Music & baby

I finally got around to changing my playlist. Sitting here this arvo thinking of songs in my past and reminiscing those carefree days, I've come up with a list of songs that I used to listen to many times over. Skid Row's "I remember you" was on repeat for days and today I can still listen to this song over and over again!

I am happy to say that Lucas has inherited my love for music - since he was in my tummy, I've exposed him to many genres, from Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and U2 to Backstreet Boys and N'Sync; Britney and Christina, Il Divo and Celine, Vivaldi, Bach & Mozart. This morning he jumped up and took my hands and started dancing when "Girl, you'll be a woman soon" started playing on my blog.

He has also started singing along with Mickey - in french, no less!!!! Its such a joy to see my baby singing and playing with his toy piano & toy guitar from Aunty Jenn. I've noticed that he listens raptly when classical music is on and I've read that to encourage musical tendencies in babies, exposure to classical music is important. From the day he was born, Lucas has been sleeping with classical music.

Last week, Fred & I were at a store looking at guitars and Lucas was so excited he wanted to touch every guitar!

It is a fact that children who grow up listening to music will develop strong music related connections. Some of these music pathways will actually affect the way we think. Listening to classical music can improve our spatial reasoning, at least for a short time. And learning to play an instrument may have an even longer effect on certain thinking skills. In several studies, children who took piano lessons for six months improved their ability to work puzzles and solve other spatial tasks by as much as 30 percent.

Many experts think that music may stimulate the brain in a way that helps educational and emotional development. Listening to classical music probably will not make your baby smarter or raise his IQ. However, it may help to prime his brain for specific types of thinking.

Numerous studies conclude that playing music to babies in the womb and in the early years helps build the neural bridges along which thoughts and information travel. And research suggests it can stimulate the brain's alpha waves, creating a feeling of calm - a recent study of premature infants found that they were soothed by the music.

"The music most people call "classical"--works by composers such as Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart--is different from music such as rock and country. Classical music has a more complex musical structure. Babies as young as 3 months can pick out that structure and even recognize classical music selections they have heard before.
Researchers think the complexity of classical music is what primes the brain to solve spatial problems more quickly. So listening to classical music may have different effects on the brain than listening to other types of music." (Diane Bales)

What can you do to nurture your baby's love of music?

* Play music for your baby. Try different selections of classical music. If you play an instrument, practice when your baby is nearby. However, keep in mind that loud music can damage your baby's hearing, so be sure to keep the volume soft to moderate.

* Sing to your baby. Hearing your voice helps your baby begin to learn language. Research shows there is a strong connection between language development and musical ability.

* Sing with your child. Setting words to music actually helps the brain learn them more quickly and retain them longer.

* Start music lessons early. If your toddler shows interest in learning an instrument, you don't need to wait. Young children's developing brains are equipped to learn music. Children as young as 3 and 4 years can understand and become proficient in the basics of certain musical instruments. And starting lessons early help children build a lifelong love of music.

How to renew your Malaysian passport in France

For Malaysians who are residing in France and need to renew their Malaysian passports, you need to go to Paris to get it done OR you can take a cheap flight to London where you can get your new passport on the same day. In Paris, which is an administrative office, they will assist you to submit your application to the London office.

Documents needed for renewal of Malaysian passport are as follows:
(i) Original Malaysian passport and 2 photocopies - they only require photocopies of the 1st page of your passport, so don't bother copying all the pages!
(ii) 3 passport photos
(iii) Original IC and 2 photocopies
(iv) ‘Carte de Séjour’ and 2 photocopies
(v) £50- in cash, can be bought at a private moneychanger
(vi) Application form and another information sheet to be filled out at the embassy
(vii) 6 euros for postage to London

The embassy address and phone number are as follows:
Ambassade de Malaisie
2bis, rue Benouville
75116 Paris
Tel N° : 01-45-53-11-85

Metro : Porte Dauphine (Line 2)
 

At Porte Dauphine exit, look for a tobacco shop, turn right at Rue Fauntanaise just by the tobacco "TABAC" shop and go straight. Its a 5 minute walk, you will pass tennis courts on your right and posh apartments on your left. Look for Rue Benouville on your left.

If you renew your passport at the Malaysian Embassy in Paris, you need to present yourself personally as they need to take your thumbprint. The "pick up" is 1 month after you submit your application. However, if you do not live in Paris, the embassy can courier the passport back to you. You need to buy a courier envelope from La Poste (21,90 euro) and fill in your address. Submit this envelope with your application at the embassy.

The Malaysian Embassy in Paris is open from 9a.m - 12.30p.m and reopens from 2.30p.m. If you are travelling from far, it would be prudent to call the embassy in advance to see if they are open on the days you plan to travel.

