Ma petite chouchou, Laetitia

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2009-04-24T19:03:00.002+02:00

Please visit the new site.
www.leslastennet.blogspot.com

Happy 3rd Birthday Laetitia!

2009-03-29T23:27:00.012+02:00

My little girl is three today! We had a weekend of celebration for her. Yesterday we went to Koony Parc with our friends Ivana and Kevin and their little girl, Isabelle. Both the little ones had such a great time and I suppose the parents too. Laetitia is now able to go on the big structure all by herself. At one point we even lost her inside! Well, not really lost lost but rather we could not figure out which part of the structure she was at. Here's some action shots.

Up inside the big structure.

Coming down the slide with Isabelle and Uncle Kevin.

And this morning, right after she got up, it was time to open her presents. First off, the card and present from her grandparents.

Next papa's present.

Tati Manu's presents.

We kept my present for her for tea time as we felt she was overwhelmed with gifts. I got her some puzzles.

And then there is cake time!

Tonight we are having dinner at Jean's as it is also Jacqueline's birthday and tomorrow, she will have another party at the daycare.

One combined blog

2009-03-27T11:59:00.001+01:00

For those who prefer to track just one blog, I combined both Laetitia and Loïc's blog into one blog here. I will also keep the two separate so that both of them will have their personal blog to read when they are older.

The wonderful big sister.

2009-02-28T14:59:00.002+01:00

I gave birth to Loïc on the 20th and since then, Laetitia has been the perfect big sister. She wants to give Loïc hugs and kisses all the time, asking to cuddle him or carry him and telling him sweetly in French "it's okay, it's okay" when he cries. Since we came home (on the 25th), she has been very considerate towards him and is eager to help me do little things for him including buttoning his clothes when I change him, getting me a tissue to wipe his mouth after breastfeeding etc.

I am so proud of my little one.

Here's one of my favourite picture of the two of them.

Laetitia and mummy's belly.

2009-02-16T00:00:00.002+01:00

Just one of the numerous pics we took over the weekend to have as keepsake of Laetitia and her little brother Loïc still in mummy's belly.

She is very excited about her little brother's arrival and has been telling him to come out to play with her. I can't wait for them to be able to interact and play together. She is such a sweet thing with smaller kids/babies and I'm keeping my fingers crossed and believing that she will be a fantastic big sister.

Je suis très belle et généreuse!

2009-02-10T23:39:00.003+01:00

That was exactly what Laetitia told our neighbour a couple of days ago. The conversation went like this...

Neighbour: "Bonjour Laetitia" hello Laetitia
Laetitia: "Bonjour Madame" hello madame

... some small talk...

Neighbour: "Comme tu es mignonne." You are adorable
Laetitia: Oui! Et je suis très belle et généreuse! Yes! And I am very pretty and generous.

Me ----> eyes wide opened and looking a little sheepish: "Ah! Ma fille, elle n'est pas timide." Ah! My daughter, she is not shy.

She has been "embarrassing" me lately with her boldness and confidence. She goes to strangers and ask them "comment tu t'appelles?" What is your name, "Qu'est-ce que tu fais?" what are you doing and I'm always jumping in telling her to use "vous" instead of "tu" etc as it is deemed impolite in France to use "tu" with strangers or people you are not familiar with. Ah, the joy of the French language.

And sometimes she stuns me with the things she says and her humour. I bought her some cherries and when she was having some asked her to share with me. She gave me one which I ate and then when I asked again, she wanted to feed me so I let her and the moment I took the entire cherry in my mouth, she went "Ah, GOURMAND!" greedy and started laughing! Urrrghhhh..... my daughter calling me greedy. Sigh.... what am I in for?

So here's the cheeky child with her silly pomelo head again.

Silly pomelo head!

2009-01-29T14:15:00.002+01:00

I bought some pomelo from the supermarket and this is what happened during dinner time after I peeled the skin off.

Well, actually her papa started it by wearing it on his head! And of course the little one thought it was HILARIOUS and wanted to do the same. Oh yes, it did end up on my head too since the little one thought that it will be swell to have mummy spot the same style. What a family. :p

Day to day fun

2009-01-27T13:42:00.003+01:00

Just a little update to show that my little pie is doing well. She is fully back to her cheeky self and has been eagerly telling everyone that she is going to be a jie jie (big sister). I had been quite sick with a flu so had not been dutifully updating the blog nor taking photos of my darling.

Here's just a recap of the last weeks.

Absolutely delighted to be sleeping in my bed!
Busy with her colouring.
Doing a little dance to one of her favourite songs.

Presents time

2008-12-28T22:53:00.002+01:00

Just to share a video of Laetitia's joy when she opens her presents.

You can also hear in the background her cousin's excitement when opening his present (an iPod). These two kids were definitely spoiled over Christmas with an abundance of presents.

As an aside, here in France when it comes to presents, they keep very much to the mystery/magic of Father Christmas. NO presents placed under the Christmas tree until after the kids go to bed. Everyone has to put a pair of shoes under the tree so that Father Christmas (Santa Claus) will know where to put your presents. The children will tend wake up very excited in the morning to see what presents they received from Santa. All the presents come from Santa so the kids do not know who gave them what (except until they realised that Santa is all a myth then they are expected to thank the person who gave them the gifts). Opening of presents takes place first thing in the morning once everyone in the house is up. For us, on Christmas morning it took us 1 1/2hrs to do that!

Noël à Carqueiranne.

2008-12-25T20:01:00.008+01:00

As usual, we're at my in laws to spend Christmas together as a family. I see this as a tradition we'll like to keep even when we're no longer living in Paris. It's wonderful spending this festive time together. It's Laetitia's third Christmas and she is starting to understand Christmas and what it is about. We're keeping the story of Santa to keep the magic of the presents under the tree together with explaining what Christmas is really about, the birth of Jesus. I am glad to have this blog to take a look at her first (2006) and second (2007) Christmas.

This year we came slightly earlier on the 20th and will be staying until the 3rd of January. There is a little Christmas corner near the town hall with lots of different activities for children and Laetitia has been going there almost everyday. She enjoys going on the merry go round (unlike last year) and being pushed on a sled by her cousin on a little ice-skating circuit.

Here's some photos taken up to this morning (presents opening time!)

This year Laetitia is showered with presents again. This little one received so many presents! As you can see from this photo, she is totally surrounded with toys. She received lots of books (2 English, 4 French), digital camera, fully furnished doll house and a memory game. There are some other presents waiting for her in Paris (which we simply do not have the luggage space to carry here and back with us).

This is how the doll house looks like when put together. In fact, we will be leaving this doll house here as it is too heavy and big to bring alone with us.

What is encouragement?

2008-12-16T09:22:00.003+01:00

Last night over dinner while we were watching "Little Bears", I asked Etienne what he thought the difference was between positive encouragement and setting realistic expectations. This was prompted by the episode where Little Bear wanted to fly to the moon and Mother Bear told him that he can't fly and is a fat bear cub who would probably fall with a thump. After I asked the question, before Etienne could answer, Laetitia piped up to ask, "Mummy, what is encouragement?". As I was in the middle of a conversation with Etienne, I did not reply her and she went "Mummy, please talk to me". :p

So, I turned to her and asked her if she wanted to know what encouragement meant. She said yes and that's where it got a little tough for me. How to explain encouragement in simple terms to a 2 1/2 year old. We told her that encouragement was giving support to someone when they want to do something. It was rather close to the dictionary definition I found however when we asked her if she understood what it meant, she shook her head (obviously mummy!). So Etienne and I tried to explain it in plain terms using our day to day life. For example when she wants to climb up a high play structure, we would tell her, of course you can do it (even before she tries). Or when she tries to complete a puzzle and tells me it's difficult and I tell her that I'm sure she can do it and she should try, that is encouragement. I think she got the gist of it. :)

I do feel like I've gone back to school to the times when I have to do comprehension exercises and part of the work was testing on vocabulary. We had to provide the definition of the words and it was not exactly easy even when I do know what the word meant. Then again, I am glad that Laetitia has an inquisitive mind to ask questions.

Back to the original question of positive encouragement vs setting realistic expectations. I personally feel that it is a hard act to balance the two. What is unrealistic to one may in turn be a possibility to other and I think at this point of time, I'll rather err on the side of providing more encouragement and being "unrealistic" then run the risk of crushing the dreams/aspiration of my child.

Trip to Edinburgh

2008-12-10T17:45:00.004+01:00

We took a little weekend trip to Edinburgh to visit our friend Ash over the weekend (5th to 7th) and while it was nice to get away from Paris for a bit, it certainly was a tiring weekend sincedim Laetitia missed her naps on most of the days and went to bed pretty late. The food was good though. We had excellent Indian (biryani) and Chinese (dim sum).

Edinburgh is a rather pretty city but not exactly very toddler friendly (it was hard to let Laetitia walk by herself but then maybe it's just the Christmas crowd). Then again, Paris is not very toddler friendly too. Laetitia did have a good time though. She enjoyed the food and the shopping like a true blue Singaporean. In fact, she managed to grab a pair of Clark's Molly the magical cat boots that was on sale and promptly wore them out of the store. I, on the other hand, came back empty-handed since being 7 months pregnant means that I have no idea what would fit me post partum. Sigh, what a disappointment for me.

Here's the little one (with chocolatey lips) and her mummy on the plane. We took Easyjet which was reasonably priced. It was good that we did the online check-in and was able to be the first few on the plane since we had Laetitia (who was under 5 year old) with us.
Laetitia and her papa along Princes Street. Both looking cool with their shades.
Coffee time with Papa, mummy and Uncle Ash.

First time meeting Santa

2008-12-03T22:37:00.003+01:00

... and it did not go well at all. She was excited about the idea of meeting Santa before we actually got to the party to see him but the moment we arrived and she saw him in a distance, she burst into tears and started running away saying that she does not want to see Santa and that she is scared of him.

I had initially planned to take some nice first photos of Laetitia and Santa for Christmas and had prepared her for the excitement by telling her way ahead of time that we're going to a Christmas party to see Santa. I had foolishly thought that it will be enough to help prep her but I was wrong. When we were there, there was nothing I could do to convince her that Santa is nice, not even the temptation of Santa giving out lollies. So, it was a failed attempt to introduce my little one to Santa Clause. Maybe we'll try again next year.

Anyways, here's a couple of pics our friend Ash who was visiting took of Laetitia about a week ago. I thought they look quite nice. :-)

Preparing to be a big sister.

2008-11-21T16:16:00.003+01:00

I just made a comment on a friend's blog and thought I should seriously blog this down.

Laetitia is starting to become very aware that baby is a part of our lives. When she talks about our family now, it often includes baby or Loïc (the name that she is so inclined to call the baby). She tells me she loves mummy, papa and baby and sometimes talk to the baby. The fun part is, many times when she is talking or singing to baby, he moves! I guess the little one enjoys hearing his sister's voice too. She loves to hug my belly too, telling me she is giving Loïc a hug or kiss. At times, she tells the baby, "I'm jiejie Laetitia" (jiejie = sister in Mandarin). Now the funniest part is, whenever she is sharing some food with me and/or Etienne, she would put aside some for baby too and if she is able to, she will attempt to shove these pieces of food up my belly button for baby! And she tries to share one of her lovey/doudous with baby by putting them across my belly. It's so fun seeing her bond with the baby this way. :-)

Of course on the other side of the spectrum, she is also pretending to be a baby at times. She tells me "Laetitia is a baby" and occasionally attempts to crawl on all fours to me. Well, can't wait for the real challenge when baby Loïc arrives.

PS: I spoke to the daycare psychologist who was in for observation today and aside from telling me that Laetitia seems to have over most of her anxiety/fear issues, asked me if the baby is named Loïc as Laetitia told her that her baby brother's name. :p

Setting up the Christmas tree.

2008-11-16T21:37:00.003+01:00

Since we'll we leaving for my parents in law on the 20th December for Christmas plus we'll be going away to Edinburgh the first weekend of December, Etienne decided that we should set up the Christmas tree early this year to benefit from it.

This year we have a very enthusiastic helper who was quite excited to hand all the ornaments onto the tree. It did however ended up with almost all the decorations at the bottom, on one side and many would fall if we even slightly shake or move the tree so obviously a little help was required in the end. :p

Here's some pics of the work in progress!

The final product, all lit up!

More baking.

2008-11-09T11:13:00.004+01:00

Since Laetitia had so much fun last weekend with the baking and even more joy eating the muffins/cupcakes she made, I decided to do more this weekend. Yesterday we made some chocolate muffins.

