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. :-)

Laetitia was 8 months old yesterday...

And I totally forgot about it!!!

She has been sick and yesterday was BAD! She vomitted twice in her bed. My poor darling. It was such a frantic day that it did not even occur to me that my little cutie pie is 8 months old.

She is getting cuter by the day!

Well, no vital stats for this month since I have not taken her to the doctor for a while. She is growing well. She should be slightly more than 8kgs now.

New things she started doing over the course of the last two months:-
1) Self feed biscuits. She loves Baby Bites rusk biscuits which I CANNOT find in Paris. DARN! Anyone wants to send me some from Singapore? (hint hint all the aunties back in sg)
2) Stand when supported
3) Say "papa" "mum mum" "ma"
4) SCREAM when I leave the room
5) get into a sitting position from stomach
6) Understands when she is being scolded (response by first making a little face and then followed by minutes of inconsolable crying).

Here's some photos of my baby.

The crocodile eating monster!

Ducks are delicious too.

Lae enjoying herself in the garderie.