Drama...Drama..

She took a "power nap" in the afternoon. No matter how I coaxed her, she does not want to continue her nap. I gave up my intention after an hour and decided to let her sleep early tonight.

While she was drinking her soup during dinner, I took the dishes to the basin. The next moment I turned around, I saw her head turning left and right and then onto the table...

She actually fell asleep! Then I called out her name and took my camera out... hehehe





Hopefully, she don't sleep too late tonight.

A Major Decision

Finally, had a good long talk with daddy last night. We have decided to plan for "a" sibling for Shannon!

"A" - hopefully, it's an "a" not 2 or more... I really cannot handle ...

Frankly speaking, I am not ready or rather forever not ready for No.2 . After much thinking, I know one day I will give in to daddy. Thus I decided to give in earlier as I do not want their age gap to be too big.

Hopefully, everything will turn out well...

Wish me LUCK!

Outing Cancelled

Daddy got to work today thus La Coccinielle Outing was cancelled today. Well, a bit disappointed but surprising a good decision. The weather was not good today, a bit of sun and drizzing once a while. Definetly not a day for enjoying ourselves in the Park.

A boring day...

Merry-Go-Round

After breakfast at MacDonald, we went straight to Lye Kim Hak in Bordeaux. Got ourselves some stuffs and went shopping at Factory Outlets in Merignac. The place are big with several factory warehouse. However, we did not really spent much as some of the stuffs were still quite expensive. After walking around for 2 hrs, we went to Merignac Carrefour for more groceries shopping. We went to a Chinese Restaurant for a buffet dinner. It was 16 euro per adults and the spread was not attractive at all... I missed the sharkfin soup 3 years ago....

Summer Holiday Starts!!

Shannon will be on Summer Holiday for 3 L...O...N...G Weeks...

Opps.. I think I have gotten used to mornings without her... hehehe.. Okay Okay.. I know I am not a good mummy for saying that but going to playgroup few hours a day did benefit the both of us. She is more independent and sociable now, got few hours a day enjoying playing with her ever changing friends and she got to expose herself to more activities like playing with sand, sing-a-long and arts etc... As for me, I have more time for my housework, my blogging and net surfing...Hopefully, she will have no problem with the playgroup after the holidays...

I am so tired now cos I spent 3 full hours this morning packing, vacuuming, mopping the whole house despite my neck not fully recovered yet...However, I am looking forward to this weekend! As usual, Saturday will be a marketing and shopping day and this Sunday, we are going to Parc de la Coccinelle! It claimed to be the top children's park in Europe dedicated to domestic animals, 800 animals to meet, run around with and to stroke.



Sound really great right! I am going to take tons of photos and blog abt it.

Au Revoir, Shannon

When I picked Shannon up yesterday, there is this little French Boy running towards the gate and said Au Revoir to her with a pat on her head as well. **so cute**

Some of the photos taken at the playgroup's garden. Guessed they took their lunch in the garden yesterday.


This is the first hand painting Shannon did yesterday. I had pinned it up on the living room...

MOON

Recently, Shannon got interested in looking at the MOON... Everyday she will want to go outside and find her MOON. I brought her out to cycle after dinner for the past 2 days when she asked for it.

Below are some conversations between us.

Shannon - Mummy, where Moon? Moon?
Me - It's too early now... later you will see the moon.
Shannon - Ooorhhh...

Recently she "Ooorhh" alot and "Ooorhh" at funny times....Anyway....when she sees the moon, she will go...

Shannon - Mummy!! I see "the"(mumbled) Moon.
Me - Oh! Where is the moon?
Shannon - There! High "in the"(mumbled) Sky

Then she will continue to repeat the above and mumbled to me for a while but If she can't find it....

Shannon - Mummy! Where's "the"(mumbled) moon?
Me - It's behind the clouds.
Shannon - Oh No... (looking up the sky)
Me - Don't worry, when the clouds move away, you can see the moon!
Shannon - Mummy! Moon arh..Moon arh.. where?
Me - Can you see the clouds moving?
Shannon - Yes...
Me - So, when the wind blows the clouds away, you will be able to see the moon again.
Shannon - Yes!

Shannon looking at the sky waiting for the moon to reappear...

Shannon - Mummy! Where 'the' moon?
Shannon - Mummy! I find!
Shannon - Mummy Mummy! I find it. I see "the" (mumbled) moon!
Me - Oh! You found it... You found the moon! ..
Shannon - Yes, mummy.. I see "the" (mumbled) moon..High "in the" (mumbled) sky..

Then she will start the whole thing again.... going on and on and on.....

