First taste of cherries.

It's cherry season in France right now. I LOVE LOVE LOVE cherries. I could eat a kilo of cherries all by myself anytime.

So, as I was feeding Laetitia her breakfast this morning, I was enjoying my cherries at the same time. Yes, I was having cherries for breakfast. My little pie was eyeing my lovely deep red fruit and I decided to give her some to try when she was done with her food (milk and weetabix).

I think she likes them. The only problem is, she makes a mess at the same time. There was bits and juice all over the place.

Hmm..... what is this taste?
I am not sure if I like it.

Let me take another bite of this strange fruit.

I LOVE them too Mummy. (What a BIG grin!)

14 months old and her language repertoire.

My little pie is becoming quite the little chatterbox. She talks a lot though we might not understand most of it. I try my best to speak to her using complete short sentences as much as possible. At the same time, I tell her about things that she see or name the objects whenever I can. I also use baby sign language with her for words that may be too complicated. And of course, I communicate with her in English (only) and Etienne would use French. There are times we might slip (I would include some French words in my sentences and he would use some English words when he speaks to her) but we do our best to keep to a "one person one language" thing.

The caregivers in the halte garderie (daycare) tell me that Laetitia loves recounting stories (their sweet way for saying that she loves to verbalise) and would sometimes whisper! Yes, we do that at home as a game, whispering.

So, here's her verbal repertoire.
PAPA - favourite word, repeated all the time thoughout the day. Declared loudly when her papa comes home from work.
MAMA - Used once in a while during the day. Sometimes she would look at me and say ever so sweetly "mama"
PAPOU - Said often when she was at my inlaws. That's how she calls her grandpa.
MAMOU - Once in a while when we repeat it to her
NANA - Short for banana. She loves this fruit.
NAINAI - Milk. Sounds like the chinese word for milk which I was using (bad mummy did not keep to the one person one language rule)
TER TER - Water but she seldoms use it.
BAIN - French for bath
PAIN - French for bread
MUM MUM - food

And her Baby sign repertoire.
Caterpillar
Cheese
More
Bye/Hello (same hand action)
Star
No more/All done
Elephant

I guess that's about all for now (or at least what I can remember). :)

I have been doing more shopping for Laetitia! Someone HAS to stop me. The summer sale is not even here yet!

So, more new shoes! A pair of Timberland


Some new summery clothes




We're all READY for summer. Now we just need the weather to cooperate!

First unaided steps

In the last couple of days, Laetitia has been taking a few unaided steps when she is totally unware of it. This happens either when she is excited or is thinking that she is being held. However, when she knows that we are not holding her hand, she is very apprehensive about walking by herself. I guess it is totally understandable as it IS something new for her. Anyways, we as parents are eagerly awaiting the day when she would just pick herself up and walk! And I reckon that it should not be too long. :-) If anyone has any unconventional ideas to help her walk faster, I'm all ears. I say unconventional as I believe we have tried most methods.

On a side note, here's my baby with her newly styled hair, the MOHAWK!

Just chilling...

Here's the little pie chilling out on her papa's chair with her mummy's pet toy dog, Brunie. Oh, look at the love. :)

And here's her having some fun with her Vsmile console.

She only scares me when she tries to stand while she is on the chair. I have this fear that she would lose her balance and fall off. :-(

Visit to the aquarium

Since it's the weekend and the weather did not look too great for being outdoor, we decided to find some place indoor that will be interesting for Laetitia. After some research online on suitable places/activities for a one year old, we decided on an aquarium. The question was which since there are more than a couple in Paris. We took the easy way out and selected the one nearest to us in the 12th district of Paris, Palais de la Porte Doree, Aquarium Tropical.

It's a rather small aquarium but a perfect size for a one year old. Interesting but not too overwhelming for the little one. Took us just slightly more than an hour to walk around. Here's some pictures we attempted inside. It was hard to take photos since there was not much light and we are not allowed to use flash.

With mummy.

With papa.

All alone.

Nouvelles chaussures pour Laetitia

Le semaine dernière, j'ai acheté deux paires de chaussures pour Laetitia parce qu'elle commence à marcher à l'extérieur (au parc et dans la cour de récréation). Avant elle a eu des chaussons en cuir qu'elle prend pour sortir et aller à la halte garderie.

Voici les chaussures qui sont arrivées il y a quelques jours.


J'espère que ces chaussures pourront aider Laetitia à marcher!

Potty training time.

