My Malaysian baby

Its now confirmed. Lucas is 100% Malaysian. He surprised me today when he said "aiyo"! And he likes his food with a bit of spice - curry chicken, bak kut teh, spicy thai fried rice and his favourite cucur udang...
I can't wait for our Malaysian holiday to see if he will like nasi lemak and char koay teow :)

Central gas heating

As if things could not get any worst, I woke up last night at 2 a.m, freezing! Tried to turn up the thermostat but it was not working. So I had no choice but to wake Fred up to see if he could get it to work. By 3.30 a.m we'd given up, bundled Lucas with extra polaire blankets and went back to sleep.

This morning Fred had a major meltdown when he found out that he had to get the landlord to call the gas company as the landlord did not sign an all inclusive contract for breakdown of central heating. He can be such a drama queen, complaining that he'd hoped to sleep but was woken up, and all the bad things are happening and why, why, why.

Also that he'd planned to go to the spa on Thursday morning but his mother messaged him to say that she is not available to babysit and could he go in the arvo instead.

I didn't really want to spend all morning listening to the tirade so I quickly took Lucas to the creche where it was warm and came back to find that Fred managed to call the landlord who managed to get someone to come look at the heater. All that energy wasted and all that stress from Fred - all for nothing. Geez... I really need to get him a chill pill!

The repairman took a mere 5 minutes and voila - central heating!

Since I'd taken the day off from school, I started with some cleaning and finally am kicking back with a book and my asam laksa maggi mee while waiting for the rice to cook (for lunch). All quiet in the apartment. Bliss :)

8 months and counting

Its been slightly more than 8 months since Lucas & I got here.

After all this time I still get palpitations when I need to manouver the car through the cramped roads and through roundabouts. The french really love their roundabouts. There is one every 100 metres or so here in Tarbes. The reason why I get so nervous is that you do not stop at roundabouts, unless there is a car coming at you at 70km/hr. You are just supposed to wedge your way through preferably without stopping or some people might tell you, without even slowing down. I forget how many times I've gotten flashed or honked when I stopped at the roundabout!

I am also not used to the "priority to the right" rule here. Many times I've forgotten about this and have not given way. Same with pedestrian crossing.

I am still in the Malaysian driving mode - if the light turns orange, go faster! Stop at roundabouts. There is no such thing as giving priority to cars coming from your right - seriously, even on a straight road, if you see a car coming out on your right, you have to stop and let that car pass.

I have also found myself driving on the wrong side several times when there is no other car on the road, cos I don't have other cars to guide me. I get confused sometimes.

In my 8 months here I still don't get why the french insist on drinking coffee and tea from bowls instead of mugs. I don't get the hype about saucisson - everyone loves it; WHY????? The same goes with Cassoulet. And the national obsession about Nutella - c'mon, have they never tasted peanut butter? Incidentally peanut butter is almost impossible to get here in Tarbes; I have a jar that is guarded very closely in my pantry.

Why does each meal have to be accompanied by bread (even when we are already eating potatoes or rice), cheese and yoghurt? In that exact order please...

Did you know that the french listen to English and American songs all the time - BUT they do not understand what they are listening to as they do not speak English? I found this out at the hip little cafe with really good music from the owner's laptop and I tried to speak in English and got a blank stare back. I was with a Moroccan friend who has lived in Tarbes for the past 12 years and she explained that in her school everyone listens to English songs but cannot speak the language.

I can't say the same for Paris and other regions but here in Tarbes, one cannot really differentiate the rich from the poor. Not by the car they are driving (Fred's truck driver colleague is driving an X5) or by the clothes or designer bags they carry (almost none or very discreet brands).

I also found out through Bee's blog recently that the french social security system is so good that if you give birth in France, you get a birth bonus; and childcare allowance from the Government as well as a monthly stipend for your baby!

So France may have its quirkiness but it seems to me that its a pretty good place to be, especially for Lucas.

A bout of gastro

Our spa plans had to take a backseat as Fred & I had really bad food poisoning Saturday night. It was so bad that Fred was more or less comatose, and when I was not asleep, I was vomiting and feeling so dizzy I couldn't get up. Poor Lucas had to more or less fend for himself all of Sunday. We made ourselves get up on Sunday and literally crawled out of bed to change Lucas, give him his milk and cereal. But we slept through lunch and didn't wake up til past 3 p.m. All day Lucas was playing around the bed, reading and singing, amusing himself while we slept. He managed to push a chair against the pantry and got food (cereal, biscuits and bread) for lunch - all by himself. Fred says we are horrible parents for neglecting Lucas but the truth of the matter is - when you are away from friends and family, in time of need, there is really no one to help.
And even when my MIL knew we were both sick, she didn't come over with chicken soup or anything at all. Its times like this I really, really wish to be with my family where being a family means just that - love, comfort, support.
When I was in KL, besides mom & dad and my sister, I had wonderful neighbours who were kind and thoughtful. I could always rely on Chrissy to make some porridge or soup and Debbie for some fried rice or sandwich. Even Chrissy's housemate Moi would have cooked something for us if she knew we were so sick we could not get out of bed.
My MIL came over today and I told her (nicely) that Lucas was left on his own and he managed to find his own lunch. I hope she felt bad and I think maybe she did, as she stayed with us all afternoon. But when push comes to shove, in this foreign country, we have no one else to rely on but ourselves... Now if only I can convince my parents to migrate over here...

