. “ Bibou, what color is Mummy’s hair?” “black”. “ Bibou, What about Daddy’s hair?” “GREY!!! ”.

I also have my very own anti-telemarketer system now! BIBOU! Bibou will pick the phone up and when the telemarketer asks for Mummy, she’ll say, in perfect French, “Mummy doesn’t speak French at all, she speaks only English. So you can’t speak to her. Daddy is not around”. The telemarketer might continue trying, and she’ll, very patiently tell her, “Yes, I know, but Mummy doesn’t speak French at all, she speaks only English. So you can’t speak to her.” I was doubled up in laughter that 1 day when we had about 2-3 calls in an hour. She turned to me too whilst on the phone, and giving me this big conspiracy grin on her face.

Enjoy this batch of photos and videos. I hope to be able to update the blog soon again….

Here are some videos too (ps, go back to 2 posts below if you'd read them before. I had problems uploading the videos the other night).

Here's Bibou dancing first... singing her own song. She has Daddy's baseball cap on:

Then Seraphine decided she wanted in on the action too. So she popped the hat on and ...watch her. it's simply hilarious...

The two girls playing together, either in the garden or indoors. Seraphine would do just about everything Bibou does. Monkey see, monkey do!