I decided that I will start Laetitia on potty training after her first birthday but did not get around to buying her the potty. I finally got one yesterday and today we started potty training. She did her first successful poo in the potty. One big YEAH for my baby. Hahaha, I was gross and took a photo of the poo in the potty but I shall refrain from disgusting you! :p

Anyways, here's a couple of pics I took today while she was playing in her newly painted room. We moved the furnitures around and shifted the computer area to our room to provide her with more space to play.

Overnight hair growth!

This is what Laetitia's silly parents were up to when she is not around. Trying to digitally grow her hair!

Before

After!

Enjoying her time at her grandparents.

My sweetie pie has been staying in Carqueiranne with my parents in law since we left last Saturday. She will be there for a few more days. I'll pick her up this coming Friday afternoon. It's going to be a nice long journey for me. Four hours there and another four hours back.

She has been spending a wonderful time with her grandparents. She gets to go to the beach almost everyday, takes nice morning walks, chases after the cat and basically have jolly good fun. We have been getting "briefs" and photos daily on our little darling from Mamou. We try to do video-conferencing every day and it's so much fun seeing my little puupet. I miss her and at the same time, I enjoy having this time of freedom.

This is one of the photos we received this evening. It made me laugh out loud.

"Bye Mamou! I'm going to go to the office."

Ma petite chouchou me manque

Aujourd'hui Etienne et moi sommes partis de Carqueiranne pour Paris mais nous avons laissé notre bébé! C'est la première fois que Laetitia reste quelque part sans ses parents. Nous avons déjà appelé mes beaux parents et Mamou a dit que Laetitia va bien. Elle a fait deux promenades et elle a bien mangé, elle dort bien, etc. Je pense que cette expérience est plus difficile pour moi que pour Laetitia. Nous avons fait des vidéo-conférences par Skype et Msn aussi quand nous sommes rentrés chez nous à Paris. Mamou a envoyé quelque photos qu'elle a prises aujourd'hui. C'est mon bébé sur la plage. Regardez ma jolie petite fille.


Ces derniers jours, j'ai pris des photos et des vidéos de Laetitia chez mes beaux parents. Ca c'est quand elle joue toute seule.
Et ça c'est quand elle a monté les escaliers! Ca me fait peur!

More activities in Carqueiranne.

Aside from riding a police bike and having fun in the little pool, my little pie had fun exploring the house too. She was opening drawers, trying to push open doors, cruising around from room to room using a makeshift walker (aka plastic stool)... It was wonderful that she had all the space to move around.

Being caught red handed trying to ransack her Mamou's drawer.

"Opps Mummy!"
"Errrr. What shall I do next?"
"Maybe try to push open this door..."

"Aha! I'll use this chair to make my way across the room"

"No. It wasn't me nor mummy who did whatever you think we did. :p"

Finally, asleep in my arms after all the playing and exploring.

She also enjoyed being taken out daily by her Mamou. She would be taken out in the stroller to the beach, the port, the supermarket etc.

Here's a lovely picture of her and her Mamou.

I think she is relatively ready to spend the next week here without her mummy and papa. I'm the one who is a little apprehensive but I know she will be well taken care of. The first couple of days that we are here, she was a little difficult when it comes to the night routine. It is getting better now though we will be adjusting some of the routine while she is here. We will be giving her the bath in the day instead of the evening as part of her "put to bed" routine as she has proven to be more cranky and resistant to taking her bath in an unfamiliar environment. Other than that, I am not worried about anything. She has spent the entire afternoon without us while we went out and has been a darling with her Mamou.

Une bonne semaine à Carqueiranne.

Pour la premiere fois, j'essaye d'écrire en français. *for the first time, I will attempt to write in french.*

Cette semaine nous sommes à Carqueiranne, chez mes beaux parents. Laetitia passe de bons moments avec ses grand parents. Ils donnent à ma petite chouchou beaucoup de câlins et d'amour. Il y a beaucoup de choses qu'elle peut faire ici.

D'abord, elle a essayé une moto de police! Elle conduit comme une grande fille. Je pense qu'elle aime ça. Regardez les photos.


Quand elle a fait de la moto, son papa a preparé la petite piscine pour sa princesse. Le température est un petit peu froide et pour améliorer la température de l'eau dans la piscine, Etienne est monté beaucoup de fois pour prendre de l'eau chaude. Ah enfin, la piscine est prête pour la princesse. Regardez! Nous pensons qu'elle joue bien et qu'elle passe du bon temps dans la piscine.



Je pense que je vais écrire les choses qu'elle fait cette semaine en anglais. Cest fatigant pour moi d'écrire en français.