Potty trained.

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

We're in Singapore again!

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.

Officially toilet training

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.

Big girl bed!

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.

"Laetitia, grosse fille."

"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

First step to getting dress all by herself.

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.

And she talks on the phone...

Here's a little video of my petite chouchou babbling away on the phone. She does that ALL the time when I hand the phone over to her. We might not understand what she is saying except for the initial "hello" (said in a very french way, with a silent "h"). My mum absolutely loves it when I put Laetitia on the phone whenever I call her.

And she walks....

She has definitely been walking more and more. Here's a video of her walking to get the telephone. Oh, the other thing is, she LOVES to talk on the phone. She is ever so happy to "chat" with her grandma who is in Singapore.

On a side note, I noticed that she has been having little tantrums spells lately. It's not outrageous but definitely more. In preparation for dealing with them, I bought the book "Happiest Toddler on the block". I would also be happy to receive recommendations on books that has worked for others so if there is a specific book that you (mummies) find is useful, please do not hesitate to leave a note to tell me about it in the comments section. I will definitely appreciate it.

Typical menu in Laetitia's day.

It seems that I must be doing something right finally. After a few months of worrying about her apparent lack of weight gain, she is finally back on track. She put on 500g in one and a half months (She was 8.9kg on 23 April and 9.4kgs yesterday).

In a typical day, this is what she is eating.
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Breakfast - at around 8.30am
1) 210 ml of fresh full cream milk

2) one piece of weetabix (she takes some dry and some mixed with the milk from (1)

3) Fresh fruits
Bite size pieces of fresh fruits offered in a bowl. She could finish about 1/4 of a banana.


Mid morning snack - at around 10am
1) A 100g size fruit puree

2) A small (1/4 piece) slice of bread/a piece of biscuits


Lunch - usually around 12.30pm
1) 200g - 220g of vegetables and grains
(I make them mushy. It used to be pureed but now I just mushy them with a spoon or fork.)

2) 30 - 40g of meat/fish (I vary between beef, veal, chicken, lamb, ham, seabass, salmon, pork etc. Once in a while, she gets something exotic like rabbit!)

3) 1 slice of cheese (kraft singles type)

4) 100g yogurt or cream dessert (I normally buy Blédicrèm chocolate/caramel etc)

Examples of some her lunch menu over the last week:-
- Zuchinni, spinach and potatoes mixed with brown rice served with veal.
- Carrots, leeks and green peas mxied rice served with seabass.
- Turnips, spinach and brocoli mixed with smelt served with lamb.
- Green beans and carrots with rice served with pork.


Afternoon snack - usually around 4.00pm
1) 100g yogurt
2) 130g of fruit puree


Dinner - usually around 7pm
1) 150 - 200 ml of soup puree (I usually put aside some of the vegetable/grain dish that I cooked for lunch as dinner but I will add into the puree one other vegetable mixed to vary the taste.)

2) One serving of cheese (Laughing cow fondant cheese)

3) 120 ml of fresh full cream Milk

4) One small piece of bread. (usually french loaf)
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I reckon she has a very well balanced meal. And if anyone has any suggestions for interesting menus that I can use or improvise on, let me know. I am always happy to try new things for Laetitia.

Of course, it's hard to have a post without a picture of my darling... :-)

Potty training time.

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

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

13 months old and growing!

My baby is 13 months old today. Sometimes I seem to think that she should be older than that. She is growing to be such a little princess. After finding out last Friday that she is not a play on the grass baby, we found out today that she seems to have equal distaste for sand! What a prim and proper girl.

We are off in the south of France visiting my in laws. Here's my baby in the TGV from Paris to Toulon. There's a video of her tapping on the table together with her mummy. :)

Here's my little pie doing what she loves in her grandparents, terrorising the family cat, Câline.

A little on her growth. She is finally gaining more weight. She is 8.9kgs and measures 77cm. A very lean and tall baby.

Just cruising along...

So, I guess I was wrong. It's not that she was not so interested in walking but rather her mummy did not provided her with the space to walk! DUH! Over the weekend, we decided to allow Laetitia more freedom in the apartment. She used to be confined to her playing area in her room. We finally allowed her to crawl around the hallway and the living room. And boy did she enjoy herself.

And it was then that I realised she did enjoy cruising up and down the hallway with her pusher toy. Here's my little baby going down the hall towards mummy and then back up towards her papa. She was having SO MUCH fun.

"Mummy! I'm coming to get you!"

And of course it is still fun to climb onto the toy.

Mealtime

Increasingly, I have been letting Laetitia feed herself certain portions of her meals. She would usually feed herself her fruits during lunchtime from Fridays to Mondays (Tuesdays to Thursdays are out as we are usually rushing to finish lunch and get ourselves to the garderie). She gets to try to use a spoon to scoop her puree into her mouth but most of the time, she is too distracted and impatient to want to do it for long. However, she LOVES stuffing whole pieces of food in her mouth so fruits are the perfect way to supplement this "training sessions". I think I might try giving her pasta and cheese when I'm more courageous with regards to the probable mess it will create!

Over dinners she would be given some cheese toast to self feed and she would throw a little tantrum if I'm too slow getting her toast to her. Sigh.....

Anyways, here's a couple of pics taken when she's happily eating her oranges and banana (or "nana" as she happily calls it).

"HEY MUMMY! What are you doing? Can you let me eat in private?"

"You're unbelievable Mummy.! I look a mess! Yogurt on my face and all.... Hmmmm."

"BLAAAAAA"

"Sigh.... you're not going away are you? I'm going to enjoy my banana no matter how much you annoy me."

First tooth and many more coming!!!

Laetitia's first tooth has emerged! And it's the top left tooth instead of the bottom as it "normally" happens with most babies. I totally missed seeing it and Etienne was the one who pointed it out to me. I was concentrating on the bottom right tooth which is still trying to breakthrough. And of course now I notice that the top right is on it's way too. So, it looks like my baby is going to have quite a few all at one time.

The tough part is, I think she is in quite a lot of discomfort for she has been whinging a lot. At the same time, she has been having fun trying to chomp down on my shoulders, fingers, face, legs, basically every part of my body that she can get her mouth to! Soon, I'll have to sternly tell her to stop. Now I'm cutting her some slack since she is in some kind of pain.

Check out the little spots of whites on her top left of her gums.