A lovely card about Votre petit garçon

Baby A has been receiving lovely gifts and cards. I just love the text of this particular Hallmark card given by Seb's god-parents. I find it really meaningful and heart-warming. Here it is in french. Sorry, I have no time to translate it into english.

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En le comblant d'amour et en lui offrant ce qu'il faut pour s'épanouir,

les parents donnent à leur enfant des racines solides et des ailes pour s'envoler.

Comme il est mignon! A peine vient-il de faire son entrée chez vous que vous étes déjà complètement fous.

Et chaque fois que vous le tenez au creux de vos bras, vous sentez votre coeur s'emplir d'une douce chaleur.

Il ne le sait pas encore, mais il a une chance inouïe, car il a des parents en or...

Par l'amour qu'il recevra de vous, il apprendra l'importance des ses racines et, par la confiance que vous lui donnerez, il apprendra à voler de ses propres ailes, non pas pour s'éloigner de vous, mais pour s'élancer vers une vie heureuse et belle.

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9 months are finally over

Today is my estimated delivery date. However, baby A decided to arrive early. He was borned 11 days earlier and weighed a mighty 3.340kg at 50cm. He is really the average size french baby but with regards to my petite frame, he is considered big for me. I did have a difficult time pushing him out. My mid-wife was telling me that my bed rest was too long and I should have given birth earlier. Well, I will know better next time.

I left the clinic on saturday and just nice, my mom arrived at 7am on this day. She is a great help to us. It's been a week since we are home. Baby A is growing well. As with all new borns, he lost 10% of his weight within the first few days. Now he is steady gaining weight and is at 3.150kg. He drinks well and sleeps well during the day. At night, it is more difficult putting him to bed.

Bao Bei is accepting baby A quite alright. She tends to tip-toe around him. In the above pic, Bao Bei was just watching over baby A. As new parents, we are tired due to the lack of sleep. For me, I feel like "la vache qui rit" (the laughing cow), just feeding and feeding.

Easter and prawn mee

It was Easter. Usually, we would spend the long weekend (monday is a holiday) at Seb's parents place watching our nephews searching for eggs in the garden. This year however, we just spent our weekend at home.

Since baby is due in 3 weeks time, I decided to cook prawn mee. Conforming to the confinement practise, I can't eat prawns after giving birth for at least a month. And I love prawns. This was the first time I made prawn noodles. I used the Prima Taste package and found the soup to be too sweet for my taste. I doubt I will cook this again. I prefer the Prima mee-siam.

After dinner, I was craving for chocolate. Once said, my neighbour knocked on our door and gave us an easter egg. It was lovely. Seb and I did not wait long to break up this lovely rooster egg.

I wish everyone a happy easter.

Balcony updates

Spring is here and my balcony looked so bare. The flower boxes were empty and waiting to be filled with flowers. I just could not resist the temptation. On Sunday, Seb and I went to Truffaut to get some flowers.

I had never seen Truffaut so crowded before. Everyone was buying plants and flowers and the queue for the cashiers snaked almost all the way to the end of the shop. I got geraniums for the row of flower boxes. As April can still have cold nights, I chose geraniums that were in buds and not blooming yet. They should last the whole summer until mid-autumn.

My pot of wilted Azalee looked so depressing. Last winter was too cold and I did not cover it in time.
This time round, I replaced the pot with Cineraire. There were many different varieties of colors available. We chose this color to go with the pot.

Seb helped me with the heavy tasks while I planted the flowers. It felt good to be out on the balcony with the sunny weather.

These two days, it had been rainy. The flowers are adjusting well to their new environments.

I do hope to enjoy dining at the balcony before baby arrives and me being confined indoors during the confinement period.

Toxoplasmosis

Since discovering that I was pregnant, I had to do blood test each month to check if I was infected with toxoplasmosis during these 9 months. Most countries (including Singapore) do not make these blood test complusory but in France, pregnant women who have never contracted this disease are routinely screened for toxoplasmosis. This disease can be fatal for the unborn baby if the mother gets it during pregnancy.

Most Asian women are not immuned to this disease as we do not have the culture of eating raw meat or semi-cooked meat. Also, we hardly eat salads. Food wise is not a problem for me as I make sure that all meat are well done and that I avoid salads. Fruits have to be washed and peeled.

