Summery spring time

Spring is here and usually we do get a week or two of freaking sunny days. However, it has been hot like summer since we come back from Singapore. People we know told us that the weather was good even while we were in Singapore. That makes it a total of 4 weeks of summery spring time.

The tourism industry is happy while the agriculture industry is worried. No rain means crops are not growing well. No fresh pasture for the cows and hay meant for winter is already being used.

The cherry and strawberry season is already here. Usually, it is in two weeks' time. I am not complaining cos we are enjoying this good dry, warm weather. It is easier to support the heat when there is no humidity unlike in Singapore.

2 sundays ago, we had a picnic with Anca and family at the park nearby our place. Last weekend, we were out again. Seb suggested a walk in the park of the Chateau de Chantilly. The drive up north took us about 30minutes. We took the double seater stroller as we predicted that toddler A1 would want to be carried and not walk. Our prediction came true. It took some coaxing and an afternoon snack for him to walk and not "koala bear" hug his dad.

The visit to the park is not free but I guess the money was put to good use as the lawns are well maintained. It is a lovely big park and we only cover less than a quarter of it. There are ducks in mating games and swans with their nests at the riverbank. This swan was protecting its 3 cygnets.

We enjoyed our little outing and everyone slept in the car on the way back except the driver, of course. Thanks Seb for the getaway.

On Sunday, we went to church and since it was another beautiful day, we decided to have lunch outside. We wanted to try something new other than those regular resturants we go to. After all, most of them are small eateries with limited space for stroller.

We headed for the 6th district of Paris as there are many brasseries (french traditional restaurants). We ended up at Le Petit Zinc as there was a table at the terrace with space for a stroller and in the menu, there was something vegeterian for Seb. It is never easy spotting vegeterian dishes in brasserie. The food was good and the wine Seb ordered was very good too. He had noted it down and we would definitely get some for home consumption. Even the service was good which was pretty rare in Paris.

I hope the good days continue to stay and it would rain at night while we are sleeping. I understand our farmers' plights and hope their harvests would not be too badly affected.

Ironies

Back to work and back to listening to news on the way to work.
Yesterday highlight was on a mother and her four teenage children found dead in their home. The father had disappeared and he was the main suspect. Another news was on a suicide case of an employee for France Telecom. He left behind a wife and four children. What an irony. 2 families broken up by deaths.
Suicide cases in France Telecom is not new. People who worked all their lives with France Telecom could not handle the pressure of change management. Some employees with Renault put an end to their lives too due to work stress.
If job is bad, just quit. Simple as that, isn't it?

SIA and Changi airport

When we arrived in Singapore, we were surprised to see at Changi Airport Terminal 3 this stroller service. We gladly put toddler A1 in it and chunked our hand luggage underneath the seat. It was such a great idea that I wish France CDG airport would implement it.
And I really appreciate Terminal 3 for being kids friendly. After checking in, we just wait around the playground while toddler A1 had his last fun in Singapore and me giving baby A2 his last milk feed.

Pleasant things did not just end there. The custom officer gave us a $5 beverage voucher when she saw that it was toddler A1's birthday. However, we just had dinner so I gave the voucher to the cleaning lady.

And Singapore Airlines presented us a birthday cake which we used as a belated celebration at home. Of course, you would have to inform SIA that you wish for a cake. ;) Thanks Diana for the tip but we did not have champagne offered.

Back from Singapore

2.5 weeks passed by in a wink of an eye. When we arrived in Singapore, Baby A2 took more than a week to sleep properly. He would sleep during the day time and not at night. Seb and I hardly had the energy to do much during the day. Only for the last week did I start to feel it was my holiday. We did however go on short outings like market for breakfast, going to the playground and to the swimming pool.

Toddler A1 enjoyed himself at the pool and playground. It was always difficult for him to leave the pool or the slides. At the food center, he discovered milo and drank it almost every morning.

We visited the zoo and toddler A1 just wanted his dad to carry him. Poor Seb. The weather was too hot for him and he had to carry his son.

But I think that toddler A1 had more interest in the animals this time round than many months ago at the Thoiry Zoo.

I tried to meet friends who contacted me. But most times, it was for a short period. I organised a BBQ and ended up having Tim and Carmen BBQing for us in the heavy rain. Poor them. Really appreciated their help. Despite the downpour, most people turned up and it was just great seeing old friends coming with their kids. I just wished I had more time for each.

Before leaving, we celebrated toddler A1's birthday. He turned 2. He is no longer a baby.

The flight back was uneventful. Someone got sick when we were nearing Paris and the plane had to do an emergency stop at Frankfurt. Toddler A1 did not want to sit for the landing and cried so much that he vomitted his morning milk. The medical team came onboard and sent the sick passenger to the hospital. We landed in Paris 4 hours late. The captain did update us regularly on the passenger's condition. She was out of danger as of last info.

This trip felt so short. With kids, we were just occupied with them. We are leaving for Chartres tomorrow to spend a night. Monday is Easter and there is the yearly chocolate egg hunt in the garden. After that, vacation is truly over. It is back to work!

The worse is finally over

Baby A2 had fever for 4 days and finally, the temperature was starting to get lower. Since my last post, we had sleepless nights over the weekend. Baby A2 had spots all over him. They were big and nasty and there was more spots than what toddler A1 had. Normally, fever was expected for 48 hours. But on monday, my poor baby was still running a fever and I took child sick leave to stay with him. We went to the doctor and she confirmed that it was a rare case. I think she meant serious too. When we consulted her on last wed, there was only a spot. Now, it was full blown.