Our mini mini break in Paris

2 days before Paris, Lucas started coughing. The night before we left on our roadtrip, Lucas vomited at 2 a.m. He called out to me and when I went into his room, he was sitting up, saying "oh no, mama" over and over again. He'd vomited some milk on his pillow. I changed him and as I was carrying him back to bed, he vomited again, this time all over me. He'd also had a little fever, so Fred & I were thinking of postponing the Paris trip. The next morning, Lucas was fine and back to his normal self, but we took him to the doctor - just in case (in hindsight, it was a good thing).

As we'd told the doctor about our roadtrip to Paris, he prescribed fever suppositories, anti-vomit, cough medicine and antibiotics just in case we need them.

Our 8 and a half hour drive to Paris was very nice - Lucas was very good, singing and playing, and happily looking out the window. We were pretty surprised as he took on that very long drive very well. We'd only stopped twice in that 8+ hour leg. And Lucas didn't complain at all.

But our first night in Paris, Lucas again woke me up at 3 a.m vomiting. He also had a raging fever. So I administered suppositories every 6 hours but didn't start the antibiotics just yet, as we wanted to wait and see if his body will fight off the bacteria himself. That was a mistake. I'd also read the prescription for anti vomiting meds wrong and didn't give it to him immediately cos I'd read that Lucas needed to eat before the meds when it was actually the other way around.

Anyway, the next morning Lucas asked for water and promptly threw up all the water he'd drank. His fever was also very present. I started him on the antibiotics and anti vomiting meds then but he refused to eat anything at all, even his favourite Kinder surprise. At this point he was still drinking - he had a cup of hot chocolate and was still active inspite of the fever.

The main reason for us to be in Paris was for me to present myself at the Malaysian Embassy to renew my passport. So off we went, we covered Lucas well and took the metro to Port Dauphine. We spent Day 1 doing all my passport stuff as I needed to find a money changer to change euros to GBP. The passport is being renewed in London (the Paris embassy is administrative and sends the renewal requests to London). The pick up is a month after you submit your passport at the embassy in Paris - but I'd requested that the new passport be couriered back to me instead to save me another trip to Paris. That request would have been easily complied with if I'd known earlier that I'd need to go to a post office to buy the courier envelope.

We traipsed all around Avenue Victor Hugo looking for a post office; after which we had to retrace our steps back to the embassy. All this time, Fred & I were trying to feed Lucas but he never touched anything.

As the embassy was closed for lunch we stopped at a Starbucks in Avenue Victor Hugo as I wanted Lucas to have some hot chocolate since he didn't want to eat or drink anything else. I was getting worried at this point so we decided to give the hot choc a try. Lucas was already tired and irritated by then, as he saw me in line getting the coffee & HC, his head bumped against a woman's bag as he was walking towards me and he started crying and screaming. At our table, after he'd calmed down, he couldn't wait to get to the HC but as it was too hot, he again started crying and he accidentally knocked the small cup of HC over. Which was fine - the staff came over to clean the mess immediately but as soon as the table was cleaned, Lucas threw a tantrum and this time deliberately knocked over my cup of HC! The poor staff had to clean our table twice in 5 minutes and this time even had to clean the window that was splattered with HC!

But they were really, really nice about it. Whoever said that Parisiens are a nasty lot are WRONG! This trip, I've met nothing but nice Parisiens everywhere we went!!!!!

The staff at Starbucks replaced the grande hot chocolate with extra whipped cream and chocolate sauce and even though I insisted on paying for it, they refused payment. The barrista added cold milk so that the new cup of HC would not be too hot for Lucas, and one of the staff about to leave for home came over to say hallo to Lucas.

At the hotel, the staff were equally nice. They went above their duty to be hospitable and when they knew Lucas was sick, checked up on Lucas a few times. As we checked out early, the hotel didn't charge us for the extra days that we'd booked.

We cut short our trip to rush Lucas back to Tarbes as he'd stopped drinking or eating and we were worried that he'd be dehydrated. Fred drove like a demon all the way back to Tarbes - we didn't want to bring Lucas to a hospital in Paris in case he had to be admitted, so we hightailed it back.

Today Lucas asked for water and is drinking milk - but he is still not eating solids. His fever has gone down, and while he is still not himself he is feeling much, much better - thank God!

For those of you visiting Paris and is looking for a nice, cheap hotel; check out Hotel Du Moulin in Montmartre (http://www.hotelmoulin.com/).

This hotel is situated in a small street, near to Moulin Rouge and Sacre Coeur. Fred thought this area maybe dodgy but we were happy to see that the area where the hotel is at is close to bars and cafes and restaurants. It was "happening" and the area was totally bustling at night! The patrons of the cafes and bars were young, hip and well dressed and this area is not at all dodgy. Its safe to walk around, and well lit.

As far as the hotel is concerned, our triple room (one single bed and a double bed - check out chambre 1 in hotel website) was a dream. It was extremely clean, the beds were very comfortable and this hotel does not stinge on pillows :)

I would recommend this hotel to anyone who wants to check out the Montmartre district. The Hotel Du Moulin is run by Koreans who speak English and French and the staff are wonderful. Breakfast is provided for 7 euros per person (baguette, croissant, jam, butter, a pot of coffee/ tea, orange juice, fruit, cheese)

The only downside is the parking (if you drive) is not in-house. You have to walk quite a bit, and pay 23 euros a day for parking.