Cat's faeces can also contain the disease (for a few weeks) if the cat had been in contact with infected birds/mice (through hunting). Seb and I are very cautious on this point. Poor Bao Bei has not been to Chartres since many months as we do not want her to go into my in-laws' garden. Seb has been cleaning her litter box every morning. When Seb was away on work trips, I would clean Bao Bei's litter box with gloves. I wash my hands every time I carress her. She still sleeps with us every night at our feet. This is a habit since she was a kitten so it was not possible to keep her out of our bedroom.

Gardening is also a big NO as soil can contain this disease. Though we doubt that the little pots on our balcony contain the parasite, I just avoid gardening totally. During winter, it was still bearable. But now that spring is here and I am at home, I am dying to go Truffaut to buy flowers for my bare balcony. If baby is here in May, I won't have time to do planting.

Each month, we waited with suspense on the blood test result and so far so good. I am still toxoplasmosis negative. Thank God! Once baby is here, I will start to eat more half-cooked meat and salads. I do hope to get this disease and be immuned to it.

Missing cats in airports

Since staying at home, I had been watching 30 millions d'amis, a TV programme about animals.

Today, one of the reports was on missing cats in airports. I never thought of travelling with Bao Bei on a plane but apparently, there were people who checked in their cats on a plane. Some never see their cats again.

Some cats managed to escape from their cages because the cages were damaged during transportation from the baggage check-in to the plane. Others escaped because the airport workers opened the cage to caress the animals. This was constated by 2 owners when they found the cages opened and everything else was intact.

These domestic cats became stray cats trapped in the runway of the airport. They had to find their own food and avoid being run over by planes or other airport vehicles.

A woman was travelling from France to Africa and upon arrival, was told that her cat had disappeared. After 48 hours, the airline company told her that the chance of finding her cat was slim. She was compensated 20€ per kg for her lost cat. The airline company considered the cat as a lost baggage! How sad isn't it?

An association for cats put up traps in the airport landing field hoping to catch some of these escaped cats. And this lady's cat was found in one of the traps after a year. This was a miracle case.

Another woman was travelling from France to Reunion with her cat. Her cat escaped at the french airport. The cat was reportedly seen by the airport personnels but no one could catch the cat. CDG is a big airport with many runways and hectares and hectares of fields. In September, foxes were introduced into the airport fields to get rid of the growing number of rabbits. After that, there was no more sign of her cat. She assumed that her cat had been a victim of the foxes.

There were many other such stories and the worst is that the airline companies do nothing to improve the situation. When contacted by reporters on the number of lost animals, the airline companies were not able to answer as they treated lost animals as lost baggages.

Here I am sitting and typing while watching Bao Bei plays by herself. Yeah, she throws up her mouse in the air and then jumps up to catch it or chases after it. Self-entertaining and really funny. I can't imagine losing my silly cat at the airport.

Oh, her birthday is coming soon. She will turn 5 on April's day.

Bed rest for the next 2 weeks

I am told to have complete bed rest for the next two weeks. Baby boy is ready to meet the world but he is still small at 2kg400g. We will try to keep him warm and grow fatter in me.
So in the meanwhile, I will blog less. Will just relax and read books, watch TV and look at the lovely coming spring by the windows.

Singapore Day 2009

I received an email a month ago inviting me to go for the Singapore Day 2009 which will be held in London. For once, it is going to be so near, only 2h20mins by Eurostar. I was all excited until I saw the date. 25 April. . . . . That is a week before my estimated delivery date. Doh! I would have to give it a miss.

The worst was, I dreamt about chwee kueh just a few days prior to receiving this email and there it was, a plate of chwee kueh staring at me. What kind of a joke is this. Anyway, my carving for chwee kueh is over. I do have to be careful with my weight gain.

If you do go for this event, enjoy yourself! Doubt anyone can tah-bao any food for me.....

Home bound (Almost)

I am home bound until baby arrives. My last checkup at the gynaecologist showed that the baby was in the head-first position. That was a very good news and I do hope that he will not change position. However, my gynae advised me to stop work and to rest and lead a tranquille life until the arrival of baby.

I am given 2 weeks of medicial leave which will be followed by 6 weeks of pre-natal maternity leave. I do have the freedom to go out but bed rest is prescribed an hour in the morning and in the afternoon.

I told Seb yesterday that I will do a timetable for the next 8 weeks. He thought I was crazy. He told me to just spend the days at ease without having to follow a planning. But I can't. I need to organise my life even during leisure. I have a list of things to do but will of course rest and rest. I will also try to write more often. Everyone told me to enjoy this time before our bundle of joy arrives. :)

Generosity of friends and passers

I have been receiving new and hand-me-down baby clothes and stuff from my friends in Singapore. It is heart warming that people go all their way out to have these items passed to me. Each package I collected required some logistics and planning.

