Flying Again...

Yup, we are flying back to Singapore again to attend my sister's wedding end of November. 3 times in 2.5 years!!! This is really too much for me. Most of the wives envies me but I am not excited about going back at all. I really hate the flight journey... got to leave home at abt 5am, reach Paris at 8 and wait for connecting flight at 11, then stuck another 12 hrs in the plane. Argghh, this time J will just sent me to Bordeaux Airport only and I am going to do the transit with Shannon... Great! Of cos I can do it myself but I prefer to follow blindly behind J and do nothing...hehehe

J will be joining us in Singapore 2 weeks later as I need to help my sis with some of the wedding preparation and also sending Shannon to some "crash course". She will be 5years old in 5 mths time and she still doesn't know her ABC and Phonics well. It's common for French as they start learning ABC next year but to Singaporean, the kids are expected to know their ABC when they are going to K1 next year!!! Hopefully, she can pick up something and I can start coaching her when we are back in France.

Oh ya, whenever we tell Shannon that we are going back to Singapore, she will make sure that she will be able to come back as she regards France as her HOME. Anyway, we will be flying tomorrow and now I am already looking forward to the date to come back here again... LOL...

* Two Little Sweeties *

While waiting Irene to buy lunch at McDonald's yesterday, I took some photos of Shannon & Avril...

Seasons Changing = Falling Sick

After the Lantern Festival Celebration, Shannon had fever that night and the following night. I brought her to the GP on Monday and he said she had throat inflammation. After taking medicine, her fever went away thus I brought her to her first Music Lesson on Wednesday.



The kids can only start learning piano at 5 years old in France. Thus, we can only let them go to elementary course conducted by the private music school. The course fees was 99Euro per year. They will get to know and learn to play with all kinds of musical instruments found in the school. In the later part of the lessons, they will learn about music notes and at the end of the course, the instructor will advise us which musical instrument to let the kids begin with for the next year.

Since her fever never come back after 2 days, I decided to let her go back to her school on Thursday. Well, the moment I brought her back from school, her fever shot up to 40 degrees and we went to see a PD on Friday. PD said she might have lung inflammation and ask me to observe her for another 2 days before he prescribe antibiotics for her. Her cough seems to get worse on Friday and she had high fever once a day for Friday and Saturday. Luckily, her fever didn't come back on Sunday but I decided to bring her to the PD again and this time round, he prescribed the antibiotic. After taking the antibiotic, her cough was under control and fever was gone and she resumed her 2nd lesson for Music on Wednesday and school on Thursday.


2nd Music Lesson

Kid Parc & Caterpillars

Last Sunday, we went to Kid Parc again. It was a beautiful Sunday, not too hot nor too cold. As usual, Shannon enjoyed the rides and when we about to leave, we saw something on J's tyre.



Take a closer look!



It was Caterpillars!!! And when we turned around and look at the tree beside us...



Tons of caterpillar queing to crawl up the tree! J had to use a branch to take off the caterpillars before starting the car. We wouldn't want to transport it back to our garden. -.-"

Baby Danse Resumed

New school term started and Shannon resumed her dancing lesson as well. The dancing lesson will be on Friday weekly. I picked her up from school at 4:40pm and rushed her to the dancing lesson at 5:15pm. In fact, I have a hard time keeping her awake during the 15 minutes journey. I gave her some biscuits and water to drink in the car to keep her awake but she always almost fall asleep during the last 5 minutes of the journey. Luckily, whenever we reached the dancing school, she will become alert and start enjoying her 1hr session. :P

Swing Swing

We bought the above Swing for $69 euros at Leroy Merlin Bordeaux last Saturday. It was definitely a good buy as the usual price was $149 euros. J spent about 2-3 hours to fix up the swing and now Shannon had a small playground with swing and slide in our garden!

Back To School

Summer holidays ended and Shannon went back to her Maternelle (Preschool). She was not enrolled in the same class with Avril and Brayden. They were all separated into different classes.. Avril and Zavier (who joined the same Maternelle this year) got in Moyenne Section, Brayden in Moyenne et Grand Section and poor Shannon got in Petite et Moyenne Section. Funny right? "Sigh"

I was quite perplexed about the arrangement as she will still be stucked in Petite Section for the first half morning session. Well, being a Kiasu Singaporean mummy, I asked J to called the school principal to ask for a transfer to Avril or Brayden's class. To our dismay, our request was rejected as the principal said they will be learning the same thing even though they are in different class.