Here's the little baker in action. The lovely Ratatouille apron came from a friend of ours who used to work with Etienne in Toronto but is with Pixar now.

Preparing the muffin tray by lining them with the muffin paper cups.
Getting all ready to put the ingredients together
Pouring the yogurt into the mixture
The final product (before being eaten for breakfast).

Laetitia's first bake

2008-11-01T22:55:00.008+01:00

Today I decided to do something different with Laetitia and we baked! I had her help to prepare the muffin tray, pour the ingredients into the big mixing bowl and stir before I used the mixer to give it a final touch before putting the cake into the oven. We made chocolate chip yogurt cake/muffins.

Here's the final results.

I thought that using nice 70% cocoa lindt cooking chocolate would be nice but in the end, the chocolate made the cake a bit too bitter. I'll stick to cheap chocolate chips in future. :p

Well, it's been a little while since I post the last picture of her so here's one of Laetitia lined up in bed with her stuffed friends.

Update on Laetitia's anxiety issues.

2008-11-01T14:07:00.003+01:00

After fretting and worrying throughout the week, we eventually got around to speaking with the daycare in-house psychologist (who comes in for observation once every month or so) yesterday evening. Her observation of Laetitia (based on the past and what she saw yesterday) plus our input on what is going on in our lives (mainly the new baby coming - my belly getting obviously bigger) is that the root of what is causing the fear/anxiety recently is two folds. Firstly, the personality of Laetitia and secondly the coming baby.

The psychologist said that Laetitia is a very sensitive child and seeks to please. Well, yes, both Etienne and I are rather sensitive... me more then him considering that during the week I had cried twice in the daycare when I felt lost with how I could help my darling. She observed that my little one is very aware of what is going on around her, how her little friends are feeling/doing etc. And in the case of her little friends doing things that she does not like, even though theoretically she knows that she should say "NO, stop", "I don't like it" , "Don't disturb me" etc, she is unable to get herself to do it. The psychologist feels that this is partly due to her nature of wanting to please, she might be afraid that if she says that or take a strong stand like that, her little friends might not like her anymore. This of course causes a lot of conflict within her little being. I guess that is why she becomes scare of going to the daycare or scare of the kids since she does not know how to deal with her conflicting emotions. I have to say that I feel slightly guilty somehow in how Laetitia's personality/character had a part to play in her feeling the way she does now. I had always told her to be nice and share whenever she plays with others even when someone else tries to take something that she is playing with. What the psychologist said is true, to the child, sometimes it is important that we have to acknowledge that they have the right to something first and not always be the one giving in. In the case of Laetitia, right now it seems that the conflict is that she does not like what was being done to her (other kids being pushy or aggressive) but she dare not say stop or no because she wants to be liked. And this caused her a lot of stress (leading to the manifestation of what we had seen the last 3 weeks or so).

Now onto the fact that the pregnancy or imminent arrival of another child in the family is a big change for an only child, the psychologist noticed a few things that explained that Laetitia is showing signs of worry about her place in the family. Watching her over the day and hearing from the caregivers in the daycare, Laetitia has a particularly harder time with newcomers and the psychologist thinks this is a reflection of her being afraid of losing her place/being replaced. Laetitia also constantly ask to be in the babies section instead of the toddlers section and this could be because she is more secured in her relationship with the adults in the babies section compared to the toddlers section plus she is more in control there.

Her suggestions to us includes the following:-

1) Continue to teach Laetitia to say no, stop etc when it comes to other kids doing things she does not like but to add on and explain that doing that will not change how the kids will play with her and want to be with her.

2) At home, spend time being as a family and explain to Laetitia that her place in our hearts, in our family will not change even with the arrival of the baby. We will still love her as much and she is always our little girl.

3) As we had asked if we should stop going to the daycare for a while to give Laetitia a break, she said that it is not necessary and what I should do is to bring her earlier when the other kids have yet to arrive (that means between 12:15pm to 12:30pm instead of 1:30pm), prepare her before we leave the house, reassure her when we arrive, have a little cuddle time with her and then leave even if she does cry. Let the caregivers calm her down and they will then help her welcome each child that arrives after to give her a sense of them coming into her space.

We should do the above and monitor the situation. The psychologist was very kind and also said we can contact her anytime if we need to discuss more in future.

On a side note, we have found a new nanny and though unsure if this is the right time, I think it had better be now then later since we would probably need the help more when the baby arrives and it is better that Laetitia gets used to this person earlier instead of only when the baby arrives. At least by then, it is only one new face instead of two, one change instead of two. It is also a good thing for me to know if this person can be a good help for when the baby arrives.

Gosh, what challenges there lies for parents. Now I really see how striking a balance in what I teach my child(ren) vs their personality is vital. With Laetitia, because she is a gentle and eager to please child, it is more important to teach her to stand for herself and be assertive while maybe baby number two might need the approach I had always taken, to focus more on sharing and being non-aggressive. Well, we'll see. :-)

The difficulties of raising a gentle soul

2008-10-27T14:46:00.002+01:00

My little one is a very gentle soul. She is full of compassion and love. People are always telling me how happy and joyful she always seems and it is true, she is a relatively easy child. She has good sleep habits, is rather well behaved for an almost 3 year old, is sometimes very cheeky and loves to give kisses and hugs.

Now on the flip side, I have come to realise that there are some challenges with having a child so sweet and peace loving. And one of the BIG challenge manifested itself over the last couple of weeks.

About two weeks ago, when I sent her to the daycare, the strangest thing happened. She started to cry and say that she wanted to go home. Since the last year or more, she has always enjoyed going to daycare and sometimes ask about going on weekends so this was a big surprise for me. I stayed to calm her down, sitting with her through story-telling time and finally managed to get her to stop crying and agree to stay and play with her friends. Now, since that time and even slightly before that, I noticed that she is very uncomfortable around a little boy who seemed to be very agressive (pulling her hair and being rough with other kids during drop-off time). Slowly, this escalated to her constantly saying she does not want to go into the daycare center after we arrive. Now this would happen just as she is walking towards the toddlers room after entering the daycare happily. Once she sees a couple of the more "active/dynamic" kids (it's now no longer confined to just that little boy but also other kids who might seem pushy and loud), she turns and runs back to the stroller and says she wants to go home. I managed to get her to go in by carrying her inside and then having one of the caregivers take her in their arms. At that point, about a week ago, I decided to talk to the principal of the daycare about it.

We discussed how we could help Laetitia deal with handling her fears and her approach with these more "active/dynamic" kids. Now, I do not like to label children and during the conversation with the principal, I did not name names of which kids terrify Laetitia nor use negative labels on them. In fact, the exact words we used to described was "dynamic". For lack of a better word, I understand that some toddlers are more aggressive then others but the problem is, they are causing my darling stress. We agreed that on my part, we would speak to Laetitia about it at home and teach her to very loudly tell whoever is upsetting her (either by pulling her hair or disturbing her) to "STOP!", "Leave me alone!" or "I don't like you to do that!" and then tell an adult about it. And the daycare on their part will reassure her and tell her the same thing. This sounds like a good solution at the point we spoke. However, the problem seemed to have grown bigger for Laetitia.

Over the weekend, she had been sick. Since Friday evening, she has been vomiting. Initially I thought it might be a stomach flu. She vomited 6 times in 24 hrs from Friday night to Saturday night and then on Sunday, she seemed better until late evening. She was well throughout the day until about 5pm when she vomited about 5 times between 5-9pm. So, this morning I took her to the doctor. He could not find anything wrong with her. No stomach flu, no gastro etc. And yes, she did not have any diarrhea. He finally concluded that it could be just some stomach spasm. Probably something irritated her stomach and it is causing her to vomit or something psychological. So, instead of keeping her at home as I had intended, I sent her to the daycare and explained to one of the caregivers to give Laetitia small quantities of food for tea time. As we were talking, she mentioned how it might be due to Laetitia's anxiety with the situation in the daycare and it dawn on me how it could very well be it. She did mention that they can see she is visibly stressed and afraid when the boy is around. Right now, Laetitia refuses to be in the toddler section even when he is not around. Last Friday when we arrived at the daycare and she refused to go in (there was one of the louder kids around but seriously I think they are harmless), the assistant principal told me to bring her into the babies section first and then they will slowly integrate her during nap/play time. That worked fine. And today, Laetitia asked to go to the babies section even before we left the house!

So, my conclusion is that her vomiting spells over the weekend is stress related and it started with the little boy (whom I am told today is leaving the daycare after next week) being aggressive towards her and now has lead to her being generally afraid of the other kids who might seem to be more pushy. Now aside from this boy, the other kids are harmless, they are loud but just very excitable. How can I help her to get over her anxiety in dealing with these other children? It hurts me to see my little one crumbling this way. As the daycare personnel said, Laetitia is a child who is very much about love and compassion. She is always the first one to want to give another kid a hug or kiss to comfort them if they are crying. She is always running to help another kid who fell. She does not hit, push or act out in any aggressive manner. And in this case, she cannot understand why this other child is being so violent towards her and it scares her.

I wonder if the way I brought her up is making her less resilient. I always taught her to share, tell her not to hit etc. The normal things that we teach our children. We practice what we teach at home, Etienne and I treat each other with love and respect and we do the same towards our little one. Now the only thing I feel I can do is to talk to her about it, to tell her to stand up for herself, and at the same time tell her that we (her parents, God, the adults etc) are here to protect her and she does not need to be afraid but what else can I do?

Christmas is coming soon.

2008-10-20T15:57:00.002+02:00

Well, Christmas is coming soon and from experience, I now know that I should get Lae's present EARLY so, yes, some of her presents are bought and I'm just wanting till it's time to get the tree up and put them under it.

So far, her presents consist of the following:-

1) Doll clothes for the new doll, Lola, that she got recently from Etienne's sister.

2) A high chair for her dolls

3) A moses basket for her dolls.

4) A digital camera from my friend Jaimie.

I also got her a dress for Christmas from Gap. I just love it, especially the part where there is some tutu under the skirt to give it a little pouff.

I need to get just a few more items and I believe that should complete my Christmas shopping for the little one. Well, I don't want her to be too spoiled with gifts during Christmas but yet... I mean, it's so easy to want to indulge in this little cutie pie yah?

Little ballerina girl.

2008-10-10T16:35:00.002+02:00

Laetitia still at my in laws and yesterday I received a couple of photos from my mother in law on what went on during the day for them. She went to the library, played on the beach, danced in the house etc. Anyways, one of the photos is this!

Isn't she cute? My very own little ballerina girl. My mum in law let Laetitia tried on Etienne's sister ballerina costume. I am always amazed at how she has kept most of the stuff from when Etienne and his sister were little. I mean, this ballerina costume is like 35 years old. It is a little big on her but I'm sure she will soon grow into it. And then, it'll be time to send her for some ballet class. Can't wait!

Happy 40th Birthday Papa!

2008-10-05T16:29:00.002+02:00

It is her papa's birthday in two days time and as part of the celebrations, we went to my in laws in the south to spend some time with them. We had a little celebration at home with Laetitia and my in laws yesterday. Here's a little video of the two of them together blowing out the candles.

Our parenting style.

2008-10-04T12:19:00.008+02:00

I am involved in a couple of forums and over the course of time, there has been many discussions about parenting style and how we deal with issues like punishment/discipline, CIO (crying-it-out)/sleep training etc. Sometimes I am left shaking my head at some comments and sometimes I can totally see myself doing the same thing. I do not particularly subscribe to *one* style of parenting but like most parents, combine what works for my child and my family. I thought that since we'll soon be facing the challenge of parenting another child, this is a good time to write down what has worked for us so far. Of course I am also bearing in mind that every child is different and every child need something different from the other to grow and flourish.

What worked so far for us as parents (I will try to note down what we did from birth wise)?

1) Lots of contact/affections.
We are a very affectionate family. From the birth of Laetitia, I love love love to carry her and keep her close to me. I wear her very often and give her kisses and hugs ALL THE TIME.
Now that she is older, we do "family hug" time when the three of us do a group hug and we sing a little song that goes something along the line of "I love you, you love me, we are one big family. With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you (at this point we will kiss each other), won't you say you love me too." We say I love you to each other all the time too.

2) Sleep training
Yes, I do sleep train my child. I agree with most of what the book "Healthy sleep habits, happy baby" states. Children need their sleep and some of them need to be taught to sleep well. We did controlled crying and shushing but not outright CIO. We also had Laetitia sleeping by herself in her room from about two or three months old. Even now, at 2 and a half, we sometimes have to let her cry a little before sleeping (she would protest about going to bed even though we can see she is tired) and if she wakes up in the middle of the night, we try to let her settle by herself (of course we listen to see if the cry is just a cry for attention or something else like if she fell off the bed or had a nightmare!)