She prescribed antibiotics among other medication for baby A2. He had to take them for 8 days. We were not even sure if we could still stick to our flight plans. We could fly only if his fever had subsided and no new spots appear. To be on the safe side, we would consult the doctor again on friday before taking the final decision if we fly the next day. It would be very obvious that my baby had chicken poxs though the spots were starting to dry up since yesterday.

My poor baby. He was in great agony over the weekend and it broke my heart. He won't want to stay in his bed or his bouncer. We had to take turns to carry him 24hours. It did not help to lower his temperature since we were passing our body heat to him. This little bundle of 6 months had suffered too much. I pray that he would be spare of pain for a long time to come. Teething not included.

Grounded

We are suppose to be on the plane heading to Singapore at this moment. However, baby A2 is having chicken poxs. All thanks to his brother who passed it to him. This is about the 5th day so it is still contagious. We postpone our trip by a week.
Seb and I are so looking forward to our vacation. But life with kids is full of surprises. So we just have to be patient for another week.
Toddler A1 is healing well. He have lots of spots all over his body but they are drying up slowly.
Baby A2 is starting to have lots of small spots on his head and body. We put mittens on him so that he would not scratch himself but he is not too happy about it.
We will have another few sleepless nights before heading to Singapore and hopefully get some rest since granny is more than happy to take care of the babies.
Counting down the week. . . . .

Ox tail soup

I first tried ox tail soup in Australia. My neighbour made this soup the malaysian style and it was delicious. He gave me the recipe and I did it a few times in Singapore. Only my dad and I appreciated it.

Since married and living in France, I had never do ox tail soup. Seb does not eat meat and it takes hours to stew the soup. But recently, I started to notice those ox tail in market and super market. As winter was coming to an end, I decided to make a small portion of ox tail soup. It would not be appropriate for summer.

I added in ginger, carrots, potatoes and califlowers. Just cook until the meat was tender. It was just as good as in my memories. Toddler A1 tried it and finished his lunch. Next winter, I will try to make this soup more often. By then, I won't be eating this dish alone and I hope my 2 boys will like it.

PS: This soup was made 2 weeks ago before toddler A1 got chicken pox. I won't dare to feed him this "heaty" soup while he had chicken pox.

Chicken pox

Sigh. Just 2 weeks before we head for Singapore and toddler A1 is down with chicken pox. I noticed a red dot on his tummy on friday and on saturday, during his music class, I noticed more dots on his neck. After his music class, we went to the doctor and confirmed that he had chicken pox. He would recover in 2 weeks time. But then, most likely baby A2 would have get it from his brother.
If baby A2 does get chicken pox before our departure, he would not be able to fly. We would have to wait until the spots dry up. So in either case, I have to go to the doctor the day before our departure. I need a certificat saying that toddler A1 is fit to travel. If baby A2 is sick, I would need a certificat saying that he cannot fly. This will allow us to change our flight dates free of charge.

That aside, toddler A1 is sleeping really badly these few days.His chicken pox is strong and there are marks all over him. He wakes up crying and scratching. My poor boy. Seb and I are like zombie now. Amazing that toddler A1 is still so active during the day.

So we won't know if we can fly next week until the last min as the incubation period of chicken pox is between 10 to 15 days. Still, we look on the bright side. It is better for him to suffer now than when he will be older.

Fresh peas

I'm always buying the same kind of vegetables. During winter, it started to be boring. So before leaving for the fresh market on Sunday, I asked Seb for some ideas. He mentioned green peas, french beans and mushrooms. What new ideas. Usually I just opened a can of green peas. I had never bought fresh ones.

I was glad to find all the above vegetables he mentioned at the market.


After his lunch, Toddler A1 was happily helping me to remove the peas from the pods. It occupied him for a good half hour while I finished my lunch.
For dinner, we had fresh peas and mushroom for dinner. The peas tasted much better than frozen or canned ones.

Tulips at home

I received a bunch of tulips from my upstairs neighbour as I invited her over for brunch on sat. We often crossed each other and she would ask about the kids. She had never seen baby A2. Due to her busy schedule, we finally managed to settle on a date. I also invited Nadia, my next door neighbour and M. Jules from the last floor. It was a good gathering.

I was not a fan of tulips as I thought they won't last long in a vase. But surprisingly, they looked good and were still standing straight after 2 days. I'm happy to have them at home and might buy a bunch the next time I chanced upon such fresh ones.

Life's routine

Can't believe that it is already March. For the past two months, we had settled into a nice routine. Each morning, toddler A1 wakes up at 5am. It is his bio clock and we can do nothing about it. Either he manages to doze off or Seb would give him his milk bottle. With luck, toddler A1 would fall asleep until around 6.30am. By then, baby A2 would wake up for his milk feed. I would start to prepare for work and leave the house by 7.15am. I start work at 8am.

Seb would take care of the 2 boys until Ai Yi comes at 9am. She is usually early which means Seb zooms off on his scooter and reaches office by 9.15am. Ai Yi takes good care of the 2 boys and we can tell as toddler A1 would rush to the corridor to greet her when she presses on the inter-phone. Baby A2 breaks into a smile when he sees her.

At 6pm, I would be home and Ai Yi updates me about the happening of the day. She notes down everything too but in chinese so it is really just meant for me. I would update Seb when he comes home. During the day, Ai Yi prepares the meals for toddler A1, plays with them, change them, bath them, do their laundry, educate them. She cleans up after toddler A1's mess. If she has extra time, she could vacum or even mop the floor. We always return to a neat home. But after she leaves, within 15 mins, toddler A1 would be messing up the living room or his playroom again.

Seb comes home after 7pm. I would cook diner for us with toddler A1 standing on a stool "helping" out. I invited him once and am now stuck with this routine. Now, he would rush to the hall and push the stool to the kitchen when I start cooking. Baby A2 would be in his bouncer watching us patiently. He loves to watch his brother. Once diner is prepared, we would stay in the living room and entertain ourselves silly with music, books or the laptop until Seb returns.

