Two Little Friends

Story slide created by boring mummy who just loves watching kids holding hands...hahahaha

Okay Okay.. I know I am a lousy story maker.... -_-'

But don't you find them so cute and innocent... ^_^

La Coccinelle Again

We went to La Coccinelle with 4 other families last Sunday. Initial planning comes with a picnic but was cancelled after we realised La Coccinelle only open at 1:30pm. There are more visitors compared to the previous visit, thus the farm-taker was around to "jagar" us from carrying the chicks and ducklings. Anyway, I am also worried that the chicks and duckling will be killed by one of the kids too. I have taken 300 photos on that day and finally chose and uploaded half of them in this post. The following photos are taken at the mini-farm.

2 interesting farm animals I saw.



Being "kuku" har, I have only seen this colorful "duck" in wooden form or on TV. Initially, I thought it was a fake wooden duck floating on the pond, then it moves and someone told me that this should be 鸳鸯. I googled on 鸳鸯 and realised that the above "duck" is called a Wood Duck or Carolina Duck which they shares its genus with the Mandarin Duck. The adult male on the photos has distinctive multi-colored iridescent plumage and red eyes. The female, less colorful, has a white eye-ring and a whitish throat (photos on the right).



Another beautiful farm animal is the above Chicken/Rooster? I find the feet of the Rooster very interesting with feathers sticking out!!! Don't you find that the feathers on it's feet look like it's shoes? Well, I think I am really a "Mountain turtle"

Ohya.. Daddy also met an aggressive goat on the way to the playground!

Ok.. after being attack by feeding the goat, we proceed to the playground for more FUN!!!

Lantern Festival

Yesterday, we spent a lonely Lantern Festival as Daddy was working on afternoon shift this week and will only reach homeback after midnight.

Initially, I planned to "chio" some friends for a small gathering but idea was put off since Shannon is still not feeling well. I have to thanks May for sparing us some home made delicious 汤圆! She said 月圆人团圆，must eat 汤圆 on Lantern Festivals. ^_^ Frankly speaking, this is the first time I ate 汤圆 for Lantern Festival.

Serene's father got Shannon a small battery-operated lantern too. I off the lights in the living room to create some atmosphere but Shannon would prefer the lights to be ON. After the lights was switched on, she started enjoying herself by dancing to the rythem of the musical lantern.

After a while, I am still not contented with just holding the battery-operated lantern in the house. I searched high and low for the candles and managed to find some birthday candles instead. I took some traditional lanterns given by Uncle James Chong and light it up with birthday candles, dressed Shannon with more layers of clothing and brought her to the garden to carry the lanterns. hahaha...

Hopefully, we will not be so pathetic next year... ^_^

Cough Cough Go Away

Shannon is down with fever and cough since Sunday evening. I think she must have caught a cold (chinese called kum dio) after I bathed her at 3:30am on Sunday morning.

We went home and slept at 2am after the gathering at Serene's house and she vomited after coughing at about 3am. I have to bath her as she vomited all over her hair and body. In fact, I even used the hairdryer to thoroughly dried her hair before she went back to sleep. We woke up at 12pm in the morning and proceed to La Coccinelle and she started to get feverish when she woke up from her nap at 6pm. Her fever subsided after taking medicine but her cough persisted.

We didn't let her go to the Creche this 2 days but her fever came back last night at 39.5 degree. Thus daddy booked a PD appt for her in the afternoon. I brought her to the clinic and PD said that her fever was caused by the eruption of her molar tooth. She was given some suppositories, cough medicine and nasal spray. She is not having any fever today but her cough is not getting any better. After getting her to bed at 10pm, she woke up 15 minutes later coughing non stop and end up vomiting out her milk. I cleared up the mess, rubbed Vicks on her chest and back as well as her feet.

She fell asleep 15 mins later but continued coughing in her sleep for about half an hour. I think the suppositories had taken effect as I have not heard her coughing for past 1 hour. Hopefully, her cough will go away soon.

