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.