Happy Birthday Bibou

Where does the time go?! It's been almost 3 weeks since my darling Bibou's birthday and I've not been able to post anything on the blog at all! It's been just crazy at work. I barely have time to breathe! What little 'extra' time I've had has been spent on trying to catch up on much needed sleep actually or just spending time with the girls. They've changed sooo much, but that's another post :). Yes, this post is about little Bibou's 3rd birthday which was a couple of weeks ago. We were very very fortunate.... the weather was just gorgeous! It was clear, sunny and not too cold. We were able to hold it in the garden! Which was good as we had a number of kids, rowdy ones too, and I don't think our little home would have appreciated it (if it could have spoken of course... the little old creaky crooked house).



The day started out well. She woke up in great form (as she does most days now), singing "happy birthday to me" all day. I'd spent the whole morning baking baking baking. She even helped me a little. It was great fun. She even went down for her nap without a problem and woke up just prior to the first guests arriving. She was a little grouchy upon waking up, but cheered up really quickly after that I brought her to the window and showed her the garden, which we'd decorated while she was napping. I'd gone out and bought loads of party stuff... all in the theme of "Winnie-the-pooh'... this was to accompany some of the many stuff that mahmah and kongkong had bought for her while they were here last. We had Winnie plates, cups, paper napkins and goody bags. I'd bought more, noise makers plus table clothes, banner (that said "The party is here" = and we hung it up on the front gate). We'd blown lots of balloons and hung it all over the garden. The only thing that wasn't Winnie was her birthday cake for the day! That was a Mickey Mouse, and generously done by our great friends the Molas! They made a great mickey mouse cake, and some cupcakes. I'd also made some brownies, little rice crispies cakes and also little honey cornflake cakes, and A. bought her famous chocolate chip cookies. talk about sugar high :). Oh but they were soooooo good.



Bibou was all excited to see her good friends, especially Emma and Kealan who arrived first with the cakes. She sat down nicely with them to have her fav cupcakes. And then everyone arrived soon after that. After the great suggestion of K., we quickly made up the 'pass the parcel' game for the kids. (It was funny, with K and K and me sitting in the dining room trying to wrap paper over and over again!). Bibou hadn't played the game before but she got the hang of it really quickly. Daddy had a hard time trying to make sure that all the kids got a prezzie (ie that the parcel landed on each kid). We broke for the birthday cake, which I had a hard time getting the sparklers going... and when it did, it burned down very quickly! But Bibou managed to 'blow' them out, together with her Mickey Mouse candle on her cake. Everyone had a great tea. Then came the prezzies. She loved that part..... and was really good at tearing at them (and saying thank you to everyone nicely). She was really sweet though, at my point, I saw her going up to Dan and giving him a present (a small one though lol) to open as he wanted one too. Everyone was very generous; she received great prezzies. The theme this year seems to be Barbies - she got a number of dolls, and some dress up fairies that she absolautely adores. A hit with all the kids was... the TMX (Tickle Me Extreme). An Elmo doll that laughs hysterically. (Mahmah and Kongkong gave that to her).



Next, we wanted to distribute the goody bag (which I'd placed a few small toys, plus the usual candy, and balloons) so we had all the kids sit in a circle and promised them a goody bag if they sang a song. Bibou wasn't the first, but she put her hand up after the first song! and sang too! We were soooo surprised... but she was in top form that day. All too soon, everyone had to leave, but we all had a great time.



The next day, Bibou brought another big cake to school, to celebrate her birthday with her classmates. I made that cake! Wasn't as nice as her Mickey Mouse one, but she liked it too... and so did all her classmates as there wasn't any left!



Happy birthday my precious girl. You're growing up way too fast for me.

How can anyone NOT wanna pinch those cheeks?

Don't they look just pinchable, chewable, edible? They are quite quite tempting. And believe me! They are just so sweet. We just LOVE chomping on those cheeks. Daddy and I. And I find it particularly sweeter just when she's woken up... her cheeks are just so nice and warm and her breath smells really sweet! (YES! Sweet. to me anyway. No bad breath smells until the teeth comes in). I have to nibble on her and sniff her all over. Ok, before anyone gets paranoid and think we're abusing her, of course it's like sweet soft, almost non-nibble with our lips over the teeth. She loves it and giggles whenever we do it. I just adore these intimate touches I have with her. Oh and the sniffs. I love sniffing her. The smell of her especially in the morning, hmmm. Oh and fresh warm feet! Lovely. I used to love the smell of Bibou's feet in the morning too, oh but now ARRGGGHHH! She's got daddy's feet. Ai ai ai. The other day, while we were in the car, Bibou must have stepped on some mud, 'coz she was tracking something really bad on the back of our seats, so we took off her shoes. Yikes, WRONG THING TO DO. Oh mi gosh... I thought I had died. It was really bad. And it was a long long loooooooong way home too.









Seraphine's just had her monthly check-up at the doctors last week. Everything is AOK, she was given a great clean bill of health and is growing steadfastly. She's now, at 4 1/2 months, 7.4 kg (16.5 lbs) and 66 cm. Still at the top of the curve my little sumo wrestler. She's also starting to really lift her head and upper torso up very well. She can do a narrow V when she's on her back. Looks like she's ready to sit up soon! And she keeps trying and trying. She's a real determined little gal. Friends of ours also said that she looks like she's gonna be ready to walk very early. Like I'd previously mentioned, she just LOVES being on her feet when you're holding her on your lap. She'd be giggly and bouncy when she's 'standing' on your lap. Looks like she's gonna be a real handful when she's mobile. Ai yayaya. She just wants to get up and go! And something new this week, I'd noticed that she's starting to see something in front of her and then reach with her hands to grab it. Hand and eye coordination! WOW.

Mummy's back at work!

YUP! I'm finally back at work, probably really noticeable seeing I've not posted anything for more than 2 weeks! It hasn't been easy. So returning to work last Monday, and BAM! A lot fell on my plate. My boss, who’s recently been promoted to President while continueing his CFO role (and next year, if all things go well, he will be CEO), has returned to France. (so no more coming into office late and leaving early!!!) We had a chat when I came back and he told me that he’s increasing my job responsibilities. I’m now his Executive Assistant (IR responsibilities which I’m still in charge of, will be mainly handled by our IR agency). First task for me was to review a whole load of documents and prepare an executive summary for my boss and CEO, for...opps almost gave it away...for some top secret thingy LOL. And I had to complete it in 24 hours. Talk about stress! But I completed it (with some help from my super duper friend in Singapore who does this all the time), and boss was happy with it. New job is a lot and quite stressful, but I’m pleased to be able to get my brain going again. Rusty after such a long time away, only filled with breasts, pump and diapers. And it’s a lot more interesting as I’m learning new things again. After a while, the IR stuff got very boring.

What's even more stressful is the rushed routine every day, before and afer work. As it is, I have to wake up around 6.30 am every morning to get ready! I wake up, get ready, and then wake Angel up if she's not awake yet, feed her on one side and pump milk on the other side (this means that bottles etc have to be sterlized in advance). Fortunately, anything to do with Bibou is mostly handled by Daddy for the moment. We need to get everyone dressed, fed (with Angel, I have to pump while feeding her too), shoes on and out the door by 8.30 am. Evening's is just as bad as we need to get dinner into the girls, and up to bath by 8.00 pm and into bed. Have to also get our dinner ready, and by the time we eat, it's arond 9.30 pm. Then it's packing lunch for tomorrow, sterlizing all the bottles and pumps for the next day and getting everything ready to get out the door.

But all this is nothing compared to... missing my girls terribly, even while I'm busy at work! In a blink of an eye, they seem to grow up so very quickly... especially Angel. In the last 2 weeks, she's becomed even more active if possible, changing so much. She's very animated, or shall we say even more animated now. She loves to do her little 4 hands and legs octupus jiggle on her changing table. And blimey, she's even able to raise her head up high when she's on her back, like this photo shows. She loves to 'stand' (on our knees, with us support her so she doesn't loose her balance), and has been able to do so for a while now. Oh and she's getting very talkative. She gabbers on and on to herself; it is simply hilarious! She talks and talks and suddenly probably told herself a joke, 'coz she'd just burst out in sweet peals of giggles. Ah my sweet pea. She's taken to being with Giselle, the nanny very well. She takes the bottle regularly now, 2 bottles a day, 2 HUGE bottles a day. She's pretty good on schedules now. She gets sleepy around bedtime, perks up for her bath (favorite time of the day), and sleeps promtly to sleep after her last meal (breastfed). She then falls asleep for most of the night, waking up afer 7-9 hours.

Bibou is totally enjoying her school. Also, in the last few days, she's 'changed'! (Touch wood, I certainly hope I'm not 'jinxing it' by saying this out loud). I'm guessing (hoping!) that she's moved from her terrible twos stages. Previously, all she ever did, (and sometimes all day!) was moan and whine all the time. She was simply miserable to be with (and Daddy would eventually loose his temper too). I think she's adjusted, plus she's now much more able to vocalize her thoughts and wishes. What a joy it has been to be with her the past few days. Her lovely sweet natured, humorous (oh mi gosh, she loves to play pranks and make silly faces, anything to get a laugh out of us) and she still just adores her little sister. It's just been great. She's even starting to eat what I make (instead of just hot dogs and nuggets!). Makes one forget the rather miserable summer we had with her, this past July / August. I'm just hoping and praying she won't go back to moaning and whinging again!

Here's a vid of Seraphine giggling to herself.

And giggling with Daddy.

Daddy and me at Parc Asterix

Well, it's countdown to my last few days of 'vacation'. It'll be back to work for me (and Daddy will also be looking for one very soon) on Monday. It's been a wonderful 6 months off! It's been rather varied; the first 6 weeks or so was more of a pain, with physical pain (... I was aching EVERYWHERE, so much so that I couldn't even lie down and have a good night sleep), oh and the itchiness (I was itching soooo badly everywhere... we never did find out why, probably 'coz it was the summer period, when i'm most allegeric and compounded by all the raging homones going on in my body) and also the tedious numerous doctor's appointment that I had. Towards the end, I was at the hospital every 48 hours so that the midwives could check on me. In the end, it was a good thing that I was being constantly monitored.... my body was ready to spit Angel out. I had such bad swellings and in the end, it was probably pre-eclampsia as I was literally swollen all over, had constant headaches, protein in my urine etc. As I was just 3 weeks shy of my due date, my doctor felt that it was better if we took Seraphine out. And I have to say that though I still was scared and upset when I heard the news.... I was relieved! The 10 days following Seraphine's birth was the worst, as you all know by now the horrible experience that little Angel went through when she fell sick. The month of June was getting to know Angel time! Thank goodness for the help from our fab confinement lady as she not only cooked and cleaned, she tended to Angel 24 / 7 and really helped me through the difficult first month. I was close to despair at the thought of perhaps I had to stop breastfeeding Angel as she just wasn't feeding well (feedings sometimes could take up to 1 1/2 hours and we always ended up giving her the bottle. But it all went well, (and now Angel's b/feeding like a champ!). Mah mah and kong kong were also a great help in June. July flew by quickly, though most days for me was spent catching up on sleep as I can't remember us doing much! It was more of feeding and sleeping really. It was also Bibou's last month at the creche and ta-ta Latifa. Bam, then it hit us... the month of August where we had Bibou with us 24/ 7. Man that was tough! Bibou was (still is!) at her terrible twos and threes stage, and probably compounded by the arrival of someone new who's stealing away Daddy and Mummy's attention. Don't get me wrong, she loves her baby sister and has no bad word nor action towards Angel, but she acts out in a different way I guess... by being whiney and moany and cry all the time. We had Mamita and Grumps over in August tohelp out and we did a number of activities, despite the horrible horrible weather! oh and we managed a fab short trip down south. THe last 2 -3 weeks has been a hectic rush for me... first we had Bibou's first days at her new school. So there's the getting use to few new things and routine, like getting up early in the morning, have breakfast and get out of the door, getting used to Giselle her new nanny (which she adores and listens to) oh and potty training! We also had to get Angel adapted to Giselle and being away from me... so we started with a couple of short days with Giselle and getting Angel on bottles (with my expressed breastmilk). This week, we started to do 'long days' and Angel has had no problem adjusting. So yesterday, Daddy and I decided to take the whole day to ourselves and take the opportuniy (since we probably won't have another chance to have time alone to ourselves, until we retire probably!!) to... go to Parc Asterix. It's this huge park, not unlike six flags, though they seem to have a bit more rides for children too. But compared to Disneyland, it has more rides catered to adults... like tumbling, upside down rollar costers. I've been dying to go to Parc Asterix and it was perfect. The rides were just so thrilling...there was this long, rickety wooden one that I think is Europe's longest ride. There was also this long and many upside down round and round one (that's a pix of it, with Daddy in front of it), one that resembled being in a bob sled. Those three were the most exciting one. As it was September, there were barely anyone in the parc, so no long queues for us. At most, we had to wait like 3 minutes for ride or something. I think that Daddy and I were the oldest couple without kids there! And boy did we feel it. Daddy kept feeling a little queasy and nauseous after each ride (I was fine, but that was probably 'coz I had the foresight to take some pimperan - anti vomitting pills lol! - our neighbour was laughing at me, but hey, whatever works!). But we still got on all the rides we wanted. I got knocked round a little too, with a bruise on my knee. We also got to meet some of the characters. All in all, we had a really lovely time, just Daddy and me.

A very full Sunday

Last Sunday was just jam packed with activities! It was a really nice day too! What luck. We started with a stroll to our town center where the annual wine and cheese fair was on. We'd been for the previous 2 days already and really like it. It's a great fair, lots of booths around the mairie (town hall), which is the 'old' part of the town, with honest to goodness, ankle breaking cobblestones! Actually, it's really quite beautiful. Just havae to watch them cobblestones, especially with the stroller. Every year, the fair centers around a theme, and this year, we're guessing the theme is... Swiss cheese! 'coz everywhere we go, there were lots of swiss cheese! There was even a fondue stall this year. It was all very delicious, and 'smelly'.. as there were lots of stalls selling all different types of cheeses and dried sussages (mahmah would have fainted going through the fair! lol). There were also lots of stalls selling wine (most people go round tasting the wine to buy) and other specialties like foie gras, a couple of honey stalls (they sell differnet types of honey! I swear... there were flower honey, wild honey, tree honey, creamy honey, different type of honey from different trees and plants such as lavender, tileuil (sp?) etc) and one of my favorite stalls, a jam stall...with all kinds of yummy confitures / jams filled with chunky pieces (not runny, watery paste you get from the supermarket). They also have unique, not often found ingredients... my favorite is red tomato with onions. I know, it sounds weird for a jam, that's what I thought, and especially since I hate tomatoes, imagine my surprise when I discovered what the ingredients were after tasting it (we did a taste test many years ago (b4 children))! I bought a jar immediately! It's lovely as a chutney type, but I like it on bread / toast. Yes, so lots of stuff at the fair, but what we do, especially with the girls, is get there to... EAT. They've got lovely food at the fair, and if you get there early enough, you can find seats. So that's what we did on Sunday. We headed for my favorite aligot stall and placed an order. Aligot is basically mashed garlic potato mixed with melted cheese, normally a tomme. It's oh so delicious ... and heavy! So great for the winter (and not so good for the rather lovely sunny day, but hey! It's once a year). Bibou even got to stir the pot (pix of her stiring). I also headed off to get some yummy tartiflette... another heavy cheese dish, made from potatoes, bacon / ham, onion, cheese, creme fraiche and wine (the pix on the left is the HUGE pn of tartiflette). Oh and we got some sussages too. After that heavy meal, we really had to walk it all off!

We came home and everyone was ready for a little nap seeing what a heavy meal it was! After the nap, we met Dan and his family at the park.. another park in Sceaux. The kids had lots of fun just running round and round, their attention span is quite quite limited; they don't stay at any one structure for long, but they're always together.. chasing each other, and now, they seem to be fighting a lot! Though they do make up quite quickly too.

We had to rush back as we had Rebecca and her family over for a quick dinner (in between Rugby games!). I'd made beef rendang (in the slow cooker) and so that was ready when we came back home. We'd also recently go to chinatown and bought lots of chinese vegetables, so I cooked some shanghai bak choy (quick fry with garlic and soy sauce) and broad beans (with garlic, chai bo, and chili brown bean sauce). For once, I remembered to get a pix taken of the food before hey got all eaten up. We had a great time albiet short with everyone. Et viola, a jolly busy Sunday and we managed to get the girls into bed not too late!

Ooo, here's a clip of Bibou and Dan running around in the playgroud.

Bumbo Fun!

Wahoo, for a while now, Angel's been holding her head upright for short periods of time (she started really young), but recently, we found that her head doesn't flop now, ie she's holding her head upright. In fact, when she's lying down, I find that she even tries to lift her head up from the lie down position. She only doesn't quite like tummy time yet (ie lying on her tummy, so I put her down only for a little while). So! When we found that her neck's strong enough, we brought out the... BUMBO! We had lots of fun with the bumbo with Bibou, and couldn't wait to put Angel in it... so we did. The Bumbo, for those who don't know it, is this fab invention; a kind of seat that you can put your baby in, no fuss, no mess. What's the difference between a Bumbo and any other baby seat? Well, for one, it has none of those long, difficult straps! It's perfect when you're just holding the baby and suddenly need to do something else, like answer the door, answer the call of nature, grab something off the stove etc. This, all you need to do is plonk the precious into it and off you go. And the little one is all snug and happy in it. Bibou could spend a long time in it, and wouldn't complain. Unfortunately, Angel is tooooo active to like it. She likes / needs to move all the time, to kick (she kicks off all her blankets during her sleep. Need to get another grobag soon for her), move all the time. She'll stay in the Bumbo for a while, but soon, she'll try to wiggle off it. She'd probably be able to get out of it soon by herself. Yikes.

Yes, so, we put her in the Bumbo and she looked soooo cute. Then Bibou came along, and wanted to play around with it, so we put her in and took some photos. Looking at the pix shows us how 'slim' Bibou is compared to Seraphine (now and then). And that reminded me of the pix of Bibou in her Bumbo for the very first time. It was in Singapore at Kongkong mahmah's place. She was past her 4th month birthday (Seraphine was about 1 week shy of her 4th month birthday when we took these pix). Look at the difference (size for one! and the big smiles from Seraphine - Bibou at that time gave small tentative smiles.) and yet the similarites (the look.. those cubby cheeks OMG). Ahhh my babies. These photos just reminds me how fast the times flies.

My giggly bundle of joy

What can I say that I've not said before. She's a DOLL! She's generally a really sweet angel, and doesn't cry much except when she is sleepy and wants to suckle. I love the way she wakes up... not a peep! Just a little smile and she just looks all around her, exploring everything around her, and especially her fingers an thumbs. (Sigh, yes she's definately found her thumb and is sucking it! I was hoping that she would stay off her thumb, but t least she's not using a pacifier / dummy. That was 1 thing I really didn't want any of our girls to use, after seeing how awful it looked when 5 -6 year olds walking / running around with a pacifier in their mouths. It's a permanent fixture. Ewww! ) She has this adorable cooing sound that melts my heart and that's what I wake up to every morning. Coo, giggle, coo coo, . Sigh, but it won't be long that I'll be waking up to the darn blasting alarm wouldn't I. Sob sob.

She loves to giggle and laugh, even when she's alone by herself like when she's under her floor gym. She'd look up at it, give this funny kick kick dance and giggle to it. Yes, I forgot to mention that she does this hilarious wiggle kick routine when she's happy, and she'll giggle and squeal with delight at what she's doing. She's my funny gal. She loves going out in the pram and so I take her for long walks almost every day, mostly to either pick up Bibou from the park, or do some grocery shopping etc. Oh she's so happy to lie there (quietly though, as though she had so much to capture that she needed to concentrate on what she's doing) and observe everything that goes by (well technically that she goes by). She espescially likes to look at the leaves that sways softly in the air. She's mesmorized by them! But she'll still break way from their hypnotic movements if someone peers into her pram to look and coo at her (and a lot do, she attracks a lot of attention, even strangers!) and she will always oblige them with a great big smile.

Well my littke angel is fast becoming a little... sumo! Yes, we just returned from a doctor's visit for Seraphine. Since her last visit (a month and a half ago), she's grown 5 cms and put on almost 2 kg. She's now 62 cm (24 inches) and 6.8 kg (15 pounds)! ai yo yo. She's at about the 95 percentile for her weight. Even her doctor has commented that she's 'eating at a good restuarant' isn't she. (French doctor's humor). Well, she's still exclusively breastfed, and doesn't eat all the time now. She even sleeps through the night most nights (started when she was a week shy of her 3rd month birthday. I remember that night ... I woke up with a start and rushed to her bed to see if she was 'still breathing', wondering what was wrong that she didn't wake up to feed!). Yes, I say most nights as she still wakes up in the middle on the night sometimes. But mostly, she sleeps for about 9 hours straight. Bliss. I just have difficulty putting her down in the evenings. Sometimes it can take up to 1 1/2 hour!!

Well, here are some recent pix of my little adorable minx! And yes, she still has her 'punk' hairstyle. It just won't go down! What I like it! It's just soooo her! Enjoy.

Oh and here's a recent video of her smiling and giggling.