Spa time at Bagneres de Bigorre

My husband just told me that he will be bringing me to a thermal spa in Bagneres this Sunday and has arranged for MIL to babysit Lucas :)
He also went to Decathlon to buy a pair of swimmers for himself and came back with speedo shorts :(  eeewwwwww... when I complained he says that in France the men wear speedos and in public pools are not allowed to wear boardshorts. Well, I will go to that spa and see if any men there are wearing boardshorts...
Anyway we are going to the Aquensis Spa and I looked at the website to check out the facilities and am now pretty excited about going though I have to wear a bikini which means I need to wax my underarms... (hey, its winter, OK - no one sees my underarms in winter cos I am always in long sleeves..!)
http://www.aquensis.fr/

Lucas at 28 months

Lucas is now 28 months old!!!! In the past 2 weeks he has surprised us once again, many times over.

After we started disciplining him and cutting out TV time, Lucas has been an angel, both at home with me and also at creche. On Thursday when I picked Lucas up from creche, Emmanuelle looked shellshocked because Lucas sat down and had his goutez for the very first time!

Lucas also navigated his way up and down the stairs by holding onto the rails when we went out.

When we are about to go out, he brings me his coat and his shoes.

When my mobile phone rang and I was in the shower, Lucas brought the phone to me. If it was the home phone, he sometimes answers the phone by saying "hewwo".

Lucas knows how to change the CDs in his CD player and knows which button to press "play".

2 weeks ago, Fred & I decided that Lucas' TV time should be severely limited. I argued that it was through Barney and Sesame Street that Lucas can now count 1 to 10 and can sing and dance to several nursery rhymes and also he learnt his ABC with Barney. But because he was exposed to so much TV at home, he was getting irritated at creche where there was no TV at all to occupy his time.

So since I was the one exposing him to so much TV, it was up to me to stop it. And I did, by the grace of God. It was damn hard. I didn't do it slowly. It was all done cold turkey. Lucas kept asking for TV but I stood firm and said no. It took many temper tantrums until he realised that I was not going to budge.

Its been 2 weeks. Lucas stopped asking for TV days ago. Now he asks for a story instead of the TV. And he is starting to play by himself in his room more.

Yesterday Lucas brought over his "Feelings" book (its a baby sign language book) and surprised me by reading it to me and signing each word. The book teaches babies how to express "happy", "sad", "hungry", "excited" and "sleepy". Lucas managed to say and sign all 5 words, yes, even "excited"!!!!

He has been imitating everything I say and especially Fred and now has started calling me "bebe" (like his papa) instead of "mama".

He knows how to ask for water when he wants a drink or milk, he says "down please" if he wants to get down from his highchair. He tells us when he wants to pee (he says "pee") but refuses to use the potty without his diapers.

His eating habits have improved. He had porcini risotto this arvo for lunch. It was by chance that I found some tea time goodies from Carrefour (the hypermarket decided to change several of their packaging to Mickey and friends) and I bought the brioche and pancakes for Lucas' goutez. He latched onto the packaging and happily ate whatever had Mickey in it....

I am still trying to feed Lucas his veges tho. He is stubborn about his veges, he used to love green peas as a baby but now refuses to eat them. Same with tomatoes, brocolli, spinach, long beans, corn... He eats potatoes and a little bit of carrot. I have tried to place the veges artistically on his plate, tried mixing them up with other food but nothing works...

And now, since yesterday Lucas has refused his milk. He's asking for chocolate milk for breaky instead and he didn't want his nightly bottle.

40 and counting...

Wow, its been 10 days since I last blogged. Time really flies! Seriously, I was a young, carefree, single career woman in my 20s having the time of my life and then, with a wink of an eye, I am now a 39 year old SAHM to a beautiful 2 year old tackling laundry everyday...Sometimes I wish I could slow down the time or even stop time. I don't want to be 40, but I have to face facts that I will turn 40 in May. I don't feel 40, in fact I still feel like I am in my 20s. Am I experiencing mid life crisis? Is this it?
I am not about to do anything drastic though - not like a lot of people going through mid life crisis and I am relatively content with life, but I just don't want to be 40. The thought of going through menopause is scary...

Soon there will be added headaches for me to handle - to have another baby before my eggs shrivel up or not? To get back on track with my career here in France or just get a part time job? To start worrying for my twilight years or not? To botox or not?
So many questions... so little time!!!!!!