3) Objectivity - Lots of praise and also reminders of what is not encouraged.
I believe in praising the child to build his/her confidence. I tell Laetitia she did a good job, that I am proud of her (like if she shares), I am pleased that she was well-behaved, it was nice that she did something etc whenever I catch with good behaviour. I encourages her to do things by praising her and telling her how pleased I will be if she could do this or that. On the other side of the coin, I do not hesitate to tell her that something she did is "not nice", that what she did made me unhappy etc if she misbehaves. That sometimes would stop her but if that does not, then I do not hesitate to either let her face the natural or imposed consequences.

4) Discipline - firm but no spanking.
I believe in disciplining a child. I believe that a child has to be taught what is right and wrong. And I believe that a child should learn respect and his/her limits. Oh, but let me say that I do not believe that a child under one year old really understands the concept of control so this did not apply until Laetitia was about one year old.
I started imposing time out but putting her in the carseat she had outgrown and locking her in so that she cannot get out when she is being punished. At that point (one year old), it was for one minute. Right after she was punished, I would explain to her why I did that and what she did that was not desired (maybe biting me repeated or something along those lines). Now, she is usually told that she did something mean and if she didn't stop, she would be sent to her room. And when she throws little tantrums, I would usually first tell her I do not like that behaviour, and then ignore her by walking away.

5) Giving autonomy/teaching independence while maintaining control.
We allow Laetitia a certain degree of autonomy and encourages independence. For about a year now she has been feeding herself during mealtimes. She is also able to spend half an hour by herself playing in her room several times a day. We let her decide what she wants to wear, which plate she wants to use, what desserts she wants after the meal (from a choice of two) etc.
And of course there are certain things she has to listen to us, for example, when is bedtime, what type of activities are forbidden (climbing unto the table, playing in the kitchen etc).

I'm sure there are more to what we do but for now, this will suffice.

Paris in June

2008-10-03T21:55:00.002+02:00

As mentioned in an earlier post in June, we had some photos taken by a friend who is a photographer. After some delay, I got hold of the photos about a week back and some of them are really very nicely taken.

These are some of my favourite family pics.

Lae and her papa.

By herself
I love love love this photo as it shows so much of her character. Very cheeky and always up to some silliness/fun. And she makes me laugh so much all the time.

At this moment, we're in the south of France at my in laws. We're celebrating Etienne's 40th with the family before going back to Paris (without Laetitia) to have a romantic night by ourselves and a little party with friends later in the week. My mother in law will bring Laetitia back to Paris a week later. We've really been blessed with very helpful and kind in laws who are not only willing to watch Lae but go through the trouble of taking the train for more then 8 hours (slightly more then 4hrs one way) to send Lae back to us. Merci Mamou.

Training to help out in chores.

2008-09-27T11:33:00.002+02:00

Laetitia loves to do "adult" stuff and that includes helping us out with the household chores. One of her favourite activity is to put the laundry into the washing machine. Here my little darling is hard at work.

And maybe, just maybe, if she earns enough pocket money from doing chores she might be able to afford herself some decent shopping and be a young fashionista? :p

An allergic reaction.

2008-09-21T22:04:00.004+02:00

We had a little scare this evening with Laetitia having an allergic reaction to either the cashew or macadamia nut she had while we were having apperitif with Anne and Nico at our place. It started with her saying that there's something on her tongue/in her mouth and then she started complaining of some discomfort. It quickly led to her vomiting and then saying that her stomach hurts. For a while, I thought she might have eaten something bad but when she started scratching and then her body started turning red and hives developed I quickly realised it's an allergic reaction. It's a first so we immediately called the SOS doctor helpline. The paediatric doctor has a wait of 2hrs so we asked for a normal doctor. At the same time, Etienne called my father in law (a doctor) to ask if there is anything specific we should do. After determining it was not "life-threatening", we just tried our best to comfort Lae and distract her from her discomfort. Anne and Nico took their leave to allow us to deal with Laetitia in peace. Poor little one was in so much discomfort.

Finally the doctor came, prescribed some medication which Etienne had to go get at a 24hr pharmacy 20 mins away, we gave Lae the medicine and she quickly fell asleep as it was pass 10pm and she was totally exhausted from the ordeal.

The thing is I had given Laetitia food containing some nuts (hazelnuts, pecan, walnut, almonds etc) but she never had any reaction. I guess this time it was a whole nut that's why. Anyways, we will be more vigilant with nut products going forward.

Back home and back to daycare.

2008-09-11T21:02:00.002+02:00

Finally it's "la rentrée" (back to school). In France, almost everything shuts down in summer especially in the month of August. Shops are closed, schools are closed, and even daycare centers are closed. The French would take the opportunity to go on long holidays during this time. Etienne took three weeks off and Laetitia spent 3 weeks with her grandparents and the last week of the holiday with us in Paris. I was initially worried that Laetitia would need to readjust getting back to the daycare but nope, she was excited to go back and there was no problem at all. In fact, the caregivers were so sweet to call her the darling of the garderie, telling me she is very well behaved. So, now that Laetitia is back to the daycare, I can rest in the afternoons.

Last weekend we attended a wedding just outside of Paris and I managed to snap a couple of photos of her in the garden smelling the flowers and along the side of the swimming pool with her papa.

I MISS MY CHOUCHOU!

2008-08-18T16:42:00.002+02:00

Oh, I miss her so much I nearly cried when she told me "I love you, Mummy" over the phone today. This is the longest she has been away from me (11 days and counting). She'll be back in Paris with her papa (who left today) this coming Saturday.

Look at how much my little bean has grown.

And doesn't she look more and more like me as she grows?

Potty trained.

2008-08-14T19:00:00.003+02:00

My little one is potty trained! She has been pooing and peeing in the potty and even on the toilet for the last 2 weeks with almost no accidents in the last week. YIPEE my darling. She still wears a diaper to sleep but is in panties otherwise and is able to tell us when she needs to poo (which she says "poot") and pee. :-D

Summer in Carqueiranne

2008-08-07T18:50:00.003+02:00

Laetitia is having a good summer holiday in Carqueiranne now. We came here on the 1st and Etienne and I left today while we left Laetitia behind to enjoy herself further. Well, actually I was feeling a little anxious this time since when I tried explaining to her yesterday that papa and mummy are going back to Paris and she will be staying with her papou and mamou, she looked a little sad and said she wants to go to Paris with us too. But I know she will have lots of fun with my in laws and her cousin Alexandre. She will stay until the 23rd but Etienne will be joining her on the 18th. I will have some personal free time from 11th to 23rd and before that, Etienne and I will take a little romantic holiday to Prague and spend some time in Paris.

One of Laetitia's favourite thing to do here is to swim in the sea, check out how happy she is!

She is getting rather tanned considering that she goes to the beach everyday and sometimes TWICE a day. Lucky girl.

Finally!

2008-07-27T20:48:00.003+02:00

The day that I have been waiting patiently for! Her hair is long enough to be tied up into two little pony tails. :-p

Ain't she cute with her little pony tails? So girlish.
A closer look of her hair.

Fête de fin d'année!

2008-07-18T22:36:00.004+02:00

It's the school year end and the halte garderie had a party on the 4th of July. So yes again this post is LATE LATE LATE. But don't blame me. :p

It was a really fun party and they had a travelling farm, Tiligolo come into the daycare! It came with a little performance and after that, the kids could pat the animals. There were all sorts of farm animals and Laetitia had tons of fun.

To start off, We introduce the goat! Nope, not the one in blue, that's my little girl Laetitia. The goat, errrrr, is behind Laetitia.
Having a chance to pat a little duckling.
Being excited watching her friends.
Kids and parents enjoying the spectacle.
Check out all the animals! There was a goat, a piglet, a lamb, chickens, a duck, a goose, ducklings, rabbits, a hen, a rooster etc.
A group picture of the caregivers. Laetitia is sitting on the lap of the principal of the daycare. They are all fabulous with her and she absolutely adores them.

More on Singapore

2008-07-01T22:28:00.002+02:00

Sorry for the delay but I have been feeling under the weather since coming back to Paris. So yes, this post is backdated. :p

Here are some of the photos from the trip in Singapore.

Trying out a horsey ride in Suntec City. She could not get the horse to move by itself and was kindly helped by Michelle's third kid, Melanie.
In a play gym at Big Splash. I believe it was called Frisk & Romp. I was just telling Etienne how it is overpriced in Singapore. It cost $14 an hour and compared to what we have in Paris (I am specifically thinking of Kooney Planet that Laetitia loves), is pathetically small.
Hanging out with Auntie Eileen in Raffles City.
Trying out eating with chopsticks. She actually managed to get some rice into her mouth. Bravo!
With my sister's helper, Janet. Janet was a big help in looking after Lae when we were in Singapore.

Leaving Singapore tonight.

2008-06-24T02:51:00.005+02:00

Our two weeks vacation is up and we're due to leave Singapore tonight (our flight is at 11.40pm). I would have loved to post more photos but sadly our camera is out of battery and I cannot find a multi function plug that I can use for my camera (which was bought in Canada) so the photos will come after I get back to Paris.

On a whole, Laetitia had a good time. She met up with so many friends of mine and of course all the different relatives. She had a good time with her cousins (Benjamin, Natasha and Natalia) since we stayed with them for most of the trip. She also enjoyed spending some time with her other cousins Nicholas and Dylan. It was funny when she told Nicholas (who is a very quiet boy), "talk to me kor kor (big brother), I'm talking to you!"

Her English language skills grew by leaps on bounds over the two week holidays. It is amazing to see how her English language ability developed from the first two days she was here (speaking 90% French and 10% English to the reverse situation now just before we leave). My sis who said that her kids spoke pretty early commented that Lae is much more talkative then her kids when they were her age (at 2 years 2 months). To give an example, once when she wakes up, she would greet me with "Good morning mummy", followed by "I slept/sleep well" (She uses slept and sleep interchangably since I usually ask her, "Did you sleep well?" and if she ask the same question, I reply with "Yes, I slept well". When it comes to her, she uses both interchangably so I think she has not yet understood the difference between the two tenses). After this, she normally would tell me, "I'm hungry Mummy, I want to go outside to eat breakfast with you." And of course I would ask her what she wants to eat and she would proceed to name me a few things.

I hope I can help her continue progressing in the language.

Meeting the family and friends.

2008-06-18T03:58:00.002+02:00

We've had a very packed schedule with lots of lunches and dinners set up. It's been a little crazy and thanks to the use of Jaimie's car and Michelle's car seat, I have been able to take the little one with me to lunch appointments and come back by 2pm for her nap. Sometimes I would go out while she nap for some "me time" before rushing back in the late afternoon to go for a swim with her or some play time before heading out together again for our next dinner appointment.

In the last few days, we met up with my aunties and uncles, cousins and ex-colleagues. Funnily most of our meals are taken in restaurants. We also had some breakfast outside in a coffeeshop, Killiney Kaya toast and MacDonalds. In the middle of all these eating feast, I also managed to bring Laetitia to a little amusement area to enjoy some kiddy rides.

Here she is with her uncle (my brother) who has a little yellow bird resting on his hand and her cousin Valerie.
With my cousin-in-law, Joanne and Valerie. Yes, Laetitia and I are wearing the same dress. :p
Just the two kiddos.
A picture of all the uncles she met that day. This is made up of two extended families, my dad (with my brother, sister and myself) and my dad's second brother's family (with my three cousins). As it was Father's Day, one of my cousins bought a cake for all of the dads and we had them stand together while we made up a Happy Father's Day song (to the tune of Happy Birthday Day).
From left to right, my eldest female cousin's hubby, my dad, my uncle (dad's second brother), my cousin Jason, my brother and finally my cousin Thomas.
With my Godma/auntie (my mum's younger sister) and uncle Peter. They bought us dinner at a yummy Taiwanese porridge place on Amoy Street. I love love love the raw cockles. Food aside, Laetitia got on very well with her "Grand" Uncle Peter.
Here we are with my ex-colleagues from the long ago days in Visible Results (the last company I worked with in Singapore).
Here's one with my sister's family dog Rascal. Lae loves Rascal. Every morning she would look for me and want to caress him.
And finally the photos of her on all the rides she took a couple of days back.

Poor darling is sick.