Helios’s M from Herbiesphere is actually a friend of Claire. I have been following this blog for a long time before we realised that we had met once when I was invited by Claire to an outing with her friends. Helio’s M passed some baby stuff to Claire and Claire split the stuff into two packages. One, she passed to my friend Angel who was in Paris for work. The other, she passed it to a work friend of hers who was in Paris for leisure. I met up with her work friend at Gare du Nord when he was arrived from London to Paris by train. Of course, he was someone I never met before. It was really kind of him to do us a favour.

Next up was a package from my dear friend Moo Han. She recommended me to read the book “Supernatural Childbirth” and kindly sent a copy to me. At the same time, she added some baby clothes. Seb went to the post office to collect the registered package for me. It was a sweet surprise.

And most recently, I went to collect a package from a work colleague of Shirley who was in Paris for a seminar. Shirley, who is at the moment in a baking craze, prepared some baby clothes for me. You can find her bakes in Jellio & Jubilee.

I find Singaporeans strangers extremely helpful being passers.

Well, my blessing does not just end here. Sharon from Sound Bites, whom I know thru’ our common friend Mike, has somethings for me too. I am not aware of the details but it seems that her dad who is visiting her in Beijing will help pass the stuff to Mike when he returns to Singapore. And just nice, Mike plans to come Europe for a tour.

My sister-in-law had given us lots of baby clothes and stuff too. It is really amazing how kind and generous humans are; especially mothers. Thank you kind hearts and I really appreciate these gifts.

Bao Bei and illegal cats in Singapore HDB flats

Last Thursday, when I was not working, I decided to organise some random photos we had. While I was hard at work pasting the photos into the various photo albums, Bao Bei just popped up onto the dinning table and basked in the sunlight.

Jeudi dernièr, comme je ne travaillais pas, j'ai décidé d'organiser les photos. Pendant que j'étais en train de coller des photos dans les albums, Bao Bei a sauté sur la table à manger et s'est prélassée au soleil.

She looked so happy and contented to find some warmth in this cold winter.

Elle avait l'air si heureuse et contente d’avoir trouvé de la chaleur cet hiver.

The next day, I read in the singapore news that cats are illegal in HDB flats. I do have friends who kept cats in their HDB homes. This law is rather relaxed. Still, I find the reason given to be irrelevant.

Le lendemain, j'ai lu dans le journal de Singapour que les chats sont interdits dans les appartements publique. J'ai des amis qui ont des chats chez eux. Cette loi est assez souple. Quand même, je trouve que la raison donné est faible.

Extract from the news:

While Singapore's cat lovers want the "cat ban" lifted, as it was for small dogs three decades ago, authorities say it is necessary to avoid cat-related spats between neighbours.

"Our principal consideration is to preserve a pleasant living environment and good neighbourly relations," Singapore's HDB told Reuters in an emailed statement.

"We need to strike a balance between pet lovers and those who are more sensitive to the disturbances caused by animals."

HDB's website says banning cats, not dogs, is justified, as "they are nomadic in nature and are difficult to be confined".

In Paris, I know of many people who have cats in their appartments and I never hear of neighbours having disputes with cats over here. Actually, I did hear of neighbours here and in Singapore complaining about their neighbours' noisy dogs. Some untrained dogs can bark all day when the owners are out at work. They have to be taken out for walks and peep and shit in the public areas. No offence to dog owners. I love dogs as well. But the reasons given by the authorities on the ban of cats are just too lame.

A Paris, je connais beaucoup de gens qui ont de chats dans leurs appartements et je n'ai jamais entendu de problème entre les voisins à cause des chats. En fait, j'ai entendu des voisins ici et à Singapour qui se plaignent de chiens. Il y a des chiens qui aboient quand les maitres ne sont pas là. Il faut sortir les chiens pour qu'ils fassent leurs besoins dans un lieu public. J'aime les chiens. Mais les raisons données par Singapour sur l'interdiction de chats ne me convainquent pas.

Massive strike

Today is France's black thursday. There are massive strikes in the public sectors. Public transports are greatly reduced. Air controllers are on strike leading to 30% of flights cancelled. Seb left yesterday evening for Italy as he had a meeting today. He was afraid that he could not leave for Italy this morning. I do hope that his return flight tonight takes off as scheduled.

As for me, I took a day off to avoid the traffic jam. My colleague had to take a day off to take care of her toddler as the child care center will be closed. The staff are not on strike but most of them come to work by public transport and would have difficulty getting to work in time and getting home after work.

Teachers are on strike too. Schools are closed and parents have to find alternative child care for the day. Judges are on strike too. I have a registered letter to collect from the post but I decided not to go anywhere today cos La Poste is on strike too!

I am not greatly affected by the strike except that I used up my last day off and had to wait until end of Feb to accumulate new ones. I felt that it is good that people can protest. Unlike in singapore where even two people who manifested were rounded up by the police. Maybe one day when I am greatly affected by the strikes would I change my mind.

Happy Chinese New Year

I wish all who celebrate this day a happy chinese new year. May the year of the ox brings you health and prosperity.
I brought some snacks to work today and everyone loves it. Yeah, I work on this really important day. This year, we did not celebrate chinese new year. It is due to the fact that I am having back ache and both of us are feeling tired. Seb is down with a cold. Over the weekend, we had a friend over for lunch and I cooked lor-bak (braised meat). She liked it. Cool. I put in mushrooms, pork belly, hard-boiled eggs and fried beancurd. I learnt this dish when I was in uni from a guy friend. I don't remember his name but I remember very well this cooking lesson he gave me.
On Sunday, Seb's father came and helped us paint the baby's room. Guess no one would do that on a chinese new year's eve. I fried noodles and made my favorite mustard veggie with roasted meat soup. And my father-in-law liked it. A few months ago, I made this soup and gave some to my neighbour. She loved it so much that she asked for the recipe. I gave her the ingredients recently and she made it for her mom. This morning, she told me that her mom loved the soup too. Maybe I should go start a chinese mustard soup shop.
After reading about friends and family having steamboat, I think I will do an impromptu steamboat tonight. This will be considered as my way of celebrating chinese new year!

PS: photo of steamboat.

Yammy rice

I asked mom to buy me a bottle of yam rice paste the last time she came. It has been so long since I last had yam rice. Mom used to cook yam rice but I prefer those selling at some braised duck rice stalls in Singapore.

Last sunday, Seb and I went to Chinatown to do grocery shopping. As chinese new year is around the corner, the 13th district was full of asians. The traffic was messy with cars and humans all congesting along one street. I tried my best to grab the essentials and for the first time, I took a yam. I always thought it was difficult to clean yam but I was wrong. It was pretty easy. Below are the ingredients for the yam rice. Of course the rice was missing in the picture. There were the yam, some chinese mushrooms, dried shrimps and the yam paste.

And this is the end product. Though it did not look yummy, Seb liked it. And so did I. This is one easy one-pot meal. I only used up half the bottle of paste. I wonder if I could easily find yam in the supermarket here. If not, what can I use to subsitute the yam?

Snow in Paris

Two tuesdays ago, it snowed almost the whole day in Paris. After that, the temperature stayed below zero degree for a week. As a result of this, Paris was covered in white except on the roads where car pollution quickly melted the snow.

The pavements were slippery and I was extra careful when walking around with Nicole. We walked a lot during the four days she was here and I was really tired out each night. Still, I had a good time with her. We went shopping as it was and stil is the winter sales and I bought some baby clothes.

We took a stroll in the Jardin de Luxembourg. It was the first time I saw the garden covered in snow. How lovely. At the fountain nearby the Eligse Saint Sulpice, some kids were having fun "skating" on the frozen water.

We stopped by Coolin's for hot chocolate instead of beer this time before heading to les Galeries nationales du Grand Palais for the exposition of "Picasso et les Maîtres". I liked it. Picasso was really talented though I did not like all his works. This temporary exposition ends soon and I highly recommend it even if you are not into Picasso. Buy the tickets in advance as the ticket queue for actual day visit is long.

Musical saw

I am in my Korean cuisine phase and Seb is in his Jazz music phase. What better way to spend a friday evening with our friends than having a Korean dinner at Bibimbap with a mini Jazz concert.

Nicole was visiting me from Munich and had never had Korean food. Her friend Liz came along and the last time I saw Liz was 2 years ago. We had a good dinner and each of us ordered a bibimbap set. The Jazz music was alright. Sometimes, it got a bit too loud for us to talk.

We all discovered a new musical instrument for the first time. It was the musical saw. It produced a surreal sound and the musician was able to play music on the saw using what looked like a violin bow. It was pretty amazing. I enjoyed the evening and I would say the same for the rest of my company. Food wise, Seb prefers L'Arbre de Sel. I shall continue my quest for good korean food.