On the days when I am not working, I would bring the kids to the park if it is sunny. With Ai Yi, toddler A1 has a routine. But with me, it just does not work. He does not want to nap with me around. Once he dozed off on his high chair while having his afternoon snack. He was too tired to resist. We were talking to my mum on skype and she witnessed it direct. Just way too funny.

By 8.30pm, toddler A1 has his evening milk feed (he loves milk and milk products) and Seb would put him to bed. We would relax a little until the last milk feed for baby A2 between 9.30pm to 10.30pm. Then lights out!

There are evenings when Lukas would be at our place or toddler A1 at his place for some play time togather. We would miss our neighbour very much when he moves in 3 months time.

Many people wonder how we cope without family help around and with 2 young kids. We survive. I admit that having a good nanny is a luxury as we can have peace of mind at work.

Je t'aime, moi aussi.

During the day, I sent an e-card to Seb. I sent it to an email address that he hardly consulted as I did not want him to get spam mails (advertising) in his personal email. When we spoke over the phone in the afternoon, I told him to go check out his mail box. That's how unsurprising and unromantic I am.

In the evening, once out of the office parking, I saw 2 men carrying roses. I quickly called up Seb. The conversation went like this:
"Hey, don't buy me flowers."
"Trop tard."
"Oh." I felt disappointed but rapidly, very happy.
"Why?"
"Because they are very expensive."
"Is it?"
"It's ok. I love you" and I started laughing in delight.

Girls are girls! I don't want to spend my hubby's money as price of roses are rocket high today yet I feel so good to get a dozen of roses on Valentine's day. The marketing trick is really getting into us!

8 years of marriage has made him more romantic and me more practical.

O'Kari hammam

For our wedding anniversary last year, Seb offered me a hammam treatment with a massage included. Hammam is turkish bath.

I finally found the time to go relax on Sat while Seb took care of the boys. The 4 hours treatment was great. This was the first time I tried hammam. I was expecting some privacy but it turned out to be an open space. Good thing it was small and cozy with only 4 "workstations". A friend told me that the hammam she went to in Morocco was too crowded for her. There were like 60 women at the open space all chatting away at the same time.

I enjoyed the steam bath and found it more pleasant than sauna. I had 2 exfoliations; one with black soap based on olive oil. It felt weird at first to have someone scrubbing away but I got used to it quickly. There was also a wrap with some nourishing natural herbs. Rose water was used on my hair and it smelt so good. To end it off, there was a relaxing massage. So relaxing that I fell asleep and did not want to leave.

When I finally left O'Kari, I checked my watch. 3hours and 45minutes had passed so quickly. I wished I had stayed 15mins extra. After all, it was supposed to be a 4hours hammam treatment. Personally, I never thought of trying hammam as I would prefer a good traditional massage to tense out those stiff shoulder muscles. For the price, I could go on a short weekend trip or gotten a new leather bag. Still, I enjoyed myself and I thanked my kind husband for giving me such a sweet surprise. And what did I get him for our anniversary? Gee... A jazz CD. I will try to do better for this year.

The birth rates

The latest statistics are out.

The birth rate of Singapore stands at 1.16, lowest in Singapore history.

The birth rate of France increases from the year before and stands at 2.02.


Read here
http://www.littlespeck.com/content/people/CTrendsPeople-110122.htm
and here
http://journalde.blogs.nouvelobs.com/archive/2009/02/09/france-leads-europe-in-birth-rates.html

I contributed to France in 2009 and 2010. If we were in Singapore, would I have 2 kids by now? This is a tough question. Singapore is indeed more competitive (leading to more work stress and less family time?) but my mum who is in Singapore is so readily to help take care of the kids. For sure, we would have 1 kid.

Some reasons cited by Singaporeans for not wanting kids or just having a kid are valid reasons for us too. Seb and I work, we have no family living near us, we can't afford a live-in maid (there's min wages in France and it's about 8€ per hour; go do your maths). To give our best to our kids, it is hard but possible for us; just like many other french parents out there. We have a nanny to take care of the 2 boys at home while we are at work. We organise our outings and time mangement according to the needs of our children. We are both very tired since a few months but we are satisfied as we are involved 100% in our kids' lives. We see them everyday. We feed them and put them to sleep ourselves. Baby A2 is sleeping thru' most nights. It will only get better.

For the mentality of Singaporeans to change, they should not look at child rearing as a chore. I said that because a few of my Singaporeans friends and relatives and even my mum commented that it must be really hard for me to take care of my young children alone without help. With so much consolation from them, I started to doubt my capability and felt stress up the first 2 weeks with my children alone. But soon, I realised that it was not that difficult at all. It was a joy doing nothing and just taking care of their needs, watching them play and pass the day happily. Housework can be done later when they sleep, nap. Having a dryer (I hate to hang clothes and over here, it is not allowed), dish washer ease my task. Having a hands-on father is an extra!

I am looking forward to spring so that I can bring the kids to the park more often. Toddler A1 has unlimited energy and baby A2 is starting to be curious to his surroundings.

The iPad

Came across this article and it was really true in our case.
Children learning computer skills before life skills
Toddler A1 knows how to use his dad's iPad better than me. He could go to YouTube and select "Sesame Street" videos to watch. Or he could go to iTunes and select the Barbapapa videos to watch. He could adjust the volume, pause the video, and when I told him we had to switch it off, he knew which button to press. Gosh. I did not even know where was the "On/Off" button. I thought it was that round button at the bottom of the screen.
And when Toddler A1 watched videos on my laptop, he would touch the screen hoping to pause or change video. I had to tell him that my laptop was not a touch screen.
An iPad is really a child's play compared to computers. However, great supervision is necessary when kids are online. I feel that computers are more dangerous than television. Harmful materials are just a click away.
Seb and I do hope that we would be mindful and not take it for granted that toddler A1 could learn life skills by himself.

