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

TEN months old!

Okay, two more months to a year old. Breathe mummy breathe. WHERE DID ALL THESE TIME GO TO?

I don't think winter is a good season for my baby. She is still unwell. So, now on top of nursing a cough and a bad throat, she has the running bottoms. I feel so bad for my darling especially when I am being less than patient with her. I know that she is fussy as she is unwell but I sometimes get so frustrated after an entire day of dealing with it that I have no avenue of letting it out except on her. No, I do not beat her! I do, however, raise my voice at her to "stop it" (whatever she was doing that was bugging me). And of course after that, I am all guilty and would tell her that I'm sorry but I think the damage was done. I do try to catch myself before I raise my voice. I would normally just walk off to cool down. Of course she is in a safe place like strapped to her swing or in her playarea or her cot or exersaucer when I do that. Yes, I admit, I am no perfect mum and I can only try my best and at the end of the day, I am only human.

Back to my baby girl. She is TEN months old and is getting cheekier by the day. She makes me laugh so much.

New things she started doing over the course of the last month:-
1) Hold more than 1 thing in her hand, e.g. two balls or two cups or a ball and a cup etc.
2) Says papa with TOTAL recognition (and such love that I'm overwhelmed with jealousy)
3) Points to something that she wants with her index finger.
4) Drink from a small cup rather independently. (I usually put a small amount of liquid in it and have to remove the cup after she finishes).
5) Pull to a standing position by herself and tands for a good minute or more while holding on to the rails on her cot.
6) Play intelligently with her toys. E.g. she has a Tiny Love Musical stack and play toy that she can insert the balls into the cone to activate the music.

Not something that she does but still a milestone. Her top two teeth are out! And boy is she happy to use them!

At this age normally babies mimic a lot and so does Laetitia. Sometimes she tries to repeat the things I say and occasionally, it sounds pretty close. And she loves to chatter to herself or her toys too. I can't wait for her to start talking. :)

Play time.

Here's what she does at home when I leave her in the play area....

Attempting to stand by herself. Hiding under the bed

Seems like it's a lot of fun. Thank God for moments like these when I realised how cheery my baby is. It's very much needed especially after my horrible experience yesterday at the Paris metro where I was robbed of my handphone. I am still not over it. :(

What Laetitia has been up to...

So, it seems to be that Laetitia is suddenly picking up skills faster and faster.

For the last couple of days, she has been trying to hold more than one item in her hand at the same time and when she does succeed, she is absolutely delighted. Here's a pic of her finally managing to hold 2 stacking cups in her hands while I was feeding her and how gleeful she looked.
And here's papa and baby acting silly. These two are so in love with each other. Frankly, sometimes I think she loves her papa more. She would call out "Papa" with such love in her voice when he comes home but I have to beg and beg for her to call me "mammmm" or "ma ma" and she would not relent. sigh....

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.

The flu bug got her this time.

Well, my baby is sick again. :( It's not the new tooth which is making her grumpy and giving her a fever, it's the flu. And my poor little thing has been so ill this last month that she has not been putting on weight. She is only 100g heavier than a month ago. We went to a new Paediatrician as I felt that the previous PD prescribes medications (e.g antibiotics and cortison) too quickly and does not sufficiently explains the purpose of the medications nor the illness/recovery process to me. It's hard for me when my baby is ill and even harder when I do not get information of what is really going on. Plus, I do not like putting too much medication in my little one. Ha! I don't even believe in taking medication myself when I'm sick. *Not that it's a good thing when I am really ill.* Anyways, the new PD is great. Although I did come home with numerous medications, two were vitamins which he explained would be helpful to build up Lae's immunity since she has been sick relatively more these last two months. Another one of the medication was homeopathic. He also told me to call if Lae does not get better within 2 days. I was advised to give Lae more fluid in terms of juice or milk as she needs the calories since her weight gain is on a low side for the month. So far, this PD's approach is very agreeable for me.

So, in view of the fact that I should help Lae get back on track with her weight gain, I am more determine than ever to make sure she eats well. I went to buy some fresh produce for cooking her meals and got her the biggest spinach leafs ever! Don't believe me? Check this out. ONE SPINACH LEAF is bigger than my palm!

I made spinach, tomato, carrots and lamb porridge for her today. I think it was yummy since she finished the entire portion (200ml) given to her.

Onto more fun stuff, last Monday, my friend, fellow Message mum, Parisa, came over with little Amelie (or Millie as we affectionately calls her). The kidlets had a good time playing. Here's a lovely shoot of the two cuties.

A tooth is breaking through!

Finally after months of people telling me that Laetitia is teething (how they can see the little white pearlies just beneath the gums etc), it is FINALLY breaking through.

I can totally see it, feel it and she's having a fever and is grumpy. I hope it's just a couple of days before the tooth is fully out. Poor darling has been so off her normal behaviour.

On a side note, I have been trying to be more adventurous with Laetitia's meals. Normally she will have carrots as the main vegetable. I usually cook her vegetables in a slow cooker with rice to create a mashy vegetable porridge. This week, I made meals with celery (it's adventurous since I do not take vegetables and have to think "out of my box" for interesting vegetables aside from the normal carrots and green beans). It's the first time I'm cooking with celery. I didn't even know how they should looked like in the supermarket! I am also trying to vary the meats that I give her. I mean, it's boring to be having chicken, pork and beef all the time. I would get sick of my food too if I had to have the same things all the time. So, this is her new lunch menu for this week.

Monday, she had steamed seabass blended with carrots, celery and rice porridge.

Tuesday it was steamed duck blended with carrots, celery and rice porridge.

And today, she will be having steam rabbit thigh blended with turnip, celery and rice porridge.

Hear me ROAR!

One favourite thing that Lae loves to do now is ROAR. hahaha. She has this cute little roar that she does. I love it. She mimics a lot now and whenever Etienne or I make the roaring lion sound, she would happily do the same. Sometimes she would attempt to roar and gobble my arm or face at the same time!



And here's my baby just giving one of her many expressions.

A visit from Alrik and his parents

Alrik and his parents, Caroline and Pierre, came over for a visit late this afternoon. Pierre and Etienne work together. It's nice that we're able to get together in a more social context. It's wonderful to have some friends in the same situation, e.g. married with the first child as there are so much to share about in terms of experiences and of course silly things the babies get up to.

We spent a lovely time together and managed to capture a few photos.

Happy New Year!

Here's a cheeky grin with the tongue sticking out for the New Year! For 2007, Lae will stay for longer periods at the garderie! On Tuesdays and Thursdays she goes to the garderie from 12pm-7pm (though in reality, I only bring her in around 1.30pm after her lunch and picks her up around 6.30pm). On Wednesdays and Fridays, she goes from 4pm to 7pm. I will have to start searching for a school to resume my studies of the "wonderful" French language. Maybe I should take it from Sharon and start a simple French blog for Lae... or maybe not so soon. :p

9 months old...

My baby is NINE months old!

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

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

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

First Christmas

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

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

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

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

Merry Christmas!

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

Laetitia and her friend Sophie

Laetitia made a new friend Sophie last Tuesday.

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

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

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

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

A battle with bronchiolitis.

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

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

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

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

Oh, the places you'll go!

OH! THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

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

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

Laetitia's Christmas presents and wishlist

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

Here's the presents she will be getting!

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

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

4. Baby Einstein DVD Box set (from me)

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

1. Fisher Price Dino Ball

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

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

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

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