Manual torture

Yesterday we brought our car for servicing. Actually, I made a dent on the car 2 months ago when I accidentally hit on the kerb. The damage done was minimal but Seb insisted that we had it repaired. So, while the car was being repaired, we got a replacement car from the garage for the moment.
Boy, the replacement car was a small manual gear car and I am really rusty in driving such a car. It was scary and funny at the same time when I tried to put on the first gear and get the car moving. Since Seb's office was along the way, I had to drive him to work and then parked the car in my office parking. That is always a breeze with our automatic gear car.
When I left work to fetch Seb in the evening, I was mostly on gear 1 and 2. Good thing our offices were nearby but by the time I reached his office and he took over the wheels, I was having tummy ache. I guess I freaked out our unborn baby. Seb was telling baby that this is typical of mom's driving and he would understand when he is born. The car jerked too much from my 7 mins of driving especially at each changing of gear. Also, I was laughing so hard to myself in the car cos I felt as though I was brought back to my teenage days driving a daytona arcade game. This morning when I took over the wheels from Seb to come to office, I felt that I drove better than yesterday.
Still, both of us are so used to automatic car that we hope to have our car back soon.

Goodbye 2008

Today is the last day of 2008 and the office is really calm. Just a quick note to wish everyone a good year 2009 ahead.

Year 2008 has been good to us. Despite all the uncertainity of the financial world, we are not yet affected. Indeed, business is slower in almost all sectors. But Seb and I are blessed with good health and a new family member is in the making. That's what counts most.

For year 2009, there are many talks in the media that it will be a tough year. A french investor in New York had committed sucide due to the Madoff affair. That is such a shame. Even if one is bankrupt, it is not the end of the world. There are many people who are living in real poverty. Even if year ahead is tough, I pray that everyone will be able to brave through it.

Boxing day

Seb and I spent a good Christmas with Seb's family in Chartres. This year, I had to abstain myself from eating smoked salmon, oysters and unpasterised cheese. Things which I always look forward to feasting during this year end festival. Seb did not even drink any wine as he had to drive us home after the Christmas lunch. That was difficult for him as he saw the good wine passing under his nose.

Today, both of us did not work. Seb's office is closed and his company imposed a day off for everyone. As for my office, today is considered a holiday for us. So though I did not work, I did not have to take a day off like Seb.

We went Paris for a walk. I had prawn dumplings noodle soup at Mirama in Saint Michel. Mirama serves the best dumplings and roasted duck in Paris. Even Angel's colleague who had been to Paris a few times for work agreed with me when we first met a few weeks ago.

After that, we went Carrefour for grocery shopping. At Carrefour, I took the queue reserved for pregnant ladies and handicaps. This was the second time I did that. Most of the time, I joined the normal queue as the priority queue was often just as long as the normal ones. And on both occasions, I heard remarks from people behind me commenting that I was abusing the queue. I had to justify myself by replying that I was more than 3 months pregnant. With my little bump hidden under my winter coat, no one could tell I am 5 months pregnant. At church, without my coat, I was talking to someone new and she thought I was a student in Paris. I guess I should take that as a compliment. Anyway, I just had my monthly check up and baby is doing fine, weighing 550g. That is the most important thing.

Black rice vinegar and confinement

Angel was here on work trip recently and upon my mom's request, he helped me brought two bottles of black rice vinegar. Seb and I met up with him and his colleagues and we had a good dinner togather.

What is so special about this particular black rice vinegar? Well, Mom insisted that this is the only brand that I must eat during my confinement period. No other brand in Paris Chinatown will do. During the confinement period, it is necessary to eat lots of pig's trotters cooked in vinegar. I am not sure of the taste of this dish but since mom is such a good cook, I am sure I will enjoy it.

So what is confinement? This is something I explained to Seb long ago and recently explained to my mom-in-law and friends. It was never easy explaining and each time, I got bewildered eyes looking at me. Basically, confinement is something Singaporean women practiced for a month right after giving birth. Common practices include: No touching of water, no contact with wind, no heavy works, rest, rest and more rest.

I found two links that explained confinement really well. Mom will be my confinement lady; taking care of me. Since this will be her first time, I will negotiate with her to have showers every day!
http://www.babycenter.com.sg/pregnancy/asian-postnatal-practices/confinement-practices/

http://hubpages.com/hub/Asian-Post-natal-Practice-of-the-Confinement-Month