The horror of French public services

I had been restraining myself from writing the horror stories of the French public services regarding the foreigners department. Whenever I need to get my papers updated, I would normally spent a whole day(or sometimes more) at the office and I would have to take days off as the public services are not open on saturdays.

For my mom's stay, Seb had to queue up as early as 5am in the cold just to get an appointment, sumbit papers and documents, resumbit some documents (note: they always asked for more papers than what was written on the internet or communicated over the phone), collect my mom's 'long-stay' card etc. We would join Seb when the office opened at 9am. It could take hours before one reached the reception desk since each person had to provide the motive and necessary documents before given a ticket. There was only a staff. Each interview could take 5 mins. There would be around 50 people before us. Yeah, there were people who camped overnight. They took the last Metro as they had no cars. Remember, this was the foreign department we were talking about and usually, the foreigners were low-skill workers. Low-skill = low pay = no car. Low-skill work also meant that if they did not work, they were not paid.

Once, we arrived at the reception desk and it was already noon. As we had an appointment, we were given a ticket. The people behind us were told to come back the next day as all tickets were given out. They could only process a certain number of requests a day. The lady behind us told me that it was the second day she was there and this time, she queued since 6am. She already had a loss of income of 2 days and a whole day of queueing wasted. Poor lady. There were many other people like her.

As mentioned earlier, I preferred not to write about such things as I had become a fatalist. In the beginning, I compared the public services here with that of Singapore which is easy and fast. Now, I decided to accept things as they are in France. France has its positive points and overall, I am contented with this country.

So, what makes me begin this post. I rattle on more than I like to. It's because of the French passports. Seb and baby A2 made their passports 3 weeks ago. We went on a weekday morning and waited for like 2 hours before everything was done. As we waited, we heard people being told to come back the next day as there was insufficient staff to process the passport applications. It was only noon then. Seb went to collect the passports last week and there were mistakes in both passports! Seb's family name was spelt wrongly. The address in both passports had mistakes and they were not even identical. They had to be redo and the system was down that day. So Seb had to go back another day to resumbit the applications. Another few hours to be wasted. Worse of all, this is costing the government money and these are the tax payers' money. Gosh. This is what got me started with this post. I better stop here now. Nothing, nothing goes well with the public service here. If we managed to get something done fast and correct with the public services, it was really a miracle.

No period.

Toddler A1 is at his "no" period(phase). Everything he says is "No" period(fullstop)!
This is somewhat getting me on my nerves.

Example: He was on the high chair.
Are you hungry? No.
Do you want to eat? No.
So, you are not hungry? No.
You want to come down? No.
You want to stay in your chair? No.

Then the dad asked in French: 'You want to be an astronaut?' He paused and stared at us.
I added 'You want chocolate?' 'Yes', came the reply. So he did process our questions in his mind.

There were days he refused to eat and sometimes, he said no during mealtime and yet put the food in his mouth. Even at nights, we heard him crying 'No' in his sleep. Poor boy.

We read that this is a common behavior for toddlers and it usually ends by the age of 3 years. Gosh. We will have to endure this on/off periods of "No"s for another year. Or maybe more as some friends told us.

Oyster knife

Happy new year everyone. 2011 is here. How fast.

Over the Christmas lunch, I had 6 yummy oysters. I only had oysters during Christmas as I only trust the oysters bought by my in-laws. I had once been very sick after eating fresh(?) oysters in Singapore.

Yesterday, while shopping for our new year eve's dinner at the supermarket, I decided to get half a dozen of fresh oysters. I had this oyster knife since many years but never used it yet.

So, for the first time, I had to open the oysters by myself since only I eat them in this home. Seb won't help cos' he did not know how. But me too! It was not as difficult as I thought. It was pretty easy once you find the opening. I am proud of myself. Something to add to my list of skills before the year ends. (LOL. As if this skill is important. )

Au revoir, big comfy sofa bed.

OK. The photo did not do justice to this sofa bed. The cover was all winkled as it had been folded and left under the bed for a long time. 10 months to be exact. But the mattress itself was thick and it made a really comfortable bed.

Now that mum had left, we would like to get rid of this sofa bed for good to make space. The space would provide the kids a corner of their own. Yeah, we were tired of having to pick up toddler A1's toys in the living room each evening after putting him to bed. We needed our own living (room) space.

This sofa bed had come a long way. It was Seb's bed during his balchelor's days. As I said, the mattress was still in top condition so throwing it away felt like such a waste. I decided to put up a notice at http://www.recupe.net/. I mentioned before that we could donate anything at this site.

Once the notice was up, I received more than 10 demands right away. It was amazing. Some wrote short while others shared their personal situations. There were single mum, student, man quitting his parents' place for a new job etc. I did not give it to the first demand I received but instead replied positively to the third demand who said that she had no luck in getting anything since 6 months. Well, she would come tomorrow to pick up the sofa.

So a good deed done and Seb did not even have to carry the sofa out to the streets to dump it. Now, I wonder how we would decorate the kids' space. Seb would like to turn it into a cosy reading corner with cushions while I opted for a carpet with roads printed for the boys to play cars. Something like this from Ikea. Maybe I will post a photo of the end result.

X'mas time soon

Galleries Lafayette. I think the Christmas magic is really strong here. I just love the decorations of Galleries Lafayette. And each year, the window displays attracted many kids.

This sunday morning, Seb will bring toddler A1 to view the famous window displays of animated toys. I hope it won't be too crowded as it could be dangerous for kids.