Happy 2 Years 4 Months Old

She knows how to open and close the door by herself now.

Not my day...

Not my day... "sigh"

It rained quite heavily when I sent Shannon to and fro playgroup this morning. I have to juggle between 2 umbrellas and Shannon when putting and getting her out of the car. She insisted holding an umbrella herself... ~_~'

I don't blame her at all cos she don't know or don't understand Mummy's neck has not recovered yet. Guess I should rest at home and not let her go to school today but if she is at home, I still need to carry her when she wants to.... so how to rest my neck????

Shannon Started To Paddle her Tricycle

Shannon started to paddle her tricycle!

My neck is slightly better today after taking "panadol extend" and chinese "Orh Yok Yee" plus pasting 2 "salonpas" I started to prepare and cooked dinner this evening and finally able to mop the floor which I wanted to do since last Friday. Pray hard that my neck is better tomorrow cos I need to drive her to school... sigh... I hate spraining/straining here and there.. .it takes longer time to recover here...

世上只有妈妈最好

I woke up with a very sharp pain on the left side of my neck! I couldn't even get up myself in the morning due to the pain. I didn't managed to see a doctor as Daddy forgot that the clinic open half day on Sat. ~_~

I should have taken some medicine before we go out to at least relieve the neck pain. However, we went ahead with weekly groceries shopping and reached home at 4pm. Daddy did try his best to help me with Shannon and everything he can.

Why am I having neck pain or stiff neck so often???

I really hate all this kind of neck/back/waist pain! I feel paralysed and helpless. I hate the feeling of relying on others. I missed my mum...she is the only one that I can totally rely on during this period. She will help me with everything and anything, she will make sure that I get enough rest and don't strain myself any further... I really miss her...

Long Day...

Shannon woke up 715am this morning with fever again, thus playgroup was cancelled again. However, I drove her to the playgroup to do scheduling. The first 2 weeks in August will be Summer Holiday for the kids. Luckily I reached the playgroup early, I managed to book 3 hours daily for next week and last 2 weeks of August.

I bought some bread and went to Serene's house for Breakfast. After breakfast, we went shopping at Styleco. I bought more clothes for Shannon and wanted to get a pair new shoe for her. She had an eye on a pair of shoe! That shoe is in black color with shiny surface, it looks formal but doesn't look comfortable if she wear for a long time. Shannon didn't want try other shoes at all and also didn't want to take it off when we were leaving the shop. :P

Fever Subsided

Shannon's fever subsided at about 5pm.. Phew... Overall, she is recovering well, her flu and cough seems to get better too.

Daddy came home slightly later than usual as he went to collect the boxes which we tagged along with his friend's shipment. While we were unpacking , Shannon wanted to ride her tricycle. As the weather was quite cold outside, daddy cleared and created some space in the living room for her to cycle.

After daddy stacked the bouncer on the sofa he pushed aside, the living room looked spacious!!! Frankly speaking, I really missed the "SPACE" ever since the bouncer was bought back. I took the chance to vacuum the floor and daddy decided to change the orientation of the furniture to create more space! We didn't managed to finish everything as we need to let her sleep early.

Sometime I really cannot "tahan" my dear girl, she really takes after me, even though she woke up at 230pm this afternoon, she still can "dong" till 11pm!

I will send her to playgroup if she is not feverish tomorrow. At the same time, I need to schedule her playgroup timing for the coming weeks. I did my last scheduling at 9am and I only managed to book 3-4 times weekly. Thus, I have to be early and Kiasu tomorrow!

Fever Fever Go Away!!!

I woke up at 8am to prepare macaroni soup for her to bring to playgroup but only realised that Shannon had a fever (38.3 Dc) when she woke up. After consulting a friend, I decided to cancel her playgroup for the day. Last night, I was already thinking of skipping playgroup today but didn't inform Daddy cos he was asleep. Anyway, she was grouchy almost the whole morning, either sitting on the sofa quietly watching her new favourite show "Dora, the explorer" or calling Mummy Mummy nonstop.

I thought Damian might also need to see a doc thus I decided to wait for them to wake up. However, Serene had decided to bring Damian to a PD instead, (maybe PD is better, but very troublesome, got to make appt leh and it is in La Teste ) thus I went to the GP straight away.

After examine her, the GP said something like she got infection in her nasal or throat area. Well, what to do? His English and my French are both Pte Ltd. He gave me three types of medicine, Nasal Spray for flu, Helyxidine for cough, and Advril for fever. Actually, I had been giving the mentioned medication to her for the past few days but her sickness is not getting any better. I drove to the Pharmacy at HyperU to buy her medicine and she dozed off on way back home.