Curry Chicken

We had Curry Chicken with plain rice on Monday. Daddy said it will taste better with more coconut milk!

Serene's Birthday Gathering

We went to Serene's Birthday Gathering on Saturday. We had steamboat that night, it was really good to have steamboat once in a while. Serene's father even flew few boxes of mooncakes from Singapore for us to celebrate early lantern festival. Some of the friends bought a cake from Patisserie Marquet for Serene's Birthday. Cakes from Patisserie Marquet are rich and delicious but pricey. Back in Singapore, the cakes are charged according to the weight but over here in France, the cakes are charged according to head count.! The cake for Serene's Birthday (shown in the slide) cost 90€ for 20 person!!!

If I am not wrong, the one below cost 250€ !!!

We did tried out some cakes from other cake shops but it was just too sweet for us. Luckily, I am not really a "cake" person... :P

Happy Birthday To Joelle!!

Happy Birthday To You...
Happy Birthday To You...
Happy Birthday To Joelle...
Happy Birthday To YOU....

Love from Us from France!!!
*Muuarrk* (ask mummy give you a kiss and a hug ^_^)

No Home...

"NOOO.... No Home Arh...."

This is what Shannon said to me whenever I pick her up at the childcare center recently. Sometimes, she will even repeat several times in the car on the way home.

Today, I went to the center and pick her up as usual. Agnes (one of the caretaker) told me that Shannon was taking her nap in the bedroom!!! Thus, I told Agnes that I will pick her up at 3:30pm since she usually takes 2 hr nap.

I went home, hanged the laundry I had washed earlier, vacuumed and mopped the floor. At the same time, worrying that she will cry for me when she wakes up in the center. When I picked her up at 3:30pm, Valerie told me she was happily playing in the garden after she woke up. She ran to me calling mummy and happily hugging me but still refused to follow me home. #_# I managed to bring her home after much persuasion...

Valerie suggested that I can leave her in the center for the whole day if I want. But I still prefer few hours a day to keep her entertained so that I can enjoy some free time everyday too... :P

The real meaning of "Crèche"

After sending Shannon to the "playgroup" for months, I only realised recently that she was not attending playgroup but actually a "CHILDCARE CENTER". *_*

After knowing it, I felt somehow guilty to continue sending Shannon to the "childcare center" as I am a FULL TIME HOUSEWIFE here. Thus, looking after Shannon for the whole day should be my full time job. T.T

However, I decided to continue for some reasons and "excuses" as per follows;

First of all, I need some time for myself to do whatever thing I want, be it housework or surfing net.

Secondly, I think it is good for her to mingles around with French kids and get familiarize with their language since she will be starting Nursery next year.

Thirdly, I want her to learn to socialise and play with kids at all age which she will meet in the center.

Something interesting about "Crèche" in France is that they don't really accept daily attendance. "Crèche" is catered for French mummies to leave the kids there when they need to run errand on some days. No wonder, the person in-charged said that we are only allowed to plan 2 mornings weekly for our kids from next week onwards.

"Sigh"

There goes my perfect routine I had trained earlier for Shannon on waking up at 9am, nap at 1:30pm and sleep 1030pm at night. -_-

SMORTY

As many of you know, I am trying to earn some extra money by monetizing my blog. I did not initially begin this journey of blogging for the reason of making money. However, if I can blog for money, why not?

I was looking into blog advertising and I found Smorty. Smorty is a service connecting advertisers with bloggers. I think Smorty cater the best of both worlds for the advertiser and the bloggers. Advertiser pays bloggers to write reviews with a link back to their website, while bloggers get paid to blog about the website of the advertiser. The best part is we do not have to neccearily endorse the advertiser's website products or services, but just mention them in our blog. This means, it is entirely our opinion to post.