According to the research I have done, information on French Education is as followed:

The weekly timetable covers 24 hours, with the day organised by the teacher around varied activities and communication exercises. There is generally no specific timetable for lessons, which are left to the discretion of the teacher.

The learning priority at nursery school is language development, which is carried out through four main areas of activity:

Living together;
Physical activity;
Arts and science;
Imagining and feeling.

All pupils in the grande section of nursery school are expected to start learning a modern language, which is continued with vigour when the child continues into primary and secondary education.

However, we were all brought up in Asian KS style and we just can't help comparing what our kids are doing in the 3 different classes. I am still feeling uneasy and fustrated to let my girl continue in the Petite et Moyenne Section but there is nothing that I can do..

Assumption Day 2009

It's Assumption Day in France yesterday. As usual, we went to Archacon Beach with a group of friends for the annual Fireworks Display.


As we were early, we had a walk on the beach and took some photos with the sand scuptures we saw at the beach.


At about 7pm, we took our dinner at one of the restaurant along the beach. This was the second time we had visited this restaurant. I always wanted to go back for their food but was really disappointed this time. The food was served within 10 minutes after we placed our order which means it was kind of pre-cooked.


After dinner, we spent another 2 hours on the beach waiting for the nightfall. The kids enjoyed themselves running around and playing with the sand.. Finally at 1030pm, the fireworks started...

The show ended about 15-20minutes later and we could see that everyone stood up immediately and headed back to their car. As usual, we only managed to reached home 1 hour later due to the heavy traffic.

My Little Helper

Bigger House means MORE Housework!!! Luckily, I have a little helper...



P.S: - She is not mopping the floor but WETTING it instead. hehehe

Our New House

Finally, we are more or less settled down in our new house. Well, still messy and more things to be done. :P

J had kind of impressed his friends with his carpentry work done in the house. As there are no built-in cabinet in the house, he had to DIY 3 cabinets with a budget. We do not want to spend too much as we might only be living here for another 2 years. I kind of love my kitchen he had done up for me too. Shannon love the new house too as she has ample space to run around. At the same time, J bought her a "princess bed" to start training her to sleep in her own room.

Overall, all of us love our new house ^_^

Amar Circus

2 Weeks ago, we went to a Amar Circus held at Parc De Exposition La Teste. We heard from friends that this troupe has been in this field since 1924. The show is about 2.5 hrs and I love the "magic show" where the pocessors change their costumes at a glance! Take a look at the video I have uploaded and you will understand.



One of the show perform by the Acrobatic from China, Sichuan


Tiger Show



Our precious

Photos taken on that day

Some Backgrounds on Amar Circus
For its 85th anniversary, Amar circus, 1 st prize french national circus is on tour with his new show: Best Of.

With all of the acrobatic Chinese province of Sichuan as the guest of honor.

A show of more than two hours to find out among other international artists such as Christina Roy with a sail number air Beltram Duo with dual wheel air Lumei Duo, processors that change their costumes at a glance without forgetting the choreography
Arabian horses and ponies in Argentina and African elephants and very expected and Siberian tigers ovation presented by John Falck

Fever Attack

Shannon was having fever since Monday 5am. Her fever subsided after a dose of Advil but came back fiercely last evening and went up and down till now. I had brewed some "Ling Yang" but she refused to drink it. We had to monitor her to make sure that her fever is below 39 degrees because of the fear of febrile fits. We sponged her last night at 11pm and made sure her fever was at 38 degree before we went back to sleep. I woke up at 3am and 8am to feed her with fever medicine keeping her fever below 39 degrees.

This morning, I brought her to see a PD and was prescribed more Doliprane and Advil together with a medicine for her throat inflammation and cough medicine. According to the PD, she is having a Viral Fever that will continue for a few more days thus he didn't prescribe any antibiotic for her throat inflammation. I brewed some Barley water but dare not give her too much as elderly said it will create phlegm if she is coughing. Her fever rose to 39 degrees this afternoon and I sponged her again and managed to get down below 38 degrees. However, it came back 3 hours later and I had to coax her to take a shower. After the shower, her temp went down below 38 degrees. I was relieved slightly but her fever came back at 38.5 degrees half an hour later. I gave her another dose of fever medicine and pray that her fever will goes away soon.