She was recovering well on Monday and Tuesday morning. I think she must have caught another cold (Chinese they called Teng Kum) on Tuesday night when daddy brought her out to cycle. :( "Sigh" I am the one to blame lah cos I never insist Daddy to let her wear her jacket.

Sorry, my dear Shannon...

Hummpss

Shannon was having slight fever on and off after the injection. Her flu is not getting any better after medication and her cough is getting from bad to worse. She vomited once during nap time yesterday and once at 230am last night. She seems to be better this morning thus I brought her to playgroup as scheduled.

We went HyperU after her playgroup with Serene and Damian. The kids were really having fun in the supermarket! Well, I don't see her kicking balls at home or in the garden but she really loves to do it in the supermarket. Then, she saw a walker and insisted to sit in it. (She used to sit in her walker in Singapore during dinner time at my mum's house, maybe she misses something???) I put her in and she sat quietly and happily playing with the toys on it. After about 10 minutes, a sales assistant came over and I tried to remove her from the walker. Shannon refused to get up by holding onto the toys and the sales assistant thought she was stuck in it. After much struggling, she finally relented and get out of the walker.

I bought a fish by the name of "Maigre" from the supermarket and we proceed home. Shannon dozed off in the car on the way back home. She slept for about two and half hour and woke up crying. At that moment, I was having a video conferencing with Xiaoyi and she managed to make Shannon smile by playing "peek a boo" with her and making funny faces.

Daddy came back at 6 plus and started to "handle" the fish I bought. Luckily, the steamed fish turned out to be quite nice. We usually buy fish by the name BAR and I couldn't find any today. Most of the fishes sold in the market look so fierce with sharp teeth. After wondering awhile, I set my eyes on the fish name Maigre.

I found some info on the fishes we usually eat!

The "maigre", a fish of the region


The maigre is found in coastal water. The adult maigre is at least 50 cms long. It reproduces during May - June in the estuary of the Gironde. It is caught along the coast by fishermen from the harbours of La Rochelle, La Cotinière, in the island of Oléron, and Royan.

The maigre is little known except in the region. It is said that this typical sort of Charente-Maritime fish has flesh so fine and is so full of flavour that it compares favourably with sea bass.

Bar (French) - referring to bass in English



A general term used for many, sometimes unrelated, fresh- and saltwater fish, many with spiny fins. More Info can be found here

Haha..maybe you might find me very "boh liao" but I learned something today! They all came from the same family.....they are all bass....hehehe

Bubbles Bubbles

Daddy came back with 2 bottles of soap bubbles today. Daddy gave one bottle to her and she started blowing the bubbles happily. However, I think she wasted at least half of the bottle. ^_^

After blowing bubbles, she "cycled" along our houses. I guessed she will be able to cycle her 4 wheeled bicycle soon. Then they went to Damian's house while I was talking with my sis on the webcam.

I joined them for a chit chat session, the guys were drinking beer and we including Shannon were eating chips. We went back home at about 10 and Shannon only fell asleep at 1220am!!!

Injection

We brought Shannon for Pneumococal Vaccination as scheduled last week. PD went ahead with the injection even she was having flu and slight cough. Although I had pasted the Emla Patch one and half hr ago, but she still cry pitifully after the injection. My heart also like kenna pricked by the needle too. +_+

This is only the 2nd time I am by her side during injection, Daddy was always the one with her. I am a person who is really phobia about injection, even though I went thru a lot (typically became a pin cushion) during IVF procedures. But I am still damn scare about the needle! Whenever, I need to have my blood draw, I willl beat the "spot" furiously in order for the nurse to see the vein and cut down the chances of 2nd poke!

A Perfect Sunday

Morning - Lazing around watching her favourite "Little Einstein"

AFTERNOON - "Swimming" , Rest & Relax Moment

EVENING - After a nap, Cycling Time

After cycling, we had our dinner at the garden with Uncle Philip's Family. I cooked Bak Kut Teh with Cai Buay and Loh Bak. Too bad, the weather changed drastically from warm to cold, thus we had to finish our dinner fast and moved into the house. Overall, it's a tired day but a really Perfect Sunday ever since we relocated here.

Busy Busy

It's a trolley car rented from Auchan. It cost 4 euro but the token can be reusable. Shannon simply loves it and so are we... At least we can do some grocery shopping in "PEACE" while she enjoying her driving.



After grocery shopping, we went to Zara Kids and Kiabi to grab some clothes for Shannon...