Christmas will be here soon and the weather is really cold this year. We may even experience a white christmas in Paris itself. That's so rare. As usual, we shall spend Christmas in Chartres. Stay tune to see what the babies get for Christmas.

A saturday evening

I stop by here to write a post before shopping online for an iron.

Saturday evening. . . . Seb brought toddler A1 to the circus. Tickets were offered by his company as X'mas gift to the employees' children. Toddler A1 might be too young for the 2 hours show but the lions performance would only be out after the pause. I do hope toddler A1 gets to enjoy it cos he loves lions. When we show him the lion in his books, he would go 'Grrrr...' with his head tilted backwards and mouth opened wide.

Me, I stayed at home with baby A2. I pushed the coffee table towards the TV furniture and placed the ironing board before the sofa. Baby A2 was in his bouncer and I multitasked; watching TV (the Simpsons in French :( ), talking to baby A2, leg shaking the bouncer, hands ironing Seb's shirts. I was going into my 4th shirt when the iron died. Hm.....

So here I am. Taking a break. Sitting on the sofa with laptop on my lap, watching TV (variety show 'Les annees bonheur' by Patrick Sebastien), leg still on the bouncer, drinking a cup of tea. Once I leave the room, baby A2 would cry. Once he sees me, he smiles. Finally, he is getting responsive.

OK. Back to serious business now. Mission: buy new iron. I would need it by wed as I had only ironed 3 shirts. Nowadays, I buy almost everything online. Even the washing machine. How convienent. I have 30 minutes to find a new iron before the next feed of baby A2.

Big revamps in our lives

Over the weekend, it snowed in Paris. This is not very usual for beginning of Dec. The snow did not stay as it rained after. However, it did snow heavily and my balcony had a layer of snow. It was a beautiful sight from the living room but I think my flowers had froze to death.

Baby A2 is getting better. Despite the cold, we had to bring him for theraphy sessions to clear his lungs. I'm glad that after 2 sessions, we were told that he was in the pink of health. For the next months, we would keep ourselves warm at home and avoid outdoors unless necessary.

With baby A1 at the childcare, there are some organisations to be done. Seb brings him to childcare and in the evening, my neighbour, whose son is also at the child care would help me to bring back baby A1. I won't have to take baby A2 with me to pick up his brother. This arrangement would last for these 2 weeks. After which, Seb would be on his 11 days of father's leave. Yeah, another work benefit in France.

Then comes the new year. Major changes would occur come 2011. We were disappointed that baby A2 did not have a place at the childcare. So the best decision for us was to pull baby A1 out of childcare and enaged a nanny. We found a chinese nanny who would come to take care of the 2 boys at home. She would speak chinese to them. She would work every weekday except wed and alternate friday.

For me, I will stop working full time. By law, yeah, another work benefit in France, I can reduce my work hours to 80% and get some financial help from the governement. This means I get to spend every wed and alternate fridays at home with my boys. The loss of income is about 10% after aids from govt which ends on the third birthday of the last child.

France is really a social country. I just realised that with 2 kids,I get about 120€ from the govt each month. I did not realise this until I checked my bank account a few days ago. The amount increased with the number of kids. No wonder some people just keep having babies to get this aid.

At the moment, I'm on maternity leave until 20 Dec but I decided to start work on 2011. After all, I still have 5 weeks of leave. I hope to be fresh for year 2011. I'm just exhausted now and nursing a cold. Hopefully, I won't pass it to the babies.

He is back in hospital

Baby A2 got bronchiolitis and was hospitalised since monday. His condition is not serious. As he is so young, he is kept in the hospital for observation. Still, it is tedious for us. Seb's mom is helping to take care of baby A1 while I spend the day by baby A2's side. As the hospital is nearby Seb's workplace, he would come to visit during lunch time. For the night, we take turns to sleep over. Seb would shower at the hospital before going to work the next day. Today is my turn to sleep at home.

We are keeping our cool. We got to know the doctors and nurses there and know that baby A2 is in good hands. Still, with the extreme cold weather, I would prefer the whole family to be cozy at home. I wonder when the little guy will be back home. The prediction was a week to 10 days.

We are not alone. We see so many other babies just as young who were admitted for the same problem. Gosh, babies are so fragile during winter.

Mom's the best

Though I'm a mother now, the title of this post is not about me. I'm referring to my mother. She is really the best. We always have a good relationship togather and for the past 10 months, I appreciated her much more than before.

She readily dropped her social life and family and business to come to take care of her grandchildren. She did not speak any french; knew no one else here than us; yet, she was brave enough at this age to take this big step. She always put her family before all else.

10 months passed so fast and now she is back in Singapore. I want to thank her for all the things she had done for us; especially her love for babies A1 and A2. She had more engergy than me. It is amazing what she had accomplished and even her friends were telling her that they would not have done what she had done. I love my mum.

He is back with us

Thank you my friends for your kind concern. Baby A2 is back home since yesterday evening. His fever was down and doctor confirmed it was a virus but could not identify what virus. We are so happy to be togather as a family again.
Got to go catch some sleep now.

I hate Nov

At this time, I should be resting and sleeping but somehow I just could not. Instead of choosing to watch TV, I decided to take 5 mins to write this down. Maybe that will help me to go to bed easier.

I had spent the last 2 nights at the hospital staying by baby A2's side. He had fever and it was worrying since he was less than 2 months old. It started on tuesday when he had fever of 38.2°C. At the hospital, he had his blood drawn thrice. His urine and stools were examined. He had a lumbar puncture done. But all test results did not show up any virus or bacteria.

Poor boy was in great discomfort and Seb and I took turns to be by his side. His tempertaure had not stablised and this morning even shot up to 38.9°C.