Signing up Smorty is easy as pie and my blog got approved within 12 hours. According to some bloggers' review, Smorty is the fastest way to get paid for blogging among all these blog advertising companies. They also paid weekly via paypal for approved blog posts while others are paying bi-weekly or monthly.

What are you waiting for? Go FAQ page for more detailed information, sign up and get paid for blogging!

Goal or Go = Cold

Last night, Shannon was slipping into one of my high heels walking around in the living room. A while later, she took off the heels and said;

Shannon: Mummy, Mummy "GOAL"

Me: Huh?

Shannon: Mummy Mummy "GOAL" arrhhh.... (opps.. she is good at singlish!)

Me: Huh? What do you want, darling? What "GOAL"? Where do you want to GO?

She starts putting her arms around herself and said: "GOAL" Arrhhhhh...

Me: Oh! I am sorry baby, you mean "COLD" !!!!

-_-'

Baby Gym

Today is the first lesson of the Bebe Gym we had enrolled for Shannon! She will be attending every Tuesday for an hour and the cost of the gym lesson is only 78 € per year!! Well, the facilities and the quality cannot really be compared with the "gym" school in Singapore. However, I am very contented with this extra activity for Shannon as it will help develop her sensory and physical skills. Thanks to Xavier's Mummy and Avril's Mummy for informing us.


While waiting for the instructor to "set up" the equipments for the lesson.

They have different activities for different age groups and the room is sort of multipurpose catering for different kind of classes.





Shannon jumping happily on the Trampoline. She can jump quite high for her age!


Fun for the kids!

At the end of the lesson, I think the instructor played one game called Gymjingle. It's a playful activities set to music to develop social and communication skills. The instructor will play the music and we will run or walk and when she stop the music, we have to hug our kid and sit/lie down.


There will be refreshment after every session for the kids serving biscuits and juices.

During the refreshment, the instructor said that there are too many kids in this class. They usually have only 10 students but there are 16 today. She mentioned that it had frightened some of the babies, thus they might want to split into 2 classes in future.

I think it's a good idea provided they don't split us up (total 6 Singaporean Mummies). How do you expect the kids who can run and jump behave like a 1 year old baby who can't even walk properly? Our kids were so excited running around in the room playing with everything they can. We had to follow them around to make sure they don't bump into anyone, helping them to do sommersault, reminding them that they have to keep the butts down while sliding under the sticks. Most of us commented that we were more tired than the kids... it seems like we are the one who are exercising.. hahaha

Mummy Goes to School (Old Hands Club)

Last night, I met my neighbour, Lily and she asked me to join her to the Old Hands Club this morning. Old Hands Club is a place whereby we can learn French from some retired volunteers. Initially, I rejected Lily as the class starts at 10am but I need to send Shannon to school at 930am. However, Lily offered to wait for me so that I could follow her car to the club. :P



Frankly speaking, I think I don't really remember how I reached the club. I was busy concentrating following her car, watching out the traffic and trying hard not to lose her. hehehe

Actually I have been to Old Hands Club in 2001 but somehow difficult to catch up with others at that time. As I had taken up some French Course in Singapore before coming to France for the first time, I stopped going to the Old Hands Club after a few times.

Anyway, the 2 hours in class today was nice and fruitful! Some of the French words was dug out from my coconut brain. But maybe I will still drop out again because I need to cook for daddy when he is working afternoon shift. Moreover, Shannon only goes to morning playgroup for 2 times starting from next week.

OK OK.. I am lazy... OK OK .. I prefer surfing net... OK OK... I can cook for daddy even before going to class... OK OK... I don need to attend every single class... OK OK... I just need to learn some french to use in the supermarkets and restaurants... OK OK .... I can even bring Shannon along!!! OK OK... I am giving so many excuses... hmmm....... anything else???

I know I know... I just couldn't have the best of MANY worlds... hahaha

Let's see how it goes...

Stickers Stickers

We bought this box of 600 stickers at 1 euro! Cheap Cheap Siah!!



Opps... Where are the stickers?



*_*'