We had our dinner at a restaurant near La Teste Du Port. I didn't really enjoyed the dinner cos the weather was a bit warm, Shannon was running non-stop and the Bolognese Spaghetti I ordered was quite a disappointment, its doesn't taste as good as 4 years ago. After dinner, we went to visit the Lam's Family. The kids enjoyed themselves riding the bicycles outside the house, hubbies chatting away with a glass of white wine and wives started our gossiping about what we had bought for our kids....blah..blah..blah... We reached home at abt 1030, bath and unpacking the groceries we bought. Finally, went to bed at 12 plus and Shannon dozed off right after her milk!

I LOVE MY PRINCESS...

★一起走过的日子★

Damian & Shannon

After Dinner

New Stunt!

嘿嘿！看图说故事！

Guppies Birth Announcement

One of our guppies had given birth...Let's welcome the new member..

Mummy, I Drive!

Rashes Again :(

This morning, I saw rashes all over Shannon's body. It was worse than the previous time. Sent her to playgroup and went home thinking what could have caused the rashes. Maybe it was the "Pocky" I gave her yesterday because it was left over for 2 weeks ago (I tried and it still taste good!). Or maybe it was the cheese that she ate 3 days ago? Or maybe it was the Cuppuccino Ice Cream she ate 2 days ago? Or maybe.... the list went on and on...I hate rashes! Anything can be the caused and the investigation is tough!

Anyway, I brought her to see a GP after her playgroup. She was really co-operative, she lay on the bed quietly and let the GP examine her. I hope after the vaccine next Monday, she will not be phobia to doctor! GP said that it could be RUBELLA!!! or it was just simply Allergy. He asked me to monitor her temperature and gave her medicine twice a day.

Went home straight after the visit to the GP. Gave her Medicine immediately. Awhile later, bath her and applied some cream on her rashes hoping that it will go away tomorrow.

My Little Dancing Queen

Or goto http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8850223914373118536&hl=en


Or goto http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4380045042604466698&hl=en

Cheeky Shannon

Look at her funny facial expression... sometimes really cannot tahan her... so so so cute... hahaha

A Visit to the PD

Shannon is having mild temperature since last week. I thought it was because of the weather. After a visit to the PD yesterday, we realised that her lower molar tooth is erupting. She was given some fever medicine and we also booked an appointment for the Pneumococcal Vaccine next Monday. According to the PD, Pneumococcal Vaccine was given to the French babies before 2 years old. He prescribed an Emla patch whereby it was used as a local anesthetic (i.e. for pain relief) on the skin prior to injection. We need to paste the Patch on her arm 1.5hrs before the injection.

I was too careless to miss out her teething symptoms. No wonder she was quite cranky this few weeks and always putting things in her mouth. I thought that she brought this habit back from the playgroup as I saw a handful of her French friends sucking either their thumbs or their toys. Her appetite is not really good for the past few weeks too. Hope she will feel better soon.

"HARVEST" TIME

After weeks of watering the vegetables... its HARVEST time!!



However...we had only grown 2 stalks of 小白菜 successfully!! >_<

Well, we will try again soon... ^_^

Splash! Splash!

Daddy took out the inflatable swimming pool he bought few months ago. Shannon was so excited to jump into the pool when she saw it.









An hour later, we had to drag her out of the pool as she was shivering. She was screaming and kicking as she wanted to play more.

Click on the following link for more video clips!!! Enjoy!!!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1313733717012162836&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2313867391999667105&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7230091318736867273&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5676966830177609112&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2619869309784270582&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4374785341635857900&hl=en

Memories of "The Making of Shannon Lee Si Ying"

Did you know that Shannon is made in France, produced in Singapore? The Frenchman in the photo is Dr. Emperaire Jean-claude who did the IVF for us! Shannon is actually a test-tube baby! He was the one who made our dream come true. We are really blessed that we succeeded on the first attempt of IVF! We went to his clinic last Saturday to thank him and at the same time, enquired about our 6 frozen embryos. Memories of " The Making of Shannon" came back vividly after the visit...Read on if you are interested... hehe...but abit long lah..

We went through lots of test and blood drawings when we were trying to conceive before we were referred to Fertility Clinic in 2004. After more screening, the procedure started...

** Nasal Spray at certain hrs everyday for about 2 weeks, which will temporarily suppress the pituitary gland so that the stimulation of my ovaries can be more controlled.

** Then began another 2 weeks of injections using follicle stimulating hormones to increase the number of follicles developing in the ovaries.

** After a few ultra scans and blood tests, HCG was the final injection and that initiates the final stage of maturation and timing of the egg retrieval.