Her fever seems to be really bad this time. She looks much more lethargic, her appetite is poor, she complains about coldness more and she feels tired and sleepy after a while. Probably, the weather had caused her sickness. 1 week ago, it was so hot and warm everyday and now it rains almost everyday. I really hope she will recover soon as we are now busy packing and cleaning to move into our new rented house next Monday. "sigh"

Father's Day Celebration

We had a Small Father Day's Celebration yesterday. In fact, it was a surprise for all the fathers.. Well, thanks to our friend, Serene who came out with this idea! We had a potluck lunch and everyone of us had prepare a gift for the fathers. We had some fun games during the gathering too. The first was getting the kids to recognise their own father's voice. And the second game was getting fathers to act out what animals for mummies & their kids to guess. We really had fun yesterday!






In fact this game is for daddies to act out what is the animal and the kids will guess. But in the end I was the one who was guessing..hahahaha

Kudos to you!


Guess who is your father by listening. We had a good laugh over this game as the kids couldn't really differentiate the voice of their fathers...

I would really like to thank Serene for her effort to think of all the games for the families and the kids. We really had a great time! ^_^

Busy Weeks Ahead

It's coming to the end of Spring which means Summer holiday is here for the kids.

Shannon will be having her 2 months summer holiday 2 weeks later. This applies to her extra curriculum activities like dancing and gym class. But before it ends, there will be performance for her gym and dancing class. For the coming Wednesday, she will have a rehearsal for their dance at the L'Olympia Archacon and their performance will on the night of Saturday, 20 June 09. Her gym performance will be on 27 June in The Sport and the Leisures at Le Teich. Next Friday, her maternal school will have a small celebration to end the year and starts of summer holiday.

When her holiday starts, we will probably be busy packing to get ready to move to another house in Mid July.

Learning to Swim

Yesterday, daddies brought their kids to the indoor swimming pool while we mummies went to Vide Grenier to grab some cheap stuff.

According to J, there is no kids pool and Shannon refused to go into the pool as she was scared. J nearly lost his patience and asked her to wait for him while he swim and finally she agree to let J carry her into the pool. Although a float was tied around her waist but the moment she was in the deep pool, she refuse to let go J.

However, when it was time to get out the pool, she refused and continuing swimming... Hmmm... Maybe we should enrol her to a swimming lesson since she loves it?

Coca Cola

Most of the kids love Coca-Cola, what about yours?

Shannon never like Coca-Cola even though we let her tried her first sip when she was 1 year old. In fact, I am happy that she doesn't like it as once they love it, they will never stop drinking it.

The main reason that she doesn't really like to drink Coca-Cola is simply because she is a picky eater and she is not adventurous in food... like me. -.-" I never liked to force Shannon to eat the food that she detest. In my opinion, the more you force her to eat, the more she will resent in future. I prefer her to pick up the "liking" herself. However, sometimes I will just cheat and put some tiny bits of vegetables which is essential in her diet and she will just eat it with other dishes.

Last week, she surprised us by asking to taste my coca-cola at McDonald's. I let her tried and she went non-stop....

Brush Teeth

Shannon started brushing her teeth since she was about 2 and half years old. However she refuses to use tooth paste. Everytime when we try to put some tooth paste on her toothbrush and get her to brush, she will induce vomit and cry. I was quite lenient for the first half year as I thought she will gradually accept it.

We did try to change different type of toothpaste favor but she still induced vomit everytime we asked her to use toothpaste. We told her that all her friends were using toothpaste and all the uncles and aunties will also encourage her to brush her teeth with toothpaste.

When I was about to post this post up asking for opinions, she suddenly let me brush her teeth with toothpaste! From last week till now, she happily brushed her teeth twice a day with toothpaste. After brushing her teeth, she will always come to me proudly and ask me to smell her minty mouth. I am really happy and proud that she had accepted finally the taste of the toothpaste.

Peep

Last Friday, I took some photos and videos during her dancing class. I think Shannon was looking into the big mirror while doing all her dance steps below..

Well, but during her dancing class, she started to be mischievous again. If you look carefully in the video, she was trying to be funny while doing the dancing moves. She was unable to concentrate during the lesson as well. They are having a performance on 20 June 09 at L'Olympia Archacon, hopefully everything goes well and I can't wait to see my girl on the stage... ^^

Looking at her dance moves, I feel like transferring her to Judo class instead... @_@

Cazaux Airshow 2009

We went to Cazaux Airshow 2009 on Saturday. In fact, I am not too keen but J wanted to bring Shannon there. We slowly strolled from one end to the other end and at the same time watching the fighter plane flying in the sky doing their acrobatic flying. The most spectacular airshow was done by French AF Patrouille de France .

Bon Fête Maman

Yesterday was a Mothers' Day in France. Shannon actually did some mothers' day present for me from Clapotis and her school. However, she didn't really gave it to me but kept for herself instead. LOL