2008-06-15T06:31:00.005+02:00

My poor little one is down with fever and vomited twice yesterday evening. She's feeling better today but is still a little whingy.

Hopefully things will look up soon as she has been asking to go to the swimming pool but I prefer to stay away until she is fully recovered.

Added on 16th June.
PS: Thank God! She is recovered. :-)

We're in Singapore again!

2008-06-13T17:50:00.005+02:00

Well well well... We're in Singapore for our annual trip to see family and friends. We left Paris on the night of the 8th, arrived late afternoon on the 9th and since then have been enjoying a packed but fun time. Laetitia is finally setting back into a good rhythm and I am also able to take some time off alone to meet some friends. Thanks to my sis, Doreen who kept her addition domestic helper for another month so that there could be someone devoted to watching Laetitia, I feel more at ease leaving her at home while I go out. And finally meeting with some friends. I cannot believe that I forgot to take pictures when we meet Jaimie and Michelle for lunch but the good thing is, we will be seeing more of the both of them. But here is the dinner date with Kylan, Kylene and Trixillia (and of course their mummies).

A shot of Trixillia taking a picture of me while I was taking a picture of them.
And here is Kylan and Kylene with Dolly and her helper.
We have 10 more days here in Singapore so I suppose there will be more photos coming. On a different topic, although Laetitia is sleeping well now, I, on the other hand, am not doing so good. I have a tendancy to fall asleep after putting her to bed at 8pm or maybe an hour later BUT I wake up all the time around midnight and cannot get back to sleep until 2am or later. And to add to that, I have a splitting headache. I hope things get better for me soon. Ciao.

Picnic in Champs de Mars

2008-06-02T23:15:00.002+02:00

Last Saturday, we went to Champs de Mars for a picnic cum photoshoot. We invited Ivana and Isabelle along for the picnic since they live just 10 mins walk away. My friend Okailly was the photographer for the day and my intention is to have some nice selection of photos to bring with me to Singapore. At the same time, I am trying to compile a series of photos from my wedding all the way to present time to be presented in a coffeetable book for my 5th wedding anniversary.

Well, the photos from Okailly is not yet ready since it is taken on traditional film (both colour and black/white) instead of digital. And on top of that, I forgot to bring my camera along as we were rushing on Saturday morning. BUT, I did take some photos with my handphone, so here you go.

Running free with her favourite baguette in her hands.
Playing with Isabelle's ball.
After a tiring few hours of running around, chasing after pigeons and playing with other children, she crashed for more than an hour in the stroller while Etienne and I slowly make our way to the Champs Elysee to do some shopping. When she finally woke up, she was ready to explore again.

Yes, I can imitate how my papa walks.
A very good imitation. :-) Then again, lots of people tell me that she looks like a carbon copy of her dad.

Isn't she pretty?

2008-05-28T10:54:00.003+02:00

I am posting this picture because I just love her smile on it. It simply cheers me up to see this face.

Sometimes it baffles me how her little mind works. When she was having dinner last night, she mentioned that her bowl is broken. I explained to her that it was her plate that was broken and it broke because she was rough with it. And I told her I threw it away. Then she asked me, "why was she rough with it? Why did Laetitia do that?" I looked at her and said, "you will have to answer that." And she turned to me and said, no, "you", pointing to me "are Laetitia, I am Mummy. Why did you break the plate?". Errrrr..... I just burst out laughing. Silly thing.

Merry-go-round

2008-05-27T22:31:00.002+02:00

Yes, it has been a while, I know. I have been busy. VERY BUSY. We had a few different friends visiting Paris and aside from that, I had been working for the last couple of weeks. So, excuses and reasons aside, what have my little pie been up to?

Well, first and foremost, she got over her fears of kiddy rides. For a long time, she refuses to go on them and would be contented with just looking at them on the side. About a week or so ago, I overheard the mother of one of her daycare mates saying that they are going to the ride and I pipe in about how Laetitia is afraid of going on them and then the brillant idea struck me. I asked if Laetitia could go with her son and off we went. It took some time before she finally relented and sat on the ride with her friend but once the ride too off "literally since it is a flying ride", there was no looking back. She asked to go on it again and was not very willing to leave eventually. From that day onwards, she has been asking to go. It's not cheap since each ride cost 2 euros. I gave it and instead of buying the tickets one by one, I bought 20 euros worth last weekend as it reduce the cost of the rides to 1 euro each when it is bought in bulk.

Here's some photos of her and her friend on the ride the very first time she went on it.

The plane is starting to take off.....
High up in the air!
Finally looking oh so very gleeful after the ride.

A day out.

2008-05-03T23:01:00.003+02:00

We're in the south at my parents in law and since the weather is relatively good, about 25 degrees during the hottest part of the day, Laetitia spent quite a bit of time outdoor. Laetitia actually went to play in the sea yesterday afternoon at about 4pm. I thought that was a little crazy considering that the temperature in the sea is probably less then 20 degrees! When she came home, her limbs were really cold and I was just a tiny bit concerned that she might catch a cold.

Anyways, today as my father-in-law had to do some works on the boat, we decided to go to the port in Hyéres and then hang by the beach for a while. When we arrived at the port and was by the boat, we told her that it was papou and mamou's boat but she declared that NO, it was her boat. DUH. She insisted on going onto the boat so we took her on it and took some photos. She was absolutely delighted and even sang a song or two about boats while she was on it.

I am sure she will have lots of fun when we come back to Carqueiranne in August and we could take the boat out. I can't wait to see her excitment during then.

After staying on the boat for about 10 minutes, we set off for the beach which was just around the corner. I was thinking that we will probably play by the beach and maybe dip our toes in the waters but boy was I wrong. Well, what can I say? We did end up playing in the sea though that was definitely not my intentions. I had to hike my tights all the way up to my thighs and even then, it was slight wet. Laetitia though was almost totally soaked as she sat down in the water and a small wave came and splashed over her head. :p And yes, it was less then 20 degrees in the sea. My little one is defintiely one courageous girl when it comes to the cold.

We all started by playing just on the beach. As you can see, it was a beautiful clear blue day.
Slowmy, we ventured into the waters.
Checking out how deep she can go.
Realising that wet panties gives her wedges. :p Well, I guess I am to blame for her lack of proper swim/beach wear as I had naively thought that since the sea would be under 20 degrees, it would be pointless to bring them along for this trip.
She decided that she did not like wet clothes on her so the other shots of her dipping fully in the sea are all topless which I hesitate to post on an open blog.

All in all, she had good fun and I guess I have a toddler who has a high tolerance for cold unlike me.

Officially toilet training

2008-05-02T22:54:00.003+02:00

So, for some time we have been asking Lae to pee on the potty just before her bath time and on the occasions that she says that she needs to go. However, today we started "real" toilet training in that we are just putting her in panties and not diapers. Well, it was mildly successful. She did pee once in the potty and twice in her panties (once when she was sleeping in the stroller and the other time right after we asked her to sit on the potty). She is obviously still in diapers at nights and should be for naps (except today since she fell asleep before we could put her in her diapers).

I do have a problem with poo since she does not like to sit to poo. She actually has to stand when pooing. Hmmmm...... I have to find a solution for that one.

In any case, I am hoping that since we're in the south and the weather is better she can do with just a dress and panties for next 10 days that she is here. Well, we'll see how things go.

What Laetitia loves to do.

2008-04-20T21:50:00.004+02:00

Aside from singing that is. She still loves to sing. On Friday evening when I went to pick her up from the daycare, I was told that she had been singing the entire afternoon. :p Now just in case you think that she is a one talent kid, I assure you she is not. She is definitely multi-talented. She loves to dance too. Don't believe me? Check out this short clip. There is not much light and it's sideways but you'll get the picture. :p

And when she is not singing or dancing, she could be seen "reading" (flipping through her books), playing, counting, playing big sister to her dolls and stuff toys by reading to them, cooking for them or even putting them to bed with the usual night routine that I use on her. These videos were taken probably a couple of weeks to a month earlier.

Here she is reading with me.

And here she is counting by herself.

And when she is not doing any of the things I've listed, she is probably eating and being adored by her parents just like this photo below.

Koony Planet again last weekend.

2008-04-16T20:29:00.003+02:00

Last Saturday we went to Koony planet again as Laetitia had been asking to go "jumping jumping". This time she was much more adventurous and went onto the play structure for the older kids and even managed to go down on the big slide ALL BY HERSELF. Adults were not allowed on it and even though we did see a couple of adults going on the slide with their kids, Etienne was very firm about us NOT doing that. Well, I was very tempted to but... I have to admit we are very different in that aspect as parents. I'm sometimes all about breaking rules and am not very conforming of rules which "I" think are just guidelines more than strict laws. However, Etienne is more rigid about following instructions. Anyway, in the end I did sort of go up the structure with Laetitia only stopping short of going down the slide with her. I had to make sure she was able to get up there safely. It was about 3 stories high and her first time doing it.

Aside from that, she played by herself on the smaller structure while we sat by the side watching her. She had lots of fun that day. As usual, here are the obligatory pictures.

Trying to climb up the structure but realised that she is just a tiny bit too short.
Learning to make use of the netting to help her.
Yippeee! I did it Mummy.
Trying to drive a car just like papa but I think she forgot her GPS. :p

From birth to now.

2008-04-11T21:36:00.001+02:00

I did this last year when she turned one. I just added two more photos of her, one at 18 months and another at 2 year old. Look how she has changed over the two years.

A new hair cut.

2008-04-05T17:12:00.002+02:00

I gave Laetitia a little haircut today since I felt that it was time for one. Frankly, I think that she looks quite different now with her little fringe. I am hoping that it will grow nicely in the next couple of months and it will look just fine in time for a little photoshoot in June when we are in Singapore for a visit.

Before
A closer look.
Here is just a photo of her when I used to sweep her hair to the side.

And........

After

What do you think?

Mummy, tu es jolie.

2008-04-03T10:32:00.002+02:00

Yesterday afternoon as I was checking my reflection in the mirror to make sure I look ok, my little darling turned around and said, "Mummy, tu es jolie." (Mummy, you are pretty). Very matter of factly. What a sweetheart.

Here a picture of my sweetheart going for a walk with her umbrella. Regardless of the weather, she hardly ever leaves the house without her umbrella now.

A little celebration in the daycare.

2008-04-01T10:06:00.003+02:00

Laetitia had a little celebration for her birthday in the daycare. As they only allowed packaged cakes with the detail ingredient labels I bought three boxes of brownies from the supermarket. And hoping to include something healthy, I bought some little "petite suisse" (soft cheese desserts that is hugely popular with children here). I gave them together with some party plates, napkins and my camera to the caregivers.

Here's some photos from the afternoon.

Happy 2nd Birthday Laetitia!
The entire gang that day.
And here comes the present.... She was given a little stuff chicken by the daycare.
After all the cakes and sweets, it's time to work some fine motor skills by lacing some wooden beads.

Happy 2nd Birthday Laetitia!

2008-03-29T23:55:00.005+01:00

Wow, what a day of celebration my little darling had today. In fact today is the latest Laetitia has ever gone to bed. At almost 11:30pm!!! Her normal bedtime is before 9pm. Well, today is a celebration for her and of her. I shall warn you first that this post is probably the most picture heavy of all the post so far. Well, let's get started shall we?

It started right in the morning after she woke up. She was allowed to open her first set of presents, from her mamou and papou (grandparents).
DVDs and a CD!
Thanking them over the phone for her presents. She was absolutely delighted.
Here she is opening her birthday card from her grandparents. She looks oh so cute in the pose.
Then she's off to have breakfast and watch her Little Einsteins DVD. After breakfast, it's time for to open another present. This time, a present from Tatie Manu (her aunt, Etienne's sister).
It's a cleaning unit with a vacuum cleaner! She had so much fun with it.
Check out this photo. I love it. She is working hard together with her papa. I think we have a good helper around the house.
And just before I took her out for a little walk to the grocery store, she decided to open more presents. She picked the presents from Auntie Eileen this time without any prompting from either of us. And what did she get?
An umbrella! (And a world map too but I did not open the map up for fears that she would tear it just as she had been tearing at the wrappers).
Once she had the umbrella, she refused to leave it behind when we were going out. So, even though it was a bright and sunny day outside, she was walking around with her umbrella. It was sweet though.