When we go back to Paris again, I'd definitely stay in Hotel Du Moulin. I really like the Montmartre area, and its 7 stops on the blue line metro to the Champs Elysees area.

E.coli

Watching CSI Miami a couple of nights ago really freaked me out. It was the E.coli poisoning episode where a girl who'd eaten a salad in a restaurant fell ill and died a week later. The CSI team found that the E.coli was in the irrigation system of a big commercial farm which supplies fruits and vegetables to restaurants.

Me, I love having the grilled chicken caesar salad at McDonalds. Its convenient since McD's is just behind my apartment. I also like to buy ready packed salads from the supermarkets - I just open the pack and its ready to eat, I do not need to rinse them at all.

That episode of CSI maybe based on the 1996 E.coli outbreak in the Eastern U.S. which was traced back to Fancy Cutt Farms in California.

According to health authorities, the company was rinsing lettuce in dirty, bacteria-laden water, in a shed 100 feet away from a cattle pen, right in the path of dust-borne manure.

It's not that the fresh produce itself is dangerous. The E. coli bacteria breeds in animal or bird manure, which can come into contact with fresh produce in the field, during the packing or shipping process.

Increased public demand for fresh fruits and vegetables, and the growing popularity of ready-to-eat packaged salad mixes and fresh juices, has encouraged many small companies to enter an increasingly competitive field.

In particular, small-scale farmers who used to just grow lettuce and radishes have now started cleaning, chopping and processing their own salad mixes. Some of them have little understanding of correct safety procedures and have little incentive to implement them. And because most of this produce is eaten raw, high-heat techniques to kill bacteria such as boiling or pasteurization are not applicable.

Scrupulous cleanliness at every step of the operation, from harvesting through processing is paramount.

The story adds that another serious health hazard concerns the cleanliness of shipping trucks, which is also not regulated. Trucks used to transport poultry from farm to market one day can be used to ship fresh vegetables the next day, and there is no law which states how that truck must be cleaned.

This episode urged me to do some research about E.Coli and I found the following excerpt:

Experts in foodborne illnesses are urging consumers to wash their lettuce carefully, leaf by leaf. Simply giving a head of lettuce a quick rinse under the faucet doesn't wash away E. coli bacteria and other possible pathogens that could be contaminating the inner leaves, according to Ross Davidson, a clinical microbiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

Davidson performed a study in which he sprayed heads of lettuce with E. coli and then washed them three different ways. One group of lettuce was cored and the head was rinsed under a stream of tap water. A second group was cored and dipped several times in a sink full of water. In the third group, the lettuce was washed leaf by leaf in a sink of water. The study showed that washing the leaves individually was significantly better at removing E. coli from the lettuce than the intact washing.

Health officials do not know how widespread E. coli contamination is in produce, but in the past couple of years, a handful of outbreaks have been linked to lettuce, alfalfa sprouts and apple juice, Davidson said. It's also unclear how E. coli gets into lettuce. Davidson suggested two possible routes: through lettuce fields that are contaminated with water from cattle farms; or through unsterilized manure used to fertilize lettuce fields.

 

What are the precautions that home consumers can take?
Well, for one I will think twice before having McD's salads again, unless I bring it home and rinse it a few more times...
The following are other precautions we can all take when preparing food at home:

Always wash fresh fruits and vegetables thoroughly before eating.
Always clean any surface that has come in contact with raw meat before any other item is placed on that surface. FYI, it is better to use a plastic cutting board than a wooden one (though a wooden one is aesthetically more pleasing, it also breeds bacteria if not properly cleaned).
Always thoroughly wash hands after handling raw meat, and before handling any other utensil or food item. Always cook meat until the juices run absolutely clear.
Prepare meat and poultry separately from fruits and vegetables, and use separate clean utensils for cutting and mixing.

At the store, trust your senses. Look for fresh-looking fruits and vegetables that are not bruised, shriveled, moldy, or slimy. Don’t buy anything that smells bad. Don’t buy packaged vegetables that look slimy. Buy only what you need. Keep meats separate from produce.

Handle fresh fruits and vegetables carefully. Put produce away promptly, and keep it in the crisper. Remember to keep all cut fruits and vegetables covered in the refrigerator, and throw away produce you have kept too long. Wash all fruits and vegetables in clean drinking water before eating. Do not use detergent or bleach when washing fruits and vegetables. Store prepared fruit salads and other cut produce in the refrigerator until just before serving. Discard cut produce if it has been out of the refrigerator for four hours or more.

The hazard of wearing a short dress

Today I flashed so many passersby I've lost count :( And no, I didn't do it on purpose. I actually forