9 months old...

My baby is NINE months old!

It has been a tough last month for her. She was down with bronchiolitis and is still nursing a running nose however, she has been a tropper.

At her last visit to the doctor, she measured about 72.5cm and weights about 7.8kgs (bearing in mind she was sick at that time). I suppose she should be measuring around 73-74cms and weights about 8.5kgs now.

New things she started doing over the course of the last two months:-
1) Waves bye bye
2) Says "ter ter" for water
3) Opens and closes her fingers when I sing or croak "Twinkle Twinkle little star"
4) Claps when I sing "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands" (check out the little video below
5) Stands for a good 5 seconds while holding on to the rails on her cot.

First Christmas

This is Laetitia's first Christmas and we spent it with my parents in law and Etienne's nephew Alex.

Here's Lae and I on Christmas morning waiting to open our presents.

Lae looking very pleased with her presents. (Notice the shoe in the background? In France, the tradition is to leave your pair of shoes under the Christmas tree and Santa will leave the presents for you next to your shoes)

This is the first artwork of Laetitia. Handprintings done in her daycare. It was part of the gift her daycare centre gave to us for Christmas. We thought that it was such a sweet idea.

Merry Christmas!

We'll be off to my in laws for C hristmas but before we go, we want to wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS from the Lastennets!

Laetitia and her friend Sophie

Laetitia made a new friend Sophie last Tuesday.

Sophie's mummy, Sharon and I have been communicating forever via email but we have never met. We got to know each other on an online forum for brides in Singapore. (I, infact, have many friends who I met online and stayed friends with). We were then both active in a thread sharing experiences for brides who has a caucasian husband-to-be and were planning for their overseas weddings. We managed to hit it off and kept in contact since. I have invited Sharon to come over to Paris to spend a few days with us and they finally took up the offer.

So, on Tuesday, Sophie arrived in Paris with Sharon. They were going to be with us till Thursday. During the time they were in Paris, the little ones had lots of fun getting to know each other and we even managed to visit the new Musee du quai Branly and stop for a relaxing "chocolat froid" in a cafe.

Here's a picture of the two little ones chilling out while their mummies chat away about their sleeping habits, parenting styles, the silly things the much loved munchkins get up to etc etc.
They spent 2 nights with us before departing for Treuzy-Levelay (a beautiful countryside area just 45 minutes away from Paris by train) for the house of Fabien's godfather. We then met them again there on Saturday and spent another wonderful day with them and their family (Gilles and Damienne).

I wished I had taken more photos but had managed to leave my camera somewhere where it was not easily accessible for most times. Sharon did manage to take more photos and I'm sure she will post them once she settles.

A battle with bronchiolitis.

My poor baby has been sick so much since we came back from Singapore 6 weeks ago.

She had stomach flu (gastro as it is commonly known as in France) two weeks back and is now down with bronchiolitis (bronchiolite). We went to see the paediatrician today and aside from some medications, she has been prescribed some sessions for chest physiotherapy. We went for one immediately after seeing the PD as the physio is just downstairs from her office. I was so traumatised by the experience! It seems so violent for a small baby (Laetitia is 8 months old). Of course Lae was brawling her eyes out. Imagine someone pumping on your chest to forcefully push out your mucus and then choking you so that you would not swallow it back and finally clearing it from your mouth/nose! I keep holding her and saying, "mummy loves you", "you're a brave girl", "I'm sorry you have to go through this"....

Now I tried reading about chest physiotherapy and bronchiolitis and it seems that most materials I read does not recommend it and of course France seems like one of the very few countries practising this.

Now I'm of two minds..... should I just skip the sessions? God, why does parenting has to be so difficult?

Oh, the places you'll go!

OH! THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.
...
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So . . . get on your way.

Yes, my baby is getting on her way. She is really crawling!

Laetitia's Christmas presents and wishlist

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!! It's going to be a major presents time for my little butt.

Here's the presents she will be getting!

1. Vtech Move & Crawl ball (from my sister in law Manu) 2. Vtech V-Smile Baby (from my parents in law)

3. Chicco Bilingual (English and French) Animal farm (Bought with the gift cheques given by Etienne's employers BNP Paribas).

4. Baby Einstein DVD Box set (from me)

And these are the ones I think will be nice presents for her too. Books are a great gifts for aunties thinking of getting her something for Christmas as they can easily be ordered from Amazon.co.ukand be shipped to Paris. (PS: Do use the link to Amazon from here if you are buying her the books as gifts we'll get extra gift certificates too).

1. Fisher Price Dino Ball

2. A nice baby high chair like a Tripp Trapp.

3. Lilliputiens L'arche de Noe (Noah's ark)

4. The very hungry Caterpillar Board book5. Dear Zoo Flip the Flaps Board book (since she loves books and animals).

And many more that I keep seeing when I go into a toy store or do online shopping. I think she will love baby musical instruments, toys that pops up when you press certain buttons, cloth books (Infact, the caregivers in the daycare told me she LOVES the mini cloth books. I think I will get one that could be attached to the stroller for her to play with when we're out) etc. Well, a few more weeks to go. :-)

Laetitia was 8 months old yesterday...

And I totally forgot about it!!!

She has been sick and yesterday was BAD! She vomitted twice in her bed. My poor darling. It was such a frantic day that it did not even occur to me that my little cutie pie is 8 months old.

She is getting cuter by the day!

Well, no vital stats for this month since I have not taken her to the doctor for a while. She is growing well. She should be slightly more than 8kgs now.

New things she started doing over the course of the last two months:-
1) Self feed biscuits. She loves Baby Bites rusk biscuits which I CANNOT find in Paris. DARN! Anyone wants to send me some from Singapore? (hint hint all the aunties back in sg)
2) Stand when supported
3) Say "papa" "mum mum" "ma"
4) SCREAM when I leave the room
5) get into a sitting position from stomach
6) Understands when she is being scolded (response by first making a little face and then followed by minutes of inconsolable crying).

Here's some photos of my baby.

The crocodile eating monster!

Ducks are delicious too.

Lae enjoying herself in the garderie.

She sat on her own!!!

Today at exactly 2.15pm (or thereabouts), Laetitia managed to get into a sitting position on her own for the FIRST TIME! Yippeeee Lae Lae.

Lae is currently sick. She was running a fever last night, was vomitting and has diarrhoea. My poor baby. I spent the entire night with her sleeping on the guest bed in her room as she was feeling very uncomfortable and would cry whenever I put her back in her cot. Anyways, today she has been a little clingy and I spent most of the time with her on my bed.

As we were preparing to take her nap on my bed, she was playing around and I noticed that she was trying to get into a sitting position from her belly. She tried for a couple of times and then WALAH! She did it! I was so excited that I broke out into loud claps and shouts of "BRAVO LAE LAE". She was so pleased with herself she started laughing. :-) I immediately called her papa and told him of her achievement. Heehee... what a proud mummy I am.

On a side note, I pray that she will recover soon. It breaks my heart to see her so sick. Then again, I have to say that Lae is such a cheerful baby, even when she is sick, she is still smiling most of the time. :-)

Laetitia's first winter.

The weather is slowly getting cold and it's time to put on more clothes for Lae. She looks so cute in winter wear.

These pictures are not very well taken but the model is cute. :p

Getting all ready to go to the garderie (daycare). She is doing very well at the garderie now. It was a little tough on the first few days. She cried the moment I stepped out of the room. Now, she is able to stay there by herself for more than an hour without becoming upset. Today I will try leaving her for 2 hours. The aim is to finally be able to leave her there for half a day (about 6 hours).The above photo was taken right outside our door. It looks like a mess now as they are doing renovations to the common areas.

"Mum mum"

This is the first word that Lae is saying with actual recognition. She actually associates the word with it's meaning!!! Sadly, "mum mum" does not refer to me, her mummy. It refers to food. Yes, that's what she will say everything it's mealtime. When I bring her food to her, she will happily look at her food and say "mum mum". Or when I am eating, she will look at my food and goes "mum mum".

Well, at least I hope she'll soon be able to call me "ma ma" or "mi mi" or something!

Family photo shoot

We took the opportunity that we're in Singapore to do a professional photo shoot for the family. I've always wanted to do that for Lae since she was born. Heck, I've wanted to do a shoot since I was pregnant but it was just too expensive to get one done in Paris.

We had the shoot done at the wonderful place called The Studioloft and were very pleased with the results. Here's a selection of some of the pics.

The Lastennet family

Laetitia and papa shots

Laetitia and mummy shots

And finally, Laetitia all by herself.

Ain't she just about the cutest baby! :-D

After 5 1/2 weeks in Singapore... (Part II)

Laetitia had many "firsts" in Singapore. She first said "papa" in Singapore just a couple of days before Etienne arrived. She also started to become more mobile. She was able to move by sliding her body on the floor. Check out the video.



We had a relatively busier time once Etienne got to Singapore. More friends to meet up with and things to do. And of course Lae's papa was trying to spent some good quality time with his darling daughter.

Here's papa and daughter bonding through swimming.

Bonding through shopping! We had to visit the newest shopping mall in Singapore, Viviocity.

Taking the MRT (Singapore's public transportation system) together.

Finally Lae being packed as we're getting ready to leave Singapore!

After 5 1/2 weeks in Singapore...

We're glad to be home in Paris. We (all of us, Laetitia, Etienne and myself) thoroughly enjoyed oureslves in Singapore but I guess it's been a long time away from home. I started to realise that I refer to Paris as HOME and Singapore is a place that I visit now. How interesting. Of course for Laetitia, Paris is home. That's the only home she knows of (for now).

Since it has been about 3 weeks since I last updated, this is going to be a LONG post with an overload of photos so be prepared!

Laetitia and some family members...

With her cousin Valerie

With more of her cousins, Natalia and Benjamin

With her Doreen YiYi (that's how she addresses my sister)

With my friends...

With Auntie Michelle.... when we had lunch at Marmalade with her and Auntie Carol (Foo) who is not in the photo.

With Uncle Stanley and little Nemo, Uncle Joe, Auntie Karen and little Rachel, and Uncle Jason and Auntie Josephine.

With my ex-colleagues from BNP Paribas and their spouses plus kids.

With Auntie Cynthia.

With Auntie Jaimie.

With Auntie Carol.

The photo with Carol was taken on the same day that Lae Lae went for an advertisement photo shoot for Suzuki cars. The ad agency that Carol worked for was looking for a baby for a shoot while we were in Singapore and Carol showed them this blog! Long story short, we got the job, well, it's more like Lae got the job, we went for the shoot and now I'm eagerly waiting to see the final result.

There are more to blog and photos to post but I think I'll leave that to part two of this post.

Laetitia and my brother's family

Laetitia met her uncle again today as my brother came back to Singapore from Bangkok on Thursday. My brother is usually very good with kids and she had a good time playing and bonding with her uncle.

Here's a picture of her and her uncle and auntie.

And with my brother's family.

Enjoying some new toys

I think my petite chouchou enjoys the bumbo seat that Auntie Dolly lend to us.

All by herself

With her mummy

With her Nicholas kor kor (cousin/brother)

My eldest nephew Nicholas loves being with Laetitia. He's been a total sweetheart with her. Imagine a twelve year old boy asking to stay in his grandparents house so that he could be close to his little cousin. He would play with Lae and help to look after her. I'm very proud of this nephew of mine and I'm sure he will grow up to be a fine gentleman.

Finally here is a picture of Laetitia's first MRT ride.