Last year this time, baby A1 spent 5 nights at the hospital. This time round, it's his little brother. I hate Nov. I pray that baby A2 will recover soon.

5 mins up. It's time I go to bed and try to get to sleep. Let's hope that we can have our baby home with us tomorrow.

Charms

When I was pregnant the first time, I requested from Seb to offer me a token of appreciation based on the birth weight of baby A1. Baby A1 was 3kg340g and I had 334€ as the gift. With this, I bought a ring with a quartz gemstone and a few charms from Agatha. The theme was based on baby and I got a milkbottle, a boy and a rocking horse charms. These gifts should last forever and are of great sentimental values to me.

When baby A2 was borned, we continued with tradition. He weighed 3kg100g at birth. With my new gift amount, I added 2 more charms; a diamond ring and a letter A to complete my bracelet. I will most probably shop for a pair of pearl earrings to use up what's left of the cash.

If you are interested in Agatha's charms, you can create your own at its website.

Sleeping arrangement

A few months before the arrival of little brother, we bought a junior bed from Ikea for the big brother. Though he was only 16months old, we decided to make him sleep in the junior bed instead of buying another baby bed for the little brother. The little brother would instead be sleeping in the existing baby bed.

We installed the junior bed but big brother did not want to sleep in it. It took him a month before he slowly accepted sleeping in it. Now, he had no problem sleeping in it. I think he knew the advantage of sleeping in the big bed. He could get out of the bed early in the morning and came looking for us in our room. In the baby bed, he would have to wait for us to come get him. We no longer needed to set the alarm clock as we could hear big brother getting off his bed and walking along the corridor at 6.30am or sometimes earlier.

For little brother, I decided not to put him in the baby bed yet. The 2 boys would be sharing a room and since little brother cried so often as all new borns do, I did not want him to disturb his older brother’s sleep. I rented a maternity baby bed for a month. We could easily move the baby anywhere we want. Furthermore, we could see the baby through the transparent cot.

Another week and little brother would be a month old. I'm hoping that the 2 boys would sleep well when they are both in the same bedroom.

The birth story

The day before he arrived, we were at Jardin de Plantes in Paris. On the way home, the usual 30mins drive became 2hours due to massive traffic. Saturday evening traffic in Paris was horrible. That was when the contractions started. On Sunday early morning, the contractions continued and became regular at 5 minutes interval at around 3.30am. I called my mid-wife, Adela and she said to go to the clinic and she would join us there. We arrived at 4.30am and Adela examined me. She prepared the labour room and at 5am, my obstetrician arrived. By 5.10am, the baby was out. Adela knew that I would like to have a natural birth and we worked towards it throughout my pregnancy. I was really pleased that the birth turned out as I wanted. No epidural or complications. So it was really true what people said about first delivery being long and subsequent ones would be faster. But neither Seb nor I expected it to be that fast.

I thank God for answering my prayers. Adela, my mid-wife was great. She knew that my first delivery was long and difficult. She did her best to ensure that I would get what I wrote in my first birth plan. I did not even bother to do a birth plan for this second one.

If you are looking for a mid-wife in the Parisian area, let me know. You won't be disappointed with Adela.

The wait is over

My second boy had arrived on sunday. He weighed 3kg100g and was 48cm. He arrived at the same term as his older brother; 39 weeks + 2 days.

Baby boy's name starts with an A, like his older brother. So I guess I have to call my Baby A, Baby 1 and this new born, Baby 2.

As usual, we engaged the services of Adela, my mid-wife and Dr Sabban, my obstetrician. I stayed at Sainte Isabelle Clinique as I enjoyed the service there for Baby 1. This time round, I took the suite since the room was entirely paid by my mutuelle. The rate was like that of a superior room in a 5 star hotel in Paris. Very expensive. The suite was spacious. I should have done that for my first stay instead of opting for the single room.

I stayed 3 nights there and though the food was alright, I longed for kebah and sushi. Seb delighted me with the best sushi he knew in Paris. (That was when he was still eating fish.) The fish were really fresh. I guess I had more craving for food than when I was pregnant.

We are all home now and as usual, mum is doing confinement for me. I can hardly wait for the confinement period to be over so that I can be FREE. Mum is not that strict but still, confinement is confinement!

Baby 1 takes well to Baby 2 and even kissed him. Baby 2 is adorable so far. Not a fussy baby. Or maybe because this baby business is not new to us, we are less stress up.

Oh yeah, when I was at the clinic, I met a nurse who did an internship at KK Hospital in Singapore. She knew about the confinement practise and we discussed a little. She was surprised to have a patient from Singapore and asked if my mum was going to sleep with me at night. I told her that my french husband would never allow that.

Waiting game updates

It has been almost 5 weeks since I am on maternity leave and I am still waiting patiently for baby number 2. In the first 3 weeks, I was told to rest tranquille and not move too much. Since 2 weeks, I had the go ahead to move as much as possible as we would like the baby to arrive way before term. In the hope for a short labour unlike for baby A's, the medical team (my obstetrician and mid-wife) would like me to give birth earlier. This was to avoid having a big baby. Baby A was 3.340kg and considered big for my petite frame.

So since 2 weeks, I had been active. When Baby A was at the child care, mum and I went to market, supermarket just to jalan jalan. During the weekend, we took walks in Paris. And with baby A around, we brought him to parks. He could have so much fun even in a small area of greenery. He is going to be 17 months soon and weighs about 10.7kg. Most of the time, he is happy. It is always a joy to watch him discovering new things.

Here, we were at a park nearby Anca's place. He had fun at the small playground and played for a long, long time.

Baby number 2 is very active in me. Whenever we asked baby A "Where's Didi (younger brother)?", he would sayang my tummy. Very sweet. Now, I'm just waiting for contractions. The whole family is so eager to see him and each day, we receive enquires asking if he has arrived. :) Soon, I hope.