After that we came home, she had lunch and it was time for her nap. While she took her nap, I took the opportunity to finish up the decoration on her cake. I had to make the icing from scratch and create a castle from the two cake bases I made the day before. Finally as I was putting the final touches to the cake, she woke up. Since it was another half an hour before Pierre, Caroline and Arik are to be here, I decided she should take the time to open another of her presents, the present from us.
Here it is, the play kitchen.
I have to admit I was a little disappointed that it is SO small. I was expecting something bigger. Well, this will do for the time being. :-) More importantly, she loves it. She had so much fun playing with it and was trying to cook some pasta for me.

Finally our friends came and it was time for cake! I happily presented my darling with her cake. Here she is blowing out her candle and looking all happy.

A close up of the cake
She also received a present from Pierre and Caroline. It was a lovely CD in a book which had English children songs and the equivalent in French. Here is Laetitia and our friends.
The two kids had so much fun playing but somehow, I just forgot all about taking photos of them. I even forgot to take any photo of me and my darling! Or any of Etienne and Laetitia except that funny picture of them vacuuming at the same time. Sigh. The two of them had lots of fun playing with the tent, the kitchen etc. I was very proud of my little girl as she was able to share her toys and would be gracious about it. During the afternoon, Laetitia also opened a few more little presents from us (wooden beads for stringing, doll's clothes etc).
And in the evening, we went off to Jacqueline's apartment. Jacqueline is Etienne's granddad companion and she shares the same birthday as Laetitia. We were invited to dinner. Jacqueline's two nieces were also there.
Laetitia received a book each from Jacqueline and her nieces. And we had a srumptious dinner. Check it out. Huge lobsters for starters.

And finally a birthday cake for the two birthday girls.

And that ends our day. It was almost 11pm and we called a cab, got home just before 11:30pm and put Laetitia straight to bed. What a day. Happy Birthday my darling. I hope you thoroughly enjoyed yourself today. I love you.

A tent, a fall and some others...

2008-03-28T09:52:00.004+01:00

Laetitia is in love with her new tent. We set it up so that it is nice with a mat, some toys, some pillows and of course some of her stuff toys. She occasionally brings her doll, Marion inside together with some books to read. It's the first place she wants to go into when she wakes up in the morning and she spends quite a lot of her time in and out of it. Here's some photos from the first day after it was set up.

Two days ago, she suffered her first nasty fall. She tripped and fell onto the door of our neighbour. The thing about our front doors in this apartment is that there is a little piping design and she happened to fall exactly against the piping on her forehead. I did not see how she fell as my back was towards her. All I saw was the immediately after effect! The spot she hit on her forehead started to swell immediately. That kind of scared me. I took her back inside, tried to calm her down but it did not work. I quickly looked for the gel that is for bruises/contusions etc and managed to apply some on her. To distract her, I told her we're calling her papa (which was also for me to verify with Etienne if it was normal or if I need to go see a doc). Yes I am a bit of a panic freak. Well, after being reassured and Laetitia all calmed by talking on the phone to her papa, we set off to the daycare (which was where we were heading in the first place). When I picked her up in the evening, the caregivers told me that she actually recounted the story of her falling to them (including me applying the cream and calling her papa). What a little chatterbox.

And about her being a chatterbox, this morning I asked her to "ask papa for a diaper please" and she turned around, shouted (as her papa was in the bathroom) "papa, la couche sil tu plait". She is slowly getting better with speaking in English. I believe it has to do with the fact that I had stopped working and she gets at least 3-4 hours of English a day with me.

Here are some photos of her with her shades. It's her third pair and I bought 2 pairs at one go as she already broke 2 other pairs.

A day out at Koony Planet.

2008-03-23T19:40:00.003+01:00

It's the long weekend here and initially we wanted to take a little trip to Loire Valley as we borrowed the car from Jean (Etienne's granddad who lived just across from us) but the weather was yucky so we changed our plans. I checked out the indoor play parks around Paris and decided on Koony Planet. So, on Saturday late morning, we made our way there. It took slightly longer than the 30 mins stated on the GPS due to the very heavy traffic (infact, this weekend is supposedly one of the deadliest weekends on the roads in France).

However, it was all worth it when we arrived as Laetitia absolutely loved the place. There are specific structures for below three year olds and we started off with the trampolines. Oh boy did she have fun. It was funny though since she has never been on one and did not actually know how to jump on it. She was kind of skipping more then jumping but who cares as long as she had fun. After that, we moved on to the bouncy castle.

After all that bouncing and jumping, we went off to the little play structure for the 1-2 year olds. My little darling had so much fun going down the slide as it was much faster then the rest she had been on. I was quite relaxed about it since the entire area is very safe and built especially for kids her age. It was fun that the end of the slide had a little bump so she would actually bouncy off it onto the mat. She totally enjoyed herself on that. In between going on the slide, she would also throw herself into the ball pool.

All in all, it was a really fun afternoon for her. And since it's a special day out, I decided to let her have what I would normally consider junk/fast food for lunch. Anyways, we are not allowed to consume food other than those served in the playarea. So, she basically had sausages (and they were oily and salty), fries (not exactly the healthiest), some ham and bread.

After that we packed up and left for our next destination, Ikea. She took a nap as we drove there since she was all tired out. We got her a shelf for storing her toys and a tent to play in from Ikea and finally headed home at about 6.15pm. It is considerably a long day out with Laetitia and boy was I all tired by the end of the day. However, seeing the amount of fun my little pie had, I will be very happy to make the trip again to Koony Planet (I think we'll do it differently the next time by only going to Koony Planet and no where else though :p).

Laetitia's coming birthday

2008-03-21T17:10:00.004+01:00

So yes, Laetitia's 2nd birthday is coming and I have most of her presents bought! I learnt my lesson from Christmas. If I do not buy it while I see it, they might be out of stock when I decide it's the time to buy AND remain out of stock for the next 2 months! Hah, well, I did "save" some of the ideas from Christmas though and use them for her birthday. So far we have bought and wrapped the Tefal kitchen, a few sticker books (as she is really into them currently), clothes for her doll, a bubbles making set, large wooden beading pearls and some cute clothes for her. On top of that her grandparents are getting her some DVDs/CDs, her aunt got her a cleaning set with brushes, mops and a vacuum.

And I have also been very busy baking baking and baking. I have huge plans about making her a castle cake and I had baked three different cakes so far to attempt to attain the "perfect chocolate cake", moist, soft and chocolatey. I think I am there with the cake now and it's time to work on the icing and decorations.

I have received queries on what to get her for her birthday so here are some ideas. Personally, we made a choice not to do parties for her because I do not want her to be overwhelmed with gifts. She is already very spoiled by her immediate family. But I do understand some of our close friends and family who are not here in France with us would like to get her something so that is why I am posting some ideas. And the attached pictures are only examples and NO she does not need a 20euros umbrella. I think that is a big waste of money to be truthful, even half that price seems a bit much.

1) A kid's umbrella.
2) An inflatable chair for going out.
3) A large scale world map (I saw one for about 9euros in Nature et Découvertes and yes I will admit it. I am pushed by the video of the almost 2 year old girl who knew her geography better then me!)
4) A high chair for her doll.
5) An AquaDoodle or Magna Doodle (preferably travel size)

And of course classics such as books and puzzles are also good.

Breakfast conversations

2008-03-15T10:47:00.006+01:00

Some friends asked if I can have a conversation with Laetitia and I guess I could. Everynight, I try to lay in bed with her for 10 mins or so and have a little chat about her day. Anyways, this is a little part of our breakfast conversation this morning as an example.

Mummy: "Do you want some chocolate cake?" (I made some chocolate cake two days ago)
Laetitia: "Yes. I want to share avec Mummy."
Mummy: "You want to share with Mummy?"
Laetitia: "I want to share with Mummy. Le même chocolate à Sylvie." (She do get some of her articles in French wrong)
Mummy: "Okay. You want the same chocolate cake that Sylvie had."

I bring the chocolate cake and she chooses one of the pieces I cut.

Laetitia: "Laetitia make big mess avec les doigts. Mummy, nettoyer les doigts et mains"
Mummy: "Oh, you made a big mess with your fingers. You want Mummy to clean your fingers and hands."
Laetitia: "Le bavoir et pantalon aussi."
Mummy: "We'll clean the bib and pants later."
Laetitia: "Encore du chocolate."
Mummy: "Here is another piece of chocolate cake."
Laetitia: "Merci Mummy."
Mummy: "Thank you Mummy. Is the chocolate cake nice?"
Laetitia: "Yes."
Mummy: "Do you like it?"
Laetitia: "Yes."

And of she goes on to eat another 2 small pieces. And was singing along to her children songs vcd. Right now her favourite for the morning is "Rain Rain go away". I think I replayed it probably 5-10 times!

Oh yes, as from the example above, much much reinforcement, she does speak English to me when she is not as comfortable with the vocabulary used in French. I guess neither Etienne nor the daycare uses "big mess" and "share" too often.

And since I have not post many photos in the last couple of post, here goes.

Enjoying her first smoked salmon sandwich for lunch. I served that with some prawns and salad. She loved the salmon and prawns but is not too keen on the salad. Whatever. :p

This was taken as she was healing from the chicken pox. It was after about 2 weeks. The marks are still healing right now.

This is her big bed that she has been sleeping on for the last 4 nights.

Big girl bed!

2008-03-12T22:28:00.004+01:00

Yes! She made the move from her cot to the single bed last night. It was a little harder getting her to go to bed (took 2 hrs instead of the normal 15-30mins bedtime routine of lying in bed chatting about the day, telling her a few stories, singing to her and finally leaving the room while she is still awake) but I guess it is all working out. She woke up once at about 3.30am last night and Etienne went to her to help her get back to sleep and that was it. I found her awake (calling out to me) at about 8am in the big girl bed.

Tonight it was about the same. Harder then usual to get her to sleep but after an hour, I decided it was time to leave the room. She cried a little on and off, called out "Mummy mummy" several times but eventually I believe she felt asleep after about 30 mins. I will check on her later and update on the progress.

We did ask her if she want to sleep in the big bed or the little bed (cot) and she choose the big bed. If it goes well for the next few days, we'll dismantle the cot this weekend and use that space for all the new toys I bought her for her coming birthday. Weeeeeee.

Language explosion.

2008-03-09T22:52:00.000+01:00

One day, just as we were preparing to go out, Laetitia came up to us and asked, "Mummy, papa, voulez-vous sortir faire un petit tour? D'accord Mummy? D'accord Papa? (Mummy, papa, would you like to go out for a little walk? Okay Mummy? Okay Papa?). This coming from a older kid would not be as strange as it is coming from the mouth of my not even 2 year old little thing. I looked at Etienne and asked him if it was him speaking to her like this since I do not speak French to her. Well, he said no so we have no idea where she learnt that from. It is interesting since she "tutoyer" us all the time so for her to understand that when she is speaking to the both of us, she should use "vous" instead of "tu" is a major language achievement.

My mother in law and even Etienne was commenting about how she sometimes speaks with this little poshy accent. It is just hilarious since none of us are like that. When I was telling a friend about how Laetitia speaks, she was saying that my little one was possibly a princess in her last life!!! Hahahahah.

Now the only thing that bugs me now is that Laetitia constantly speaks to me in French. She understands what I am saying and she can definitely reply in English but she refuses to! Urrghhh. For example, the other day, I was eating some white biscuits and she wanted some, so I asked, "Do you want the white biscuit?" She replied "Blanc biscuit." So I said, "In English, the white biscuit?" And she replied "Oui, le blanc biscuit." I repeated my question and she replied in french again and said to me "en français, blanc biscuit." Finally when I threatened not to give her the biscuit if she does not tell me in English did she relent. Gosh, I cannot imagine the challenge ahead of me. The challenges of raising a child bilingual. And to think I am starting to introduce another language, Mandarin. What am I getting myself into???

Meeting Auntie Faith for the first time.

2008-03-04T22:34:00.002+01:00

Laetitia met one of my good friends Faith last month when she came over from Sydney for a visit. She stayed with us for slightly more than a week over Feb 11 to 24 and Laetitia got to know her a little better. She gave Laetitia a little Koala and a Winnie the pooh storytime projector (which I am trying to find new story cartridges for) which Laetitia loves. Now whenever Laetitia plays with either of the toys, I would ask her where did they come from and she would answer "Australia". Right now, the few cities/countries she knows are Paris (when I ask her where she lives), Carquerianne (where her grandparents live), Singapore (where most of my family live) and Australia (where koala and Auntie Faith come from). She is slowly getting Canada because that is where Mossie (her stuff canadian moose is from).

Anyways, so here are some photos taken of my little darling by Faith when she was here.

