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.

A day in the park

The last couple of days have been BEAUTIFUL here in Paris. A glorious sunny 27 degrees. Parisa and I decided to take the babies out and enjoy a bit of the sun. Truth be told, I am not too much of a park person. When Parisa asked me on Tuesday which park do I normally take Laetitia to, I had to sheepishly tell her that I don't take my little pie to walk in a park. I am not exactly keen on having Laetitia crawl on the grass and put things (like grass or dirt) in her mouth. Anal. I know.

So anyways, I decided maybe I should change that and we did go to the park today. We went to Square de la Roquette which is about 10 mins walk from our apartment. I finally had the opportunity to use the pretty picnic mat that I bought for Laetitia.

As you can see from the photo, the park is crowded. There were mothers with their babies, grandparents with their grandchild (as evident from the background of the photo), young couples, single females reading... It was tough finding a spot under the tree.

Soon we were joined by Olivia and her baby Max. Here's an attempt to take a photo of the three little ones. Not quite a kodah moment but at least a photo that shows the face of all three.
And here's more of Milly and Laetitia.


And I cannot resist putting this very lovely photo of Milly. What a sweet smile.
Oh, and I do not have to worry about Laetitia crawling on the grass. She HATES it. She absolutely refuses to go near the grass. The first time she accidentally put her hand on the grass, she immediately removed her hand and had this disgusted look on her face! My oh my, that little PRINCESS. I tried to entice her to step/crawl onto the grass and she would not bulge. It was really funny. It seemed as if there was this invisible fence on the edge of the mats. Well, that's truly my girl. :p

Coffee time with Ivana and Baby Bel

Yesterday I took Laetitia with me to Cafe Marly (a tres chic joint in the Louvre museum). We met up with Ivana and Baby Bel (Isabelle). It was lovely seeing them and it was the first time Laetitia met Baby Bel. Here's my little one trying to get acquainted with Baby Bel.

"Oh my gosh Mummy. It's a little baby!"

And here is the pretty mummy Ivana with her precious darling.

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.

Beautiful weekend.

The weather is beautiful this afternoon and so we took the little pie out for a walk.

Climbing, reading....

So, my little one seems to be totally uninterested in walking. Hmmmm..... She got her walking toy (a present from Auntie Jaimie) before her birthday and though I have been trying to get her interested in using it to help her to learn to walk, she is totally not interested. Instead, the toy is MUCH more fun when it is used as a climbing object. She just loves to climb onto the toy. She now has numerous bruises on her right leg (I will attempt to take some photos soon) as she would use it to support her body weight as she climbs onto the toy. Below is a photo of her just after she descended (I was not fast enough getting the camera) and her giving me a sheepish grin. She does stand very well on her own so I guess I'll just not be an overly competitive mummy worrying about when she would walk and compares her with her peers.

Updated: Bruise pic.

On a different note, Laetitia loves to be read to (obviously she does not and cannot read by herself yet) and enjoys flipping though her books. It could be that I have cultivated that habit in her by reading to her all the time since she was born. Now every morning, while she is having her breakfast, I would read two to three books with her and sometimes continue with some flash cards. It helps to entertain her while she is being fed. Her favourite right now is "The very hungry caterpillar". I would read the book and do the baby sign for caterpillar (finger crawling up the arm) and she would repeat the sign (but do it on my arm instead of hers) and laugh loudly when I exclaim "AH caterpillar!".

Just yesterday she received four board books in the post. They were presents from Auntie Carol(Foo) and Auntie Elin. Thank you both so much for the books. I'm looking forward to reading them to her. In fact, she loves board books so much that one of the caregivers in her garderie (daycare) made it a note to mention to me that she loves flipping through the books and that I should get her some. Hahaha, she did not know that Laetitia already has a very decent collection of books and it's increasing. I hope she will continue to enjoy books (either being read to or eventually reading them herself).

Chatty cool baby.

I had a wonderful three days by myself doing touristy stuff (visiting the Opera, chateau de versailles and having coffee in the Louvre) last week but I am so happy to have my baby and hubby home. :-) It seems that Laetitia had a good time with her mamou and papou (that's how she calls her paternal grandparents). She loves the space she has to crawl around and enjoys chasing after the cat. We'll be off to visit them again at the end of the month and this time we might attempt to leave the little pie behind for a couple of days to a week while we return to Paris by ourselves. Wish us luck and success.