Home made rice wine

Mum made some home made rice wine. It was easy to do it. Just need to prepare them in advance as it took about a month to yield about a bottle of wine. This wine is to be used for confinement recipes purposes. So far, she had made about 3 bottles. Just waiting to use it anytime soon.

Hoping that second baby comes anytime now.

What's cooking, mother?

I have been staying at home since a few weeks and have been enjoying home cooked food for almost all meals. Mum is amazing. Though I miss Singapore local food, I am often too laid-back to dish them up. But not my mum. Just make a wish and she would dish it up in no time. Of course, I have to drive her to Chinatown to get the ingredients.

So, we already had fried mee hoon with congee for breakfast.

Mum made char siew and then a few dumplings.And ended up, we had wan ton noodles for lunch.

Yong Tau Foo, my all time favorite. Mum diced up the chicken meat and stuffed the veggies and tofu with it. Really really delicious.

All these above food and others stuff she made can be acquired easily in Singapore. But over here, these are gourmets for me!

Singapore population tops five million

Singapore population is growing really fast.
I remembered that 10 years ago, 1 in 4 people in Singapore was a foreigner.
Now, the ration stands at 1 in 3.

Read this and this.

I doubt it will ever be 1 in 2 but 1 in 3 is really a high ratio. Living in France, this does not affect me but I wonder how does it affect the Singapore-born locals there. Any insights from you?

Figs

It is the season of figs. In France, I only saw violet colored figs and today is the first time I came across fresh green figs.

We bought some and these green ones were better than the violet ones. My mum is so in love with it that she would like to pack a box back home in January. But I doubt we can find fresh ones then. Better to enjoy them right now while they last.

Back in Singapore, she would have to settle for those dried figs.

Waiting game

I had stopped work since a week and am just waiting patiently for baby 2 to arrive. At the same time, I was nursing a very bad cough. It was so bad that I could not sleep at night and my ribs hurted when I coughed. My doctor was on holiday and his replacement could not gave me any treatment out of precaution. I was given a throat spray and some honey sweets. After more than a week, I went to see another doctor and this time round, he gave me anti-biotics for my inflammation throat. It had been 3 days since I started my treatment and I felt much better.
Baby 2 should be arriving by end of Sept. I had already packed his bag. Just another month to go. Patiently waiting for his arrival and hoping baby A will accept him fine.

We have big heads.

I had my third offical ultrasound scan last friday. This scan was to check the position of the baby and his measurements in order to determine if he would be a big or small baby at term.
Comparing with baby A's statistics at his third scan, baby A's brother was growing at the same rate as him. Everything about him was in the norm. His head circumference was however in the higher percentile. Baby A's head circumference was 36cm at birth. The delivery was not easy.

The sonographer explained that this could be due to genetics. She then took out a measuring tape and measured our heads. She took out her charts and confirmed that we were both in the 97th percentile. Seb and I both had big heads. It was not that obvious to the naked eyes and since we hardly bought hats, we never checked on the measurements.

Many months ago, I bought a cap size 12months from Petit Bateau for baby A. When he was a year old, I tried the cap on him. It was too small. I thought then that Petit Bateau had made a mistake in its label. Well, now I know better.

If you are interested to know if you have big heads, here's a link with the chart.

In the scan report, the sonographer added "head circumference: contexte familial".
I never thought that big heads could have bother me so much. I would prefer to have bigger feet so that it is easy for me to buy shoes!

Appeal to women to take caution when they choosing a man as their husband.

I happened to surf to PAP's website and saw this interesting headline:
CALL TO WOMEN TO TAKE MORE CAUTION WHEN CHOOSING HUSBANDS

However, the article was discussing about ways to tackle ex-husbands who do not provide maintenance payment to their ex-spouses and children. So did Cynthia Phua meant for us women to be careful when choosing husbands in general. But she did not provide what sort of cautions we should take. After reading the article, I thought she meant for us women to be extra careful when choosing a divorced man as husband. Or maybe never to take a divorced man who did not support his ex-family as husband.

Singapore is really a nanny state. We ladies even have to be told to take MORE caution when choosing husbands. That's what any mothers would say to their daughters isn't it?

In France, I understood that if a man did not support his ex-family as decree by law, the ex-wife could lawfully impose the ex-husband's company to transfer that sum of money from his salary to her account. That was what I heard and needed to be confirmed. Maybe I could suggest that to PAP.

How did he do it?

3 days ago, the weather station in baby A's room set off its alarm at 6am. The next day, it happened again. Somehow, baby A had managed to activate the alarm while playing with it. How he did it, I have no idea. We have the weather station (similar to this one) for years and I never bother with the alarm function. Seb finally figured out how to deactivate the alarm function yesterday night and he put it by his bedside this night as a precaution. He was the one who went into baby A's room each morning to switch off the alarm.

And this morning at 12am, we heard another alarm. Seb woke up but could not find the source. This morning, my mum told me that it was the alarm from the sliding world time calculator. It was a corporate gift from my previous company and it was always on the computer table. Yesterday, baby A played with it. Somehow, he set on the alarm function and by default, the alarm went off at 12am. My mum said she had to put the calculator under her pillow cos she did not know how to turn it off. I took 5 minutes this morning to figure out how to deactivate the alarm function. This was something that I never use.

Baby A had already played with phones and laptops and computers and had sometimes given us trouble. With the phone, he had called Seb's colleagues and my brother. He woke up my brother at 2am Singapore time and I got an email from Tim the next day. Oops. I deleted the neighbourhood police number from the phone in any case. With the computers, he had done things that we never knew existed. Magnifying the screen of Seb's laptop and giving his dad a hard time looking for his icons and putting the default settings back.