She recently has this silly habit of giving a HUGE GRIN such as this particular one whenever the camera appears. It's her "smile" look. I am not sure how I feel about it. It's a toss between shaking my head in disbelieve or bursting out with laughter.

This is one of the few photos of her and Faith but her expression just about kills me. So comic.
I love this photo. It is so sweet.
This is kind of fun too.

Pianist or Singer?

2008-02-28T08:48:00.003+01:00

As mentioned MANY times before, Laetitia loves music and singing. She is always singing and sometimes makes up funny lyrics.

Etienne is a lover of music too. He played the violin when he was younger but has a greater passion for the piano. Now, whenever there is a piano around, he would fiddle with it if possible, maybe play a couple of tunes. Everytime we are here at my in laws, he would definitely spend some time on the piano. So, now the two of them would spend some time together on the piano, one singing while "playing" and the other playing. Laetitia would be singing her french nursery ryhmes like "Petit Escargot", "Une souris verte" etc. I captured a few videos of them two on the piano and here is one of them

Of course, it has to be the one of the favourite song of Laetitia, "Petit Papa Noël". It is filmed sideway so that I could capture more of the two of them.

Swing swing swing

2008-02-27T20:46:00.002+01:00

Just like most kids, Laetitia loves the swing and swinging around. Here's a little clip of her having fun with her papa.

Her cousins in France.

2008-02-26T21:39:00.004+01:00

Today Laetitia met her cousin, another Lastennet, for the first time. She is the daughter of Etienne's cousin (her papa is the son of my father in law's brother). As my in law has a small family, there are not many Lastennets in Laetitia's generation. So far, there are three. Laetitia, this little girl, Thaïs, and her younger sister who did not come along today.

Laetitia got on fabulously with her newly met cousin as she usually does with children. She was happy to go for a walk with both Thaïs and Alexandre. My mother in law took them to a little tulip park/farm very close to their place (within walking distance).

Here's another picture of the three cousins striking a "cool" pose.

Chicken pox update

2008-02-25T18:46:00.002+01:00

Laetitia is feeling much better and is coping very well with the chicken pox. It is not fully over (though we should see the end of it soon). Right now, we're on day 10 of the illness and it's clearing up.

We are in the south of France at my in laws and she is having fun being in the outdoors. She gets to get out twice a day and have lots of fun playing.

These are some of the photos I took.

In the playground in Paris on Friday 22nd (Seventh day)

Taken on the 10th day. The spots on her face is clearing up. And she is wearing a beautiful Clippo hair clip.
Most of the spots have crusted over and only the bigger spots have a crater right now but I understand that it is normal and should heal. Currently aside from the medication prescribed by the doctor, I am also apply Avene's Cicalfate cream to help with the healing and scar prevention.

Chicken pox

2008-02-21T11:04:00.003+01:00

My poor little chouchou has chicken pox. Etienne noticed two spots on Saturday and on Sunday, as I was changing her diaper, I saw the spots and was quite sure it was chicken pox as they all had the water blister look. I was expecting it since there has been an outbreak in the daycare. And guess what, on Monday morning when I called them to inform them that Laetitia has chicken pox, I was told that I was the fourth parent who called that morning! All these poor kids.

Since then, the spots have multiplied. Poor darling. I have been giving her antihistamines and showering her with the medicated foam to help with the spots but it is really making her uncomfortable. She kept telling me that it's painful and she is not eating very well. But one good thing is that she is still sleeping regularly so I have been able to have a good night of sleep each night. And on some days, I have the nanny come in to look after her while I take a breather and go out a bit. I must say that she is considerably easy to look after even though she is suffering though this illness. Yes, she is much more whingy then usual but who would not with all these itchy and sore spots.

Here's some pictures of my darling and her spots.

On the third day (Monday 18th Feb)

On the fifth day (Wednesday, 20th Feb)

Enjoying Chinese New Year goodies.

2008-02-16T10:58:00.001+01:00

I had a few friends who came over to Paris over the last 2 weeks and they brought some Chinese New Year goodies for me. Most of them were homemade and I gave a handful of each to Laetitia to try during her breakfast or tea time. She particularly loves the egg rolls/love letters. Here's some photos I took of her during breakfast time enjoying them.

I am away in Geneva at the moment and Etienne is running solo at home. I trust that he is doing a great job and is having lots of fun with his little princess.

Having fun at home.

2008-02-11T10:54:00.001+01:00

We captured this little video of Laetitia having fun jumping on our bed over the weekend. She was having so much fun.

"Laetitia, grosse fille."

2008-02-08T16:13:00.002+01:00

"Mai NON".

In the last couple of weeks, Laetitia and I will have this little conversation all the time. "Laetitia, are you a baby?" "No, Laetitia is a BIG GIRL." And one evening during dinner, she started talking to herself (as she sometimes do) and then she said, "Laetitia, not a baby, big girl" and then she looks at her papa and said "Laetitia, grosse fille." Etienne and I burst out laughing. Well, technically she is right, big = grosse BUT, grosse means fat more than big in the sense that I meant when I told her she is a big girl. So, her papa has been telling her that she is a "grande fille". And the funny thing was, one evening she went to one of the caregivers in the daycare and told her she is a "grosse fille" and this lady is really slim. I had to explain that Laetitia meant to say she is a "grande fille". :p These funny stories really make my day.

She is turning into a little lady now. She is very sweet and caring with her toys. Patting her dolls and stuff animals, kissing them and asking if they slept well. As we pray before our meals, Laetitia now would say "Merci Jesus" as she sits to eat her food. It really touches my heart and I pray that she will get to know God personally.

There was something in particular that I wanted to blog about but I totally forgot about it. It happened this morning and it was something sweet that she said/did. I think I'll have to keep a little notebook to record these little incidents. Anyways, here are some photos to share.

The children being read to in the daycare.
Laetitia reading to her stuff animals and doll.

She is also becoming much more independent now. I could leave her in her room by herself while I take my shower (which could take up to 15 mins when I wash my hair as well). Normally I will close the doors to my room and the living room, put a gate to block her from coming into the shower but keep the door opened and leave her bedroom door opened. Then I will tell her to either read a book or play with her dinning set while I take the shower which she will happily do. Sometimes if she is a little fussy, I'll give some crayons and paper and have her draw/colour while sitting outside the bathroom on the floor

Corny or sweet?

2008-02-06T16:40:00.000+01:00

I went shopping today and bought Laetitia a little dress from Gap. Isn't it pretty?

And guess what? I got a similar one for myself! Gap kids size 13XL (which is for 13 year old kids). I think it's corny but oh so cute at the same time since Laetitia is at a stage where she wants to be "like mummy".

Check it out!

Look at the resemblance.

2008-01-30T22:28:00.000+01:00

I was showing some photos today when I was totally struck once again by the resemblance between Laetitia and her papa. I cannot find a photo that match the exact expression to do a better comparison but she really does look like her papa. When I look at the photos of Etienne I totally see Laetitia.

What do you think?

Sleeping habits

2008-01-21T11:10:00.000+01:00

I just want to blog this down as a record (should I forget in the future) about how Laetitia's sleeping habits were developed. I have to admit though that a large part of our success is due to her pleasant personality more than actual "sleep training". Laetitia slept in our room in a little bassinet until she was almost 2 months old before she was moved to her cot in her room. And to let her get used to sleeping in different "environment", I used to let her nap on my bed and her cot as well during the day. But for nighttimes, from two months old, she has always sleep alone in her room.

As a baby, Laetitia had been breastfeed all the way up to 11 months however, unlike what most people says about breastfeed baby not sleeping through the night, she started to sleep through the night (from about 10.30pm to 5.30am) at exactly one month old. She was napping throughout the day too.

From there, it gradually moved to a more pronounced routine of going to bed by about 9pm and waking up for a feed around 6am by the time she was two months old. Now once in a while, maybe once every three or four days, she would wake up in the middle of the night for a feed. At that point, she was feed around 6 times a day (e.g 6.30am, 9.30am, 13,15pm, 15.15pm, 18.30pm, 21,30pm). Napping continues.

By the time she is four months old, she was no longer walking up in the middle of the night for a feed and would happily sleep through 8pm to 7am (and sometimes stretching to 8am/8:30am) with an average of 5 feeds a day (about 3 1/2 hrs interval per feed). At this point, I try to fix a routine for her naps. If I didn't remember wrongly, she napped 3 times a day until about a year old and then it became twice a day, once in the morning about 2 hours after she woke up and once in the afternoon around 3pm.

From that point now, she goes to bed by 8pm and sleeps for almost 12 hrs every night. And now that she is almost 22 months, she sometimes goes to bed a little later (but still before 9pm) and continues to sleep for 12 hours overnight. And she naps once a day, usually after lunch around 1:30pm for one to one and a half hours.

At some point after six months, I did practice what was taught in "Healthy sleep habits happy baby". I would let her cry for a while when she protested about going down for a nap or going to bed at night. For example, I would let her cry for 5 mins, check on her, tell her I love her but she needs to sleep, leave the room and if she crys, let her cry for 10 mins, repeat the process. Usually I never need to go into the room more then twice. Of course during the times when we travel or she is sick, everything goes out of the window but so far, she has been able to adjust very well to changes.

Laetitia and her friend Sophie.

2008-01-19T21:14:00.002+01:00

As mentioned before in a previous post, Laetitia has a friend, Sophie, whom she meets once a year. However, that does not stop the two little one from hitting it off immediately every time.

Here some photos of the two darlings.
A little help from the two papas.
And they managed to hold each other's hand. This picture is so sweet. I really love it. It would be lovely to show it to them when they grow up and truly become friends.
And finally, just a photo of my little one (with Sophie and her papa in the background).

She loves to sing.

2008-01-14T22:59:00.001+01:00

As mentioned many times before, Laetitia loves to sing, and I captured a few videos over the weekend with my handphone. Just want to share two of them, one of her singing in English and the other in French.

My bonny lies over the ocean...

Petit Papa Noël

Sweet bedtime routine.

2008-01-07T23:21:00.001+01:00

For a while I have been putting Laetitia to bed using the routine of dinner, bath and stories. Recently we started to spend some time together in the bigger bed before I put her down inside her cot and I must say it is such a sweet and intimate time for the both of us.

We would lie in bed together and usually she will put her arms around my back and say "calin mummy" (hug mummy). We would talk about her day, sing some songs together and I will plant some kisses on her face and her nose and she will start to do the same. The biggest fun for her is to try to kiss me on my lips and sometimes the naughty bean will attempt to lick my face! Of course she will burst into laughters when I realised what she did and goes "yucks". And I would always tell her 'I love you Laetitia" and in reply she will say "I love you, Mummy". OH...... in her cheekiness, she would sometimes repeat after me and say, 'I love you Laetitia". LOL. Sometimes we do this to and fro for a couple of minutes. All in all it's about 10 to 15 minutes of loving time spent together before she gets put into her cot and have some stories told to her before she sleeps.

I know sometimes it's nice to be able to put her to bed and just leave the room but for now, I really enjoy this precious moments.

Here's some photos taken recently.

On the train to Treuzy-Levelay with her papa. We were on our way to Damienne and Gilles who are the god-parents of Sophie's dad, Fabien. We spent some fabulous time at their house last year and were invited for lunch on New Year's eve. It was really wonderful seeing them again. And great catching up for Sharon and I.

With her friend Sophie (whom she meets once a year). The last time was December 2005 and this was on New Year's eve.

Finally, just being cute. ;p

Some photos from her garderie.

2007-12-27T22:27:00.001+01:00

We bought a CD of some of the photos that the staff in the garderie (daycare) took of Laetitia and thought it will be nice to share some here.

Here's my darling looking oh so grown up.
Drinking during tea break time

Concentrating while working on her next masterpiece. I have to say she really enjoys drawing.

Merry Christmas Laetitia!

2007-12-25T22:08:00.000+01:00

Well, she sure is very spoiled this Christmas. Just look at the family Christmas tree and you will understand why. In france, the tradition is to put a pair of your shoes under the tree so that "Pere Noel" (Father Christmas) will know where to place your presents. As you can see from the photo, the smallest pair of shoes has the largest amount of presents! And this is not inclusive of the presents waiting for her at home in Paris. I only took two of her smallest presents with us to save space in our luggages.

And this was early in the morning when she woke up and went upstairs to the main living room area where the Christmas tree is. She went straight for the presents. Well, she had a good time opening her presents which included a dining set, a CD player, a dough modelling set, a set of Winnie the Pooh self inking stamps, a tricycle and some pretty bibs.