** The egg retrieval procedure was a nightmare to me. Can you imagine I had gone thru the following procedure without Anesthesia!!

"This method by which the eggs are retrieved at PFC is an ultrasound directed Needle Aspiration. The ultrasound probe with a needle guide is placed in the vagina, which allows an aspiration needle to be INSERTED through the upper portion of the vagina directly into the ovary. The ultrasound image allows the physician to accurately guide the needle into each follicle for aspiration or "suction". As the fluid is aspirated, the egg is released and collected in the laboratory. The retrieval process takes approximately 15-30 minutes."

I couldn't scream during the procedure, I had to hold my breath, bite my lips, clenched my fist the moment when one follicle was aspirated. I had 11 follicles at that time!!! 11 times of Needle Aspiration!!! My tears rolled down uncontrollable due to the pain and continued for quite awhile after the whole procedure.

** After the eggs were retrieved, they started the process of fertilization (the union of the sperm and egg). The fertilized eggs are now called embryos. We had 8 embryos fertilized successfully. After 5 days, I had 2 embryo transferred. This procedure was fast and painless. However, I would need to have a weekly injection on my butt for 3 months to maintain the progestrone level in my body.

A week after the embryos was transferred, we were relocated back to Singapore and I was confirmed pregnant with one baby the week after next.

The pregnancy journey was considered smooth for me except having Amniocentesis. I had high risk (1 out of 99) having a Down Syndrome Baby after the NT Scan around 14 weeks, thus we opted for amniocentesis to confirm it. Again, a LONG, THIN, HOLLOW needle was inserted through my abdominal wall and into the sac of fluid around my baby to withdraw small amount of amniotic fluid. Well, you should know the result....

Lastly, the arrival of Shannon! Another tough procedure...We guessed she was too comfy inside the womb and refused to come out even after 41 weeks. Thus, my gynea arranged me to be admitted to the hospital for induction on 20th March 2005.

On 22nd March 2005, I was wheeled to the labor room at 10pm due to the unbearable achy pain around my back. My gynea arrived soon and my cervix was still only 2cm dilated! He burst the water bag; put me on drip (another way of induction) hoping that it will speed up the labor. The pain became more and more intolerable. My mind was blank and couldn't recall anything taught at the antenatal class and finally I relented for having epidural. The pain went away immediately and we were able to catch some sleep.

After 18 hrs, 2.5 dose of epidural, sniffing lots of "laughing gas", my cervix was only 7cm dilated!!! And I was having a fever thus the gynea decided that I needed a cesarean immediately. I still think that Daddy could have done a better job during my labor but instead... sigh...

I couldn't stop crying when I was pushed to the "operating theatre". At that moment, I couldn't imagine that my tummy will be "cut open" and I have to rely on others on everything after operation and Daddy was not allowed in the operation room. I started to shiver and my teeth couldn't stop chattering due to the side effect after the local anesthetic. Soon after, I heard my baby crying and the nurse carried and showed Shannon to me. I was relieved and finally smiled from the bottom of my heart...

Times flies. Shannon is already 27 months and everyone was asking me to prepare for the second kid. Although the procedure will not be as complicated as before, I still need to go thru some hormone injection to control my ovulation before the Embryo Transfer Procedure and not forgetting the Progestrone Injection. Frozen Embryos have to be thawed and not every embryos will survive after thawing, the quality will definitely not as good as the first, thus they will transfer 2-3 embryos to increase the success rate. Which means, there will be a high chance having more than one baby as well...

Frankly speaking, I am still not mentally prepared for the second child not mentioning the 3rd. I do not have much confidence to take care of 2 kids or more alone in France at this moment. Being pregnant and giving birth is still "considered" an "EASY" job for me!! But bringing up a child is not that simple. I am worried that Shannon will be neglected and whether we are financially stable for the 2nd or even 3rd one, etc etc

Daddy, have you really thought over twice and thrice on this issue? C'mon, you only use your mouth and I am the one who is going to get into trouble... Don't misunderstood, I am not complaining, you are a great father and hubby (paiseh, 80% only and u know why :P). You did help me with housework and spent time with Shannon. However, the time you "NEED" to spend and care for them can NEVER be more than me...

Videos And Photos

Daddy bought this bouncer for Shannon yesterday. He knew Shannon would love it.

Goto: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1387382335667864760&hl=en

Shannon was hooked to this "Baby Gymnastic" at Toys R' Rus. She enjoys jumping and turning around with it. We gave this a miss as we think that she is too "old" for it! ^_^