I hope that this night, we won't be awaken by any alarm any more.

So french and so singaporean

1. Riots, riots again.
2. Strikes, strikes non-stop.
3. Flooding in Singapore a common sight.

1. Grenoble, France. An armed robber was killed by the police during action. He had fired at the police first. What happened next was beyond me. Riots! In the suburbs Grenoble, people started to attack police vehicles and set cars on fire. The girlfriend of the killed robber had filed a complaint for the murder of her partner.

Saint-Aignan, France. A man in a car crashed thru' a police roadblock and was shot dead. Again, there were riots. Cars were set on fire, a city hall was set on fire, police station and shops were attacked.

Lost lives are never easy to accept especially for families and friends of the deceased. However, there is no need for material destructions. There are other canals of venting. I am not even sure how many of those trouble makers are real friends of the deceased.

2. Paris, France. Air traffic controllers were on strike 2 days ago. This had interrupted many holiday makers who were travelling during this summer holiday period. They were on strike over a plan to unify European airspace. This would affect their job status as public servants.

Pharmaciens were on strike a few weeks ago to protest against . . . . I had no idea and did not look up. Just heard it over the radio.

More strikes are forecasted for September. Students are going on strike due to increase charges for university entries; unions are organising massive strikes against the retirement age of 62.

3. Singapore, Singapore. It was amazing watching the videos of Orchard Road being flooded. Not once but a few times in recent months. In the videos, people were just patiently watching the rain and flowing water at the entrance of shopping malls. How could this happen in Singapore, I asked. Like everyone else. Yet, the Minister Mentor said that "Singaporeans expect everything to be perfect ". Who won't when the govt has a perfect income?

If he had said that to the French, would there be another riot or strike?

Flower arrangements

When we were at Brittany the last time, we visited a flower exhibition. Here are a few flower arrangements displayed for your viewing pleasure.

Summer sales is here

The summer sales is here. What are the damages to my wallet so far. . . . . .
I bought some summer maternity clothes from H&M Maman but all of them except for a 3/4 length pants were new collection. Thus, no discount.

Also got 2 Longchamps Pliage bags at half prices. A document bag and a big travelling bag. Of course there were not much choice of colors.
That's about it for me.
For Baby A, I bought some bodies from Petit Bateau, clothes from Absorba and Vertbaudet. I got some pyjamas and day wear for baby A from Vertbaudet and was surprised when paying that an extra 20% discount was given for more than 4 items bought. It was really a bargain.

As baby A was starting to walk and everyone stressed on the importance of having a good pair of walking shoes, I bought 2 pairs of Kickers for baby A. One for autumn and one for winter. Seb paid for them and though there were 30% discount, he was shocked by the price of such small shoes.
I really like the soles of these little shoes. They are cute, aren't they?
I think I am done with this sale. I am looking forward to the winter sales where I hope to get some bargains on clothes for myself and for the second baby.

Parc de Thoiry

Last Saturday, we went to the Thoiry zoo. It is famous for its safari drive through.
When we reached the safari, we took baby A out of his car seat and granny put him on her lap. The little boy was more intrigued by the fact that he was out of the car seat and started to explore the car. He was not interested with the animals roaming around. He even wanted to come to the driver's seat and Seb put him on his lap. Bad decision as baby A started to touch all the buttons. We had to put him back in his car seat despite his protests and only then, he started to be aware of the animals around him. Still, he was too young for this.
After the drive through, we visited the other part of the zoo by foot. The big attractions were the lions. A big glass tunnel allowed us to see these big cats up close and personal. In the ticket, it included a small palace for visitation. Nothing much special and in 15 minutes time, my mum and I were done visiting while Seb fed baby A his afternoon milkfeed.
I did enjoy the safari though I would still prefer Singapore's Zoo and Night Safari. Hopefully, baby A will appreciate it when we bring him to the Singapore zoo next year.

Munich again

I just realised that the last time we visited Munich was almost 4 years ago. Wow. Time flies. We spent 4 days over the long weekend to visit Nicole and celebrated her birthday.

The weather was great and at times too hot. This time round, we flew there. Once everyone was settled on the packed plane, the pilot announced that a technical problem had to be fixed before we could fly. It took 2 hours for the repairs to be done and during this time, no one could leave the plane because we were in the middle of no where. We took a bus to get to the plane. No other plane was available and some passengers were complaining as flights between Paris-Munich catered mainly to business purposes.

Baby A fell asleep once the plane started moving. He woke up only when we landed. My fear that he would have ear pressure due to altitude changes were unfound. At Munich, Nicole and her dad came and fetched us. We had a late lunch prepared by Nicole's mum before heading back to our hotel to freshen up. Baby A enjoyed exploring their home and even played with Nicole's childhood toys.

In the evening, we had dinner at Ratskeller's in the city hall's court yard. The next day, we celebrated Nicole's birthday at the Beergarden in the English Garden. During this trip, we visited the uptown, the Residenz Musuem and the Tresury Musuem. Seb had a great time browsing thru' the huge collection of Jazz and Classical CDs in Ludwig Beck and of course trying to be reasonable in his purchaes.

As the FIFA World Cup was going on, we watched in a beergarden the live broadcast of Germany against England on Sunday. Germany won and the atmosphere was great. Baby A entertained himself with the pebbles on the ground.

As this was not our first time in Munich, we were cool with this trip. No rushing, no plans. Just leisure. Still, we were dead tired at the end of each day. It was not easy to travel with a baby who just walked and me being pregnant. Baby A did not want to eat baby food jars and throughout the trip, we shared our meals with him. We ordered food in function of what Baby A could eat. One thing for sure, he loves bretzels and we love Munich.