Here are some pictures from last night (Christmas eve) as mentioned in the previous post. She had her pretty Christmas dress on and in the evening we went out to the town hall where they had a Merry-go-round and some other fun things going on.

Laetitia exploring the Christmas tree.

Enjoying her first Merry-go-round ride. Well, it is actually the second since the very first ride was with her papa but she was not exactly very keen and refused to sit on a horse. After that, I decided to go on the ride with her and it went so much better.

Just a lovely photo of us two.

A photo of her checking out her cousin Alexandre playing on the PSP.

Christmas Christmas Christmas.

2007-12-24T12:21:00.000+01:00

We're in the south at my parents in law for the Christmas holidays. The last few days have been all about Christmas.

Last Thursdays was the Christmas party at Laetitia's garderie. We had a wonderful time meeting other parents, chatting with them and also took some time aside to thank all the staff at the garderie for taking good care of Laetitia while she is in their care. As a token of appreciation, we gave them a box of chocolates and Laetitia gave each of them a small tube of L'occitane hand cream (as an aside, I loved the cream so much I bought a tube for myself yesterday when I was shopping in Toulon).

Laetitia got to try many first food this Christmas. We gave her foie gras, some champomy and some homemade chicken liver terrine. She loved them all. I suppose there is still the smoke salmon and oysters but we'll hold back on the oysters for this year.

After her bath today, we changed her in her Christmas dress and she looks absolutely delightful. What a pretty little thing. I will definitely put some photos up. luckily, my mother in law tooks lots of pics as I totally forgot to bring my camera along. Laetitia have been enjoying her time spent with her cousin Alexandre too. All photos will be uploaded soon.

And MERRY CHRISTMAS to all.

Which Kitchen?

2007-12-08T14:22:00.001+01:00

We want to get Laetitia a play kitchen for Christmas, on top of the numerous toys she will be showered with. There is such a wide variety it is causing me a headache. Of course there is also only a limited space in her room so I have to optimise the space and choose the perfect one.....

I love the Tefal range since it really mimics the kitchen wares that we have....

And then there are the more compact space saving ones like those below...

And then there are the ones made of wood.

At her grandparents.

2007-12-06T22:19:00.002+01:00

We thought that we sent Laetitia down to her grandparents for a holiday but we might have been deceived. We received this email today from my mother in law.

"Vous pensiez que Laetitia était en train de passer des vacances chez papou et mamou. Erreur : elle est venue travailler mais, après l'effort, elle a le droit de se reposer un peu..."

(You think that Laetitia is having a holiday at her grandpa's and grandma's. Error: She is here to work but, after working, she is allow to rest a little...)

These photos were attached.

We joke. She is having lots of fun with my in laws. Here's another lovely pic of my darling enjoying herself in the park.

My sweetest little thing.

2007-11-28T14:51:00.000+01:00

Last night Laetitia was up in the middle of the night and refuses to go back to bed. We thought she might have had a nightmare as she woke up suddenly and cried really loudly. So, after Etienne spent an hour trying to get her to sleep and failed, it was my turn. I tried patting her (the usual) while she laid in her cot but it did not work. Eventually I took her with me on the spare bed and slept next to her. It took a long time before she finally settled down and went back to sleep.

Early this morning, she woke up, asked me to open the shutters and proceeded to kiss me on my both side of my cheeks and my lips while I pretended that I was still sleeping. OH, how my heart melted. Then she said, "Mummy kiss Laetitia." And shoved her cheeks towards my lips. So I planted some kisses on her face and then held her close in my arms while we lay in bed together. The bliss.

It's really sweet since she has now left Paris to go down south to her grandparents. I will not be seeing her for the next 10 days. Oh, I am so going to miss her. She is such a darling right now.

First step to getting dress all by herself.

2007-11-23T22:43:00.002+01:00

Today Laetitia decided that she did not want to wear her weetabix soiled pants anymore and she promptly took a new pair of pants that had been laying around on the sofa waiting to be sorted/folded/kept in the closet, took her dirty pants off and tried putting the clean ones on. She had some difficulties getting it up initially as she was sitting on the floor while she tried to put them on. I showed her that she had to stand up and pull it up and voila, that's it, she did it and then proceeded to taking them off and putting them on a few more times. Ha, I never knew that it was so much fun taking your pants off, running away from your mummy who is telling your the weather is too cold for you to go without pants and eventually putting them on again.

And to top it off, now she is very adamant about what is pretty and what is not and what she wants to put on for the day. I guess I am going to be in for some fun in the coming years.

The other thing worth mentioning is that today, she gave me a little fright. I left her in her cot to take my shower etc and at one point after I was all done, I can hear her telling me "Mummy, finish shower" and then demanding to come down from her cot. I ignored her for a while and then started hearing her throw her things in the bed onto the floor and I came into the room just as she was trying to climb out of the cot. One of her leg was over the cot, her body was off the mattress, halfway towards being out of the cot! She was basically in the process of throwing her body off the railing! I run towards her and put her firmly down on the cot and told her NO. And guess what, she tried it again. Sigh. I had a talk with Etienne tonight and we're going to look into a solution which would probably mean moving her out of the cot.

My little one is growing up quickly.

Mummy gone crazy with shopping.

2007-11-10T01:03:00.001+01:00

So, what does a doting mummy do when she starts earning her own money? Buy more stuff for her little sweetie pie. I might not have as much time to go out shopping but then there is always the internet!

Clothes (as if she does not have enough!)

Shoes in size 23 (she is currently on size 22)

A table/chair set for her to sit and do her colouring etc. The table has a little built in container for holding crayons.

A bib cos it is cute

A coat hanger for her numerous coats.

And finally a sofa that I have been wanting to buy for her.
Some of the items will only arrive in December as they are out of stock at the moment but I guess it might be a good thing since then they could double up as Christmas presents. I do have many ideas for her Christmas present but then I'm sure she will not mind having a few different things. :p

Messy little one

2007-11-06T21:24:00.000+01:00

Here's my little greedy little chocolate (so far, I have only given her good quality dark chocolate such as Valrhona and Lindt and they are mixed into her weetabix) and cheese lover.

My little singer.

2007-11-04T16:13:00.001+01:00

As mentioned several times before in the blog, Laetitia loves to sing and today I finally managed to capture a video of her singing a repertoire of some of the songs she knows.

First translation mistake.

2007-11-03T22:49:00.001+01:00

Laetitia is being raised bilingual for the time being (we will introduce Mandarin at a later stage) and unlike the norm for most children raised in such a setup, she started speaking at a rather early stage. She currently could speaks in complete sentences in both English and French although most of the time it is still short phrases. She also knows many words in both English and French and uses them frequently. Yesterday, she made her first little translation error. I have used the word "upside down" a lot with her. It usually happens when she takes a book to read, she used to hold it upside down and she still does it now but would gleefully look at me and say "upside down". In the same token, Etienne says "à l'inverse" to indicate that something is in the opposite direction, could be upside down, reversed etc. And it happened when her papa told her the table was "à l'inverse" and that she had to turn it and she looked at him and said "upside down" as in her mind, these two words was always used in the same context by Etienne and I. He had to try to explain to her that it was not the same in English and French.

Well, I am sure there will be more of such little "language" issues coming up as her vocabulary and speech ability increases.

Childcare options

2007-11-01T22:36:00.000+01:00

Work has been keeping me away from blogging about my little pie. Any free time I have (when Laetitia sleeps) seems to be used on researching about childcare options. There are many different options of childcare and it is so hard to decide on what would be the best for Laetitia. Currently we have a combination of a part-time nanny and a daycare/creche. To me, this seems like a wonderful solution as she gets different modes of care (individual attention and collective care with fantastic socialisation with other children). The only issue bugging me is that I cannot be sure about how the individual care is going since Lae cannot actually communicate it yet. Well, she sort of does and that is what made me worried. She does not seem to want to be taken care of by our current nanny. Then again, my rational mind tells me that it might be due to the fact that everytime my little darling sees her nanny, she knows that I am leaving home for work. So when I asked if she wants to see her nanny, her answer is no, as she knows that would mean mummy is leaving.

In any case, my rational mind and instinct is saying to stick with the current setup for another month to see how things progress. I guess we could either send Laetitia to a full time creche or find another nanny if I want a dual childcare system.

My little vain pot.

2007-10-20T23:27:00.000+02:00

The weather is turning cold but since today is bright and sunny, we decided that we should go out shopping.

I recently bought a cream coat for Laetitia and it was a good time to put it on her today. One thing I realised recently is that she is starting to enjoy being dressed in pretty clothes. She would look at the mirror and point to herself and say "pretty"! Or, she would pick out some clothes and tell me that they are pretty. And she is also beginning to enjoy wearing hats. I totally have a girlie girl on my hands.

And so, apparently she approves of the clothes I put on her today. After dressing her, just before we stepped out, she was looking at herself in the mirror approvingly and calling herself "pretty"! It was funny when she started to give her reflection a couple of kisses.

And this is taken just outside our apartment.

And here is just a couple more photos of the past week.

Enjoying her biscuit while watching Maurice Sendak's "Little Bear" DVD.

We're making sure she helps out with the chores at home. :p

On the road to recovery

2007-10-17T23:19:00.001+02:00

My poor baby was very sick over the weekend. It started last Thursday night with the both of us running a fever and climax on Saturday with a horribly high fever of almost 41 degrees. We had to give her three baths during the day to bring the fever down and when finally in the evening it continued to spike to more than 40 degrees, we bit the bullet and called the Pediatre SOS number to have a doctor come to our place to check her out. It turned out she had a slight ear infection/cough/running nose and a gastro. She was prescribed numerous medication and her very doting papa went out in the middle of the night to search for a 24h pharmacy to get the medicines.

She is now finally getting better and is well on the road to recovery. Thank you God. We did take a couple of photos and I will attempt to put them on the blog this weekend. It's crazy how little time I seem to have now that I am working.

First week Mummy went to work.

2007-10-06T17:16:00.000+02:00

Laetitia started to go to the daycare (halte garderie) from 8:15am to about 6pm last Monday. It was an interim solution to the temporary work that I found. I found a three and a half weeks temp job and for the first week, Laetitia was able to have a spot in the daycare for the mornings to supplement her existing afternoons sessions there. However for the next two weeks, she will be taken care of in the morning by a babysitter. She is someone who has taken care of Laetitia before and is very experience with looking after children.

In the last week, everything went very well in terms of her day in the daycare. I would prepare her lunch the night before and they would heat it up and give it to her around noon. I was told that she was very independent and insist on feeding herself all the time. It was very reassuring for me to know that she is able to handle full day collective care very well. The next two weeks will be a test on how a combination of a part time nanny and collective care works.

Laetitia seems to not feel too much the difference of me working vs me staying home with her except on Friday night when I went out and Etienne was responsible for picking her up from the daycare and her night routine. I was told she kept asking for me and when they entered the apartment, she went "Cou Cou Mummy" a few times. So SWEET.

And of course, the final decision making would also come after this temp project ends. The big question of how much I enjoy going back to work vs the cost/quality of childcare possible and the trade-off between working and being home with my daughter. To add to the complex equation, I have to think about how much this affects Etienne as well. The last week that I was working has additional stress on him as well since he was responsible for helping send Laetitia to the daycare in the morning. He has mentioned a couple of times how nice it was when I didn't work. Knowing him, he was not trying to put any pressure on me regarding the decision to work or not. The other option I have is to go back to school (I am considering either doing a Masters in Marketing or a French language and civilisation course). We'll see how things pane out in the end. For now, I am enjoying the adult interactions and just the whole different experience of being a working mumy.

A few current pics.

2007-09-30T16:53:00.000+02:00

There has been a lack of photos updated recently and I finally managed to capture a couple of pictures over the weekend.

It's getting cold in Paris with the temperature dropping to less than 20 degrees. We had to make sure that she is warmly dressed when we step out of the house. This was Laetitia walking along the street of Paris.

During one of her favourite activity time, reading. She is seen here enjoying Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!

And playing dress up with my summer hat

And finally a pic with her mummy. Please pardon the slightly runny nose of my little chou.

A letter to my 18 months old!

2007-09-29T19:35:00.001+02:00

My most dearest darling,

OMG! You are 18 months old, one and a half year old. I am at a lost for words (momentarily). It is both a scary and wonderful feeling. It amazes me how much you have grown and at the same time, fills me with some uneasiness on how time just seems to be slipping by and before I know it, you'll be a teenager or an adult. From a helpless baby, you are now a babbling toddler who could almost count 1-10 in English and French, go through your alphabets and express your views with "don't want", "No", "please Mummy" (usually said with a BIG smile) and have little conversations with me. You are also become a fabulous dancer and singer.