Recently Laetitia has been babbling A LOT. She is talkative like her mummy although we have no idea what in the world she is saying. Here's a fun video of her happily telling her mummy some of her adventures. And as usual, her mummy was trying to get her to say "mama" and as usual, she did not have much success. :-(


The little cheeky monster had to end the video by trying to stick her finger in her nose. hmmmm.....

Anyways, here's her striking a cool relaxing pose after she finished her dinner.

A little trip without Mummy!!??!

My little pie is on her first trip without her mummy! Waahhhhh..... I am not sure if it's her crying or me! Well, actually neither. She probably does not even realise that I am not on the trip with her. She has her precious papa right by her side (and I say this lovingly). This little chouchou really loves her papa. She was so happy when he came home from work on Friday after not seeing her for the last 2 days. Absolutely delirious with joy.

Anyways, Etienne has taken her to the south to his parents for two days leaving me alone in Paris. It is taking time to sink into me that I AM ALONE! I wonder if my darling misses me yet. :p

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."

A one year photo diary.

She's a BIG girl now.

When she was born, she weighed 3.48kgs and measured 51cms. Now, she is about 8.5kgs and measures about 74cm (estimation since she has not been weighed or measured recently).

Here's a little photo collage.

HAPPY ONE YEAR OLD BIRTHDAY!!!

WOW!!!! I'm still a little stunned by the fact that my baby is ONE! It's amazing how time flies isn't it. It has been a year of wonderful moments of delirious happiness. There were times when I felt like pulling my hair out but I must say my baby is a right bundle of joy.

She received her first card ever from her paternal grandparents. She loved the card that sings.

Oh mummy, A CARD FOR ME! It's addressed to ME ME ME!Can I open it?

I think I need some help, Mummy.

WAH! The card sings.

I will update more on how we're spending the day and her growth/development later (probably tomorrow).

The attention seeking budding musician.

As shown in the previous post, I got Laetitia a "one man band" musician set for her birthday. Since then she has been playing happily with her toys. I captured this while she was playing quietly by herself. The funny thing is, when she realised I was filming her, she started to give me her BIG smiles. Hahahaha.... a totally attention/camera seeking girl (just like her mummy some would say :p).

Early birthday celebration

Laetitia is turning ONE this coming Thursday but since by the time her papa comes home from work in the evening, it's time for bed, I decided to have a little celebration at home with papa today. We had a little cake from Picard and sang her "Happy Birthday", let her taste some chocolate mousse and of course take the customary photos.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARLING!"

"Hmmm.... what is this strange tasting brown mushy thing?"

Over the last couple of days, I also allowed her to open up her presents and play with them. She loves the toys. We had such fun playing with them. She particularly enjoys taking the "little people" out of the bus and throwing them. If she is playing with it in her cot, she would take the "little people" out one by one and throw them overboard (out of the cot). I think she has a little mean streak to her character! :p

"Heehee.... let me take these people out of the bus."

"Oh, a musical set! The noise I am going to make!"

And here's some cute pics of my little meanie with her oh so cool sunglasses on top of her head (a la mummy).
"Yo! Whatcha looking at?"

Weaned

So, that's it. Laetitia has been weaned. It was not exactly the way I scheduled it to be. I was intending to wean around the end of the month but since I have been sick as a dog for the last week, I did not breastfeed her at all and that's it. It's over. And I MISS it. I miss having her little face snuggled right next to my breast and the happy blissful look on her face as she suckle away. I know she does too since sometimes she goes "nai nai nai" when I carry her close to my chest (which is very seldom in the last week since I am full of germs!).

I am very cautious about being close to her as I have been coughing lots, blowing my nose and had slight conjuntivitis so even though I washed my hands as frequently as possible and use the antibacterial hand gel, I feel like I have viruses/germs/bacterials hovering all over me. Well, she has started to cough again and is currently suffering from conjuntivitis. Poor darling. No "nai nai nai" to comfort her and at the same time, she has to go through all these too.

Times spent bonding with her papa

Laetitia spent a lot of time over the last 5 days with her papa. Etienne took 3 days off work and his main task was to help look after Laetitia. I was pretty much out of it as I had been ill since Sunday. I was running a fever for about 5 days, had a terrible sore throat, was coughing throughout the nights and finally, my nose is all congested too. It's the horrible cold/flu. I tried to avoid being close to Lae as much as I could as I didn't want to pass whatever it was that I had to her.

Anyways, on Friday morning, I had to leave home before 8am as I had a day surgery scheduled (nothing to do with the cold/flu) and had to be in the hospital by 8.15am. By the time I left, Lae was just waking up and I decided to go without going to her in case she makes a fuss when I leave. Etienne was tasked with looking after her all by himself until about 1pm when he will bring her to the halte garderie. He was to come pick me up from the hospital after that.

He was recollecting the events of the day with Laetitia to me when he admitted that for once, he finally had a glimpse of what it was to spend all the time in the day with her. And more importantly, it's not easy. HA! Yes, now he can almost puts himself in my shoes. It so happened that Lae did not have much sleep on Thursday night and therefore was much more grumpy on Friday morning. She was more irritable and was whingeing a lot. It was apparently not easy to feed her and she did not take much of a nap too. So, her poor papa had her all to himself on a rather bad day. :p

All in all though, these last five days was a great bonding time for papa and daughter.

The little model

This was the ad that Laetitia did when we were in Singapore last year. I finally got hold of the file.

Doesn't she looks SO cheeky in the ad?

The little monster!

This is what I had to deal with the last couple of days during mealtimes. A tantrum throwing MONSTER! She was unhappy that I was taking too long to give her her food. The funny thing is, after I recorded this little video, I would play it for her and it would actually calm her down. She's intrigued by the crying that comes from the camera. Either that or it made her realise what a little racket she was making. Oh, and notice the one big tear drop slowly descending from her cheek. Boy am I glad this only happens once in a while.



Recently I started making her cheese toast and she loves them. One more finger food to add to the list. She is, however, not keen at all when I serve her porridge that had not been blended. I guess I win some and I lose some. :(

Eleven Months old

My almost one year old baby! I am really glad that we had decided that I would stay home for at least the first year of her life. She's such a little delightful child and I would have hate to miss all those milestones, all the firsts. It's wonderful that I've been experiencing all these moments of joy (and of course there were also some moments of frustration) with my darling baby.

She is slowly gaining some weight. About 200g over the last month. She is currently 8.4kgs. Not a lot but at least she is growing. She eats well, about 4 meals a day and each meal consisting of about 300g of food and fluid. I am slowly weaning her too and it's not exactly a bed of roses as she does love her once a day breastfeed. She been demanding "nai nai nai" (what she calls milk) in the mornings when she is suppose to take a bottle of formula instead of being breastfed. It's such bitter sweetness... To know that she loves the connection with me in being breastfed and at the same time, wanting to wean her.

Well, back to her monthly milestones or advancements. These are the new things she started doing over the course of the last month:-
1) Stand alone momentarily. And she is SO PROUD when she does that. I would go "BRAVO" and she would smile and clap her hands.
2) "Play ball" by passing me the ball which I roll towards her.

Here's just a photo of my cutie pie.

First hair cut

Or rather first hair trim. The back of Laetitia's hair grows much more than the rest the hair on her head and is actually kind of long. We decided to give her hair a little trim to make it more even. This is the final result. Not too bad eh?

And here are some of the hairs that I had to cut off.

Cheeky monster!

This is nothing but a gratuitous pictures post. I think my darling looks more and more cheeky with her two front teeth. Look at all her funny expressions.

Oh Mummy, I spy you trying to take my photos!

I will give you my biggest GRIN!
Don't I look scary with my "ready to pounce" look?

ROAR! I'm going to maul you with my teeth!

Come on, come closer and let me bite you.

How long are you going to keep me waiting? Give me an arm to chew. :p

Laetitia in Barcelona

We went to Barcelona from the 2nd to the 5th of Feb for a little long weekend getaway. We had great fun although there was a couple of unfortunate events that happened to me (lost my engagement ring and wallet on different days!)


Here are some photos of our little vacation.


Mummy and Lae Lae in Paris Orly airport waiting to board the plane.



My pretty baby showing off her two front teeth. (She has a total of 4 teeth that are visible now)



Walking along La Rambla.


Daddy having fun piggybacking his precious in the hotel room.


At Sagradra Familia