Handsome

Handsome is growing up fast. When Seb brought him for his vaccination a month ago, he weighed 10kg. Each morning he greets us, I notice that he has grown taller overnight.

He loves to sleep in this position. Just too funny. The boys love the dog. They would go to Handsome to play with him. A1 is being caution most of the time. A2 however, can be found rolling over the dog, playing fetch with Handsome and kissing him.

Handsome is usually gentle with the boys. He can get excited sometimes and starts jumping around. He still does stupid things which includes chewing on everything. Our furnitures, the corner of the walls, doors, cables, and whatever he could get his teeth on. Our house has never been so tidy and neat. We just put everything out of his reach. As he grows taller, we would really need to put everything upstairs or in the guest room.

Most people tell us their dogs calm down overnight when they reach around 18 months old  to 2 years old. I hope for Handsome, he would calm down at 18 months old instead of 24 months old.

Just one more thing to add, we find that he is growing more and more handsome each day. No, we are not being bias dog owner. He is not a photogenic dog. You really have to come see him for real to judge for yourself.

Year end gifts

It is common practise for companies in France to give year end gifts. In my company, we usually receive gift vouchers. For Seb, he has both gift vouchers and a goodies bag. This year, the gift box includes pots of foie gras, terrine de magret de canard fumé (smoked lean duck),  pâté de campagne (meat spread), spice bread, jam and French wines to go with these delightful french food. 

As most pâté contained pig's liver, I did not eat pâté. Nor could I stomach foie gras. I came to love foie gras after I had my kids. And slowly, my taste buds could accept pâté too. I remembered I gave away last year's pâté to some colleagues since Seb does not eat meat. This year, I am keeping everything for myself. I have friends from Singapore visiting in Feb. I will share these french food with my friends then.

Since living in France for so long, I have learnt to eat lots of french food like smelly cheese, foie gras etc.... There are still a thing or two that I just could not take. Boudin noir and goat cheese are two things that I will never see on my plate. Boudin noir is a sausage made of pig's blood. You might think I am not an adventurous eater. The thing is, I love pig's organ soup and braised pig's intestines which are local delights in Singapore. When I mentioned that, French people usually gave me an unbelivable look.

So you tell me, are you an adventurous eater? What new food have you accepted recently and what food do you avoid?

Froot Loops

I asked Seb to bring me peanut butter, Resee's chocolate and a box of Froot Loops from the States. My kind husband did as told and even bought two giant boxes of Froot Loops. Er... that was one too many. I wonder when will we ever finish these two boxes. I missed Froot Loops as the last time I had them was 11 years ago when I was living in the States for 2 months.

My boys love Froot Loops and ask for a bowl and a refill each morning. I am not surprised as looking at the composition, the first ingredient is sugar. We limit their consumption to a small bowl each morning followed by healthier biscuits.

The box was so big it won't fit into my cupboard. I had to pour out the contents into these chinese new year goodies containers. Aren't they pretty? Now, out of sight, out of mind. 

Not really. A1 knows where I keep the Froot Loops and wants a bowl still in the morning.

Late fall

It snowed overnight last friday and in the morning, this was the sight of our garden. It was white and beautiful. As Seb was on a work trip, I was alone with the kids. That meant that I had to bring the two boys out when sending A1 to school. I decided not to bring A1 to school as A2 was sick. I did not want to risk A2 getting sicker. Furthermore, the gate was frozen and could only open half way. The car was covered in snow too. The pathway was slippery. I was not motivated to sweep the snow and pour hot water. Well, we just holed up in the house the whole day. 

By afternoon, the snow had mostly melted away. As Christmas is coming, some neighbours put up decorations on the exterior of their houses. The best decorated house I would say belongs to our direct neighbour. The decorations look like display from a shop's window. The lights light up at 5.30pm and was beautiful. We are so fortunate to benefit from this display.

The weather had been rainy too. Yesterday I could not decide if I should pick up A1 by foot or by car as it was raining on and off. When looking out, I saw this double rainbow. Beautiful. It was dark at the front gate and clear sky at the backyard. In the end, the sky cleared and A2 and I went on foot to fetch A1 from school.

Snow is expected again this thursday. A2 is better now. Maybe I will let the kids play in the garden and make a snowman if there is enough snow.

Laptop repaired

Handsome is an active puppy. As with any new domestic pet, we have to teach him the house rules. Like no going up stairs, no going up on the sofa, no jumping on people, do his needs outside. We only have him for 2 weeks so he is still learning.

In these 2 weeks, he had managed to destroy a few things. He tore the sleeve of my leather jacket. He pulled the laptop cable and the laptop fell from the dining table. It was not working after. I thought I would have to buy a new laptop and even went to Carrefour to check out the models. Good thing the next day, I found in my letter box a commerical leaflet from a PC repair shop in the next village. Seb brought the laptop over and it was repaired. Still the shock has broken the screen and now, on the left bottom of the screen, it is dimmer. Yesterday, our music system could not work. Seb checked the cables behind this morning and saw that the Ethernet cable was chewed into half. He replaced the cable and pushed the furniture closer to the wall so that Handsome could not go get the cables. Handsome also tore up my cushion and when we came home from town in the afternoon, we found the stuffing all over the living room. We are learning from experiences on puppy proofing the house.