The last 18 months have been a roller coaster ride but with much more ups than downs. Aside from becoming a first time mummy, I also had to cope with being in a strange new place (not unlike you) and learning a new language (again I'm sure you are experienced in this too). At times I worry if I am a good enough mum or I question myself in reference to my "lack" of motherly instincts considering that I started leaving you in the daycare from the tender age of 6 months old. Did I put you through much trauma in letting you cry either in the arms of "strangers" while I walked away to enjoy my afternoons by myself or when I leave you in the cot to sleep? Was I being an alpha "kiasu" mum when I started showing you flash cards when you were less than a year old?

All these insecurities I have are eradicated when I see what a joyous and happy little girl you are. People are constantly telling me how you are always smiling and seems to be a delightful child. I am so proud of you, of your cheerful personality, of all your milestones and the simple fact that you are such fun to be with. I enjoy telling people how you would say "Bravo Mummy" when I finish singing you a song or finish saying the alphabets! I am smiling from ear to ear when people tell me just how adorable you are. I love it when you try to kiss me on the lips (though I am pretending to look disgusted and give you my cheeks instead) or when you refuse a kiss from me. I enjoy our current game where you would run into my open arms and I would lift you off the ground. As much as I complain about you going "Mummy's here" in the middle of the night when you are woken up from your sleep, I am secretly smiling to myself and feeling all important.

I enjoy the last 18 months we spent together at home and I am apprehensive that it is going to change. Though it does seems timely that I should start a new full time job on Monday I know for a fact that I want to strike a balance between working and spending time with you. I love the conversations (though somewhat limited right now) we have, the laughters that we share, the games we play, the books we read together, all the moments we spend with each other and as a family. I want to continue to build this wonderful relationship we have.

I want you to know that I love you very much and so does your papa. You are our little darling and always will be.

Love always,
Mummy

Bonjour Bear Bear, ça va?

2007-09-21T10:33:00.000+02:00

Heehee. I was putting Laetitia down for her nap in her cot a little while ago when she pick up one of her stuff toys, a bear, and said to it, "Bonjour Bear Bear, ça va?" So sweet and polite it made me smile. Then she continued to babble to it. Ah.... my little one is so adorable (if I may say so. :p).

ABC time.

2007-09-17T16:52:00.001+02:00

I realised I have been posting less recently and that is because I do not spend as much time with Laetitia anymore. She is off to daycare all week from 1pm to 7pm. She is doing well at daycare, eating her teabreak all by herself, taking naps and playing nicely with her friends.

During the mornings that we do spend together, we would mostly play with her toys and do some educational activities such as going through some flashcards. Yes, I know, she is not even one and a half. Well, we do it for fun and she enjoys it too. And when she is not interested, I would not push her to continue. Anyways, this is taken this morning after we finished going through the cards once. I thought, oh, I should totally record this down. However, she was not as interested the second time round but we managed to go through about 1/4 of the alphabets. You can see her kissing Brunie, her little "goggie". It's fun hearing her say "googie" and "elephanhan".

Laetitia and famous people

2007-09-15T17:01:00.000+02:00

So, Laetitia did some time travel with her papa and visited Mr. Rodin. She took a photo with him while he was in the process of creating his sculptures.

Then she time travelled back to take a photo with Mr. Jacques Chirac. Yes, of course I am kidding. We just spent the afternoon in Musée Grévin (the wax museum in Paris)

Laetitia and friends.

2007-09-09T13:14:00.003+02:00

I was sorting out some of the photos we took in Singapore and came across some that I feel would be lovely to have on the blog. Just a few of Laetitia and the other toddlers she came into contact with during the holiday (they are all my friends kids). She is quite a sociable child and most of the time, it is not difficult to leave her alone to play with other children. I say most of the time as there are occasions when other children will make her more upset than usual but it is really quite rare.

So here's my little pie and her friends.

And here is my little "gourmand" enjoying her crab. She got to taste many different new food and fruits in Singapore including crabs, prawns, durians, rambutans, mangoteens and many others that I probably forgot.

A love for singing?

2007-09-03T12:02:00.001+02:00

It's been a couple of weeks from the last update. I've been on the road, Florence from 26th to 29th August and then on the 29th when I got back into Paris, I was off to Futuroscope for a two day trip to celebrate my fourth wedding anniversary. After a night at home, we left again on 31st for the south of France to my parents in laws. All in all it's been a busy summer. In the meantime, Laetitia spent the week with her grandparents. I was told that she was very well behaved and loves to sing!

Apparently when she goes into the car seat for a ride, she would start singing to herself. I witness this over the last couple of days. She might not know all the words but she sure is humming and singing away. And whenever I sing to her, she is always asking for an "encore". Hah! She will probably be the only person asking for an "encore" of my out of tune singing performance. :p Let's hope she does not pick that up from me.

Aside from the singing, as I had already known since we were holidaying in Singapore, she seems to be extra fussy with me around. Don't misunderstand, she is still a cutie pie but it's harder to put her to bed and of course she whinges more. I seriously have to try to work this issue out.

Anyways, since there has been a lack of photos lately, here's some.

Enjoying the sun in the south of France

Sharing her toast with her mummy.
Two of the photos from the photoshoot in Singapore

Overly attached?

2007-08-22T21:16:00.000+02:00

So, we are settling down well back in Paris. Laetitia got back into her routine within 2 days. The only problem we have, the way I see it, is that she is becoming WAY TOO attached to me. It's Mummy, Mummy all day long. Even in the middle of the night when she wakes up briefly, she is calling for me. It is sweet and at the same time, a little worrying. I hope this is but a phrase that she is going through. This weekend she will be going to my parents in law in the south of France while I leave for Florence with my friend Jaimie who is here on holiday. I hope she will be able to adapt well to being without her parents (especially her mummy). I know she will be well taken care of by her grandparents. It is more about her being fussy and difficult that I am concerned about. Of course I am keeping my fingers crossed that this would help ease her strong attachment to me instead of reinforcing it (which was probably what happened after I got back to Singapore from my Vietnam trip). We will see.

On the other hand, in terms of her development, she is progressing very fast with her language skills. She has no problems speaking in short sentences and can converse in both French and English. She knows to be polite, e.g "Please, Mummy", "Non, merci", "Bonjour Madame". She can count from one to four e.g when I go "One" she will continue with "two"... She recognises and names most of the items on the alphabet list including my favourite "umbrella" which she pronounces in the most adorable way. My mum was telling me that when I was away in Vietnam, Laetitia was taking her stroy books and "reading" them to her! My mum even asked me if there was something about a lady putting her fingers to her lips telling someone to be quiet as that was what Laetitia did when "reading" one of the books. And there is! In one of Laetitia's bedtime story books, "Goodnight Moon", there is a "quiet old lady whispering hush".

She sure is growing up fast.

Finally back in Paris.

2007-08-16T04:48:00.000+02:00

We're finally home after the long five and a half weeks of holiday in Singapore. Laetitia has been really good on this trip and I was even able to leave her for a couple of days with her grandma while I scoot off to Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) for a short holiday with my very good friend Eileen.

She missed her papa very much since he left 10 days earlier than us and boy, was she delighted to see him at the airport today.

There are lots of updates of our trip and photos to be uploaded once I have properly readjusted back here.

Ciao for now.

My li'angel.

2007-07-29T06:38:00.000+02:00

We went for a photo shoot here in Singapore again (the same studio that did the previous shoot last October.)

The photographer captured some really great photos of Laetitia and out of the 165 that was taken, the ones in this post are three of my favourites. We had a hard time trying to select the photos in our package (we were limited to 10) and had wanted to keep so many more that it was more value for money to purchase all the shots taken during the shoot.

This is my current screen background.

This is Etienne's messenger avatar.

UMBRELLA!

2007-07-27T12:26:00.001+02:00

YES! That's the new word that Laetitia said today, "UMBRELLA". I am so impressed and proud. It has been raining and my friend brought along a children's umbrella and as she was opening it, Laetitia said "umbrella". *eyes wide open, mouth gapping----->me.

Nothing to this post except to say that I am very proud of her. After all, she is less than 16 months. :)

Singapore Zoological Gardens.

2007-07-25T22:50:00.000+02:00

The Singapore Zoological Gardens is reputed to be one of the best zoos in the world and we thought it will be fun to bring Laetitia there. Although it had been raining for the last couple of days and the weather did not look great in the morning, we decided to try our luck.

When we arrived, the weather was overcast but it was not raining. In fact, it was nice and breezy. We made our way to the Elephants of Asia show since elephants are one of her favourite animals. We were a little early (15mins before the show started) and after five minutes on the bench, Laetitia started to get a little restless. It was a bit of a challenge keeping her occupied before the show finally started. She was very excited to see the elephants and kept making the "elephant sound" (which basically is her going ahhhhhhhhh!) But, after 10 mins into the show, she started to fidget again. Anyways, we did manage to stay till the end of the show but realised that expecting her to be still in one place for 30 mins might be too much for her to handle. We quickly moved on as it had also started to rain. We made our way to the children's world area to look at miniature horses, cows, pigs etc. After another half an hour of pottering around, we decided that it was all too much for Laetitia and we should head home. As we are leaving the zoo, we came across a few more animals that she knows, the lions, zebras, giraffes and rhinoceros.

But the time we got to the car to leave the zoo, it was more than 2 hours after we arrived. It was a short visit considering the size of the zoo. We probably only saw less than half the animals there. Well, there's always next year when we plan our next visit to Singapore.

And some random pictures that we took of her.

Lego fun time.

2007-07-20T17:31:00.000+02:00

Laetitia has been spending some time playing with lego bricks. My sister's kids have both the normal size lego and the bigger sized for smaller children. Her cousins who love lego have been building interesting things for her. So far, they have built three different chairs for her to sit on and many other interesting buildings and towers.

Her papa has joined in the fun in playing with the lego too.

Here's a sample of the lego creations.

The chair that her cousin Benjamin built for her. I didn't manage to take a picture of the other chair that Natasha built for her.

Laetitia playing with the "Incredibles" like robot that her papa and her cousins built together.

Fun activities in Singapore

2007-07-17T03:43:00.002+02:00

Laetitia is having a fabulous time in Singapore. Her sleeping routine is getting more reasonable, 10pm to 8.30am. This means that we can take her out for dinners and also have some decent sleep. And the day can be filled with different fun activites for her. So far we have gone shopping and she loves to walk in the malls. The pretty marble flooring catches her attention. The loveliest ones are at Suntec City, they shimmers!

We have also filled her time with splashing time in the swimming pool (I think we have been about three times in less than a week). We also went to this place called Bambini where she met up with Auntie Michelle and the kids. She played a lot with legos and her cousins.

We're planning trips to the zoo, the botanical gardens, maybe the bird park, sentosa and the aquarium... Thanks to my good friend Jaimie, we have a car to use and it has made travelling around so much easier.

Splashing good time!

Dinner at Kallang Oasis No Sign Board restaurant with Grandma (and the rest of the family who is not in the photo)

A photo with her cousins Natasha and Natalia before going out.

An enjoyable time at Bambini with Auntie Michelle, Vanessa and Aaron.

Buidling or rather destruction time playing legos at home. In this case, she is pretending the lego is a phone while drinking on her play bottle.

In Singapore.

2007-07-14T17:58:00.002+02:00

We finally arrived in Singapore on the 11 July after almost 18 of travelling (including 2 hours transit and 1.5 hours delay). It was a relatively tiring trip for Etienne and I as we took turns entertaining Laetitia. It was a good thing that for the second segment of the flight (8 hours), she slept for about 5 hours straight in the bassinet. This allowed us to catch our 40 winks and also eat in peace.

The tough part since being in Singapore is that our little girl is more jet lagged than the both of us for the first couple of days. On Wednesday night, she went to bed at 10pm and work up at 1am. She was hungry but even after we fed her, she did not go back to sleep until 3.30am. And on Thursday night, she went to bed at around 10pm again BUT woke up at midnight and did not go back to sleep until 4am! Finally last night, she went to bed at 10pm (I made sure she was given some nice warm cereal and milk before bed) and stayed asleep till this morning 8am. Hopefully she will soon adjust her internal clock and work her way through sleeping 12 hours straight through every night soon.

On a side note, apart from the jet lag, she has been having fun with her cousins (my sister's children) and enjoys playing with them. She loves the every other day swimming time too. We took lots of photos and I'll get to posting them when I have them uploaded into the computer.