Nice, relaxing weekend

I had a really nice weekend :) On Saturday I was with Lucas the whole entire day while Fred had his "time off" taking the glider out for 2 runs. Lucas and I played and relaxed and on the whole it was an easy day for the both of us.
Then today the 3 of us watched Transformers 2 on DVD after a leisurely breakfast - Lucas lost interest after a while, preferring to play with his own robot while we watched the whole movie. Its a really good movie, BTW. You know how the 2nd instalments are usually not as good as the first one; almost always (look at Ironman & Ironman 2) Transformers 2 is the exception! Its just as good, if not better than the first one! I can't wait for the 3rd instalment of Transformers!!!!

I also watched Ashton Kutcher's Kiss & Kill while Fred took Lucas out to the playground for a few hours. Not bad, Ashton's a hottie :)

Undone

I just finished a thriller called Undone by Karin Slaughter. I have to say that this book is rather disturbing. And it must take a rather sick mind to write stuff like what I'd read in this book! Which is why Karin Slaughter has been touted as a brilliant crime writer. Nonetheless, I have to say I am deeply disturbed by this book... but with all things macabre, I couldn't help but finish the book in one reading!

Will I be ordering another Karin Slaughter book? I really don't know the answer to that...

Too much TV?

How much TV is too much TV? For a toddler like Lucas, I have read that we should restrict TV time to under an hour a day. But on the other hand, without TV (or in Lucas' case, its educational DVDs or Youtube) my son would not have been able to name animals, count til 20, name shapes and colors, sing with Barney, speak Spanish with Dora or sing nursery rhymes with Mother Goose and dance with Pororo.

Every morning when he is having his breakfast, the TV is switched on to Disney Channel - where he watches Agent Oso, followed by Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and then I switch channels to Rolie Polie Olie before he goes to school.

When he comes home, he usually asks for Pororo on the computer or he asks for a DVD while I cook dinner.

In between watching TV, he plays in his room, reads some books with me and I take a few minutes to flash him some cards (depending on his mood, if he feels like them).

So is Lucas getting too much TV? Does watching too much TV make him asocial? And hamper his imagination?

One thing I noticed about Lucas watching animations on YouTube is that he watches them in French, English, Spanish, Korean, Japanese and Italian. I try to limit the languages as Lucas tends to mix all his languages and comes off speaking a coffre of words that makes no sense except for the few english and french words thrown in. But does this mix allow Lucas to be more open to new languages when he grows up? Or is this going to turn into a speech problem for Lucas later on?

Speechwise, he has improved in the past 2 weeks - I find that he is speaking more french now, and his words are enunciated clearly now.

He comes home from school humming and singing - in french. But then he watches Pororo and starts singing in English and Korean as well!

I've decided earlier on that if Lucas is watching an educational DVD, then its fine - as long as he is learning stuff and not watching anything weird or violent (no Tom & Jerry for Lucas!). But the effects of watching more than an hour of TV a day is still not too apparent - should I worry that he does not have an imaginary friend? Does that mean he is not imaginative enough?

But how can he not be imaginative enough when he starts imagining monsters and such and tells me he's scared when the lights are switched off?

Job & such

God works in mysterious ways. Since my return from Malaysia, I have been praying for a sign and I have specifically been praying about going back to Malaysia; planning it to the last detail i.e French School for Lucas, a maid, an apartment within walking distance from the school, jobs etc. I started to apply for jobs in KL. Fred & I talked about what he would do when we moved back.

And then, on a weekend trip to Val D'Azun, Sandra mentioned in passing that her dad has been looking for an english speaking native and wouldn't it be good if I was looking for a job, then I could help her dad out. And Fred laughed and said, yes she's looking for a job! So Sandra called her dad and arranged for an interview for me. That was a month ago.

In that one month while waiting for a start date, many obstacles have come in my way. My boss, Sandra's dad took the wrong meds for his heart and had to be hospitalised, on the day I was supposed to start. After that, another date was given and the night before, he had a heart attack, causing much uproar in the station. No one could take me as they were intimidated by the fact that I spoke english and whilst I've assured them many times that I spoke and understood french, they still want me to be briefed by someone who spoke english - and that means my boss who is in hospital!

Now that we know he will be indisposed for the next 6 months, I am waiting for the new interim boss to speak to me. The past 17 days has been frustrating; I get up early and get ready for work - only to get that last minute phone call for me to stay put until further instructions. No biggie, a lot of people say cos I am still getting paid to play the waiting game but it gets irritating after a while - especially last Saturday when I woke up at 6 am to start work in Lourdes by 8 - the phone call came at 7.10 am and I was already driving out of Tarbes.

Finally the new boss tells me to sit and wait for a week while she sorts out the mess at the station. So this past week I have been more relaxed and not jump everytime the phone rings.

God works in mysterious ways, for sure. I was supposed to start Feb 2nd, then it was pushed to the 18th. And I was dreading missing out on Lucas' Carnaval at school (which I didn't) and then worrying about Lucas' 2 week school vacation. But with God's intervention, I managed to spend precious moments with Lucas while he is on his 2 week break.

In the past 1.5 weeks, I noticed my son getting bigger and speaking so much more now, in french and in english. He is also settling down and more calm; he eats at the table (for 15 minutes, sitting down) and he is getting more independant by the day! He is growing up so fast! If I had been at the office the past couple of weeks I would have missed all the milestones.

Lucas now gets the tissue paper to wipe his mouth after he finishes his chocolate milk every morning; and he throws away empty wrappers and milk cartons after he finishes - he says "poubelle" everytime.

He tries to clean himself after doing the deed in the toilet as well. He helps with cleaning up. New foods this month are cordon bleu dinde (turkey cordon bleu) and meatballs.

Favourite songs to sing - Pororo's Ribbit Frog, Incy wincy spider, rain rain go away and twinkle twinkle little star.

Lucas brings his coat and shoes to me when we are about to go out and when we come home, he takes off his coat and shoes himself and puts them back in their place. He chooses what he wants to wear and literally preens when I tell him he is handsome!

Favourite cartoons - Rolie Polie Olie, Pororo and Horton hears a Who.

Doctors

After living here for 20 months, I finally moved my ass and went to the gynae. My MIL helped me make an appointment 2 months earlier (yes, it takes 2-3 months waiting time for an appointment with gynaecologists or dermatologists here as there are so few of them) with Dr.Netter and went with me to my first appointment. Dr. Netter is a soft spoken, gentle woman and by far the best gynae I've ever been to as there was no pain, no discomfort and no bleeding right after!

She also sent me for a blood test after I told her about my monthly problems and a good thing too, as the blood test results showed me to be severely anaemic (3 out of 20). When I got my test results and my MIL saw it she insisted I go see our family doctor immediately. As usual I am reluctant as the wait at the clinic can take hours, but when I finally did, the doctor gave me a thorough check up and kept asking me if I had heart pains or chest pains. I didn't understand the significance of that or of all the fuss the doctors made over the blood test but after reading about severe anaemia on the internet I now know that as the red blood cells carry oxygen to our organs, lack of red blood cells mean lack of oxygen and that may cause one organ or more to be deprived of the much needed oxygen.

Dr. Netter called me to see her urgently too when she got the results and kept asking me if I was tired or have any difficulty breathing. She insists that anytime I am feeling tired I must call her. I tried to explain that I have had anaemia for many years now and am surprised by all the fuss; and she explained that I am at borderline needing transfusion, thus all the urgency.

Both doctors have now put me on medications which I must take 3 times a day, and I have another blood test coming up in a month.

This morning, I left Lucas in school early as I had an appointment for a mammogram. I was prepared to wait, with my Ipod and a book but to my surprise, the technician called me in at 8.15 am sharp. It was a painful experience - I was joking with my friend Cathy just last week as she told me that she hates going for mammograms as they are so painful and I remember saying to her, well, I wouldn't have that problem cos I am not a D cup like her. But fricking hell, it was painful for me too! I am just glad I only need to do this every 2 years.

Brissy

My thoughts and prayers are with my childhood friends and family up in Brissy as the rain and flooding continue in Queensland.

Take a look at all the videos on here, which are updated hourly on the horrendous floods:

http://floods.videohq.tv/

Happy New Year!

Lucas has crossed many milestones since I last blogged. Its amazing how fast he's growing; its almost as if he is trying his darnest to catch up!

Firstly, he is now fully toilet trained - yay!!!! It was by accident that he is now doing both no.1 and no.2 in the toilet. The NY weekend was a long one and no shops were open ( Fred drove around for an hour looking for one...) and we'd run out of diapers. So we decided - this is it; Lucas will just have to learn to sleep without a diaper. On the first night, before he went to sleep, I reminded him repeatedly that he will no longer have a diaper, so if he needs to pee, he will wake up to go to the toilet. And Voila! like magic, he woke up twice that night and the bed was dry!

However, the next 2 nights he didn't manage to get up on time, and I've had to change him but not the beddings. And for the last 2 nights, he goes to the toilet before he gets to bed, and sleeps through the night!

He also caught up very fast when he wanted to do his ka-ka and didn't have a diaper. I had to bribe him at first but now, he's going to the toilet like a pro!

He's so cute, when he does the 'drop' he says "very good! Bravo!" and then he gets up, points to the toilet and says "mama! chocolat!" (LOLS!!!!!)

Lucas has also started spending all day in school, eating (yes, eating!!!!) in the canteen with his friends. He is also starting to speak in french and loves talking on the telephone.

My fearless little boy is no longer fearless - he is scared of the dark; and when he gets up onto the playgym and climbs too high, he is scared and doesn't know how to get down.

He is into smurfs and robots, he has a collection of both toys. He loves watching and reading anything with robots in them. And his appetite has improved, though he is still not eating his veges.

Lucas is still asking for Santa Claus and presents, even though Christmas is over - somehow he still doesn't understand (or he refuses to understand) that Santa only comes once a year... He wakes me up every morning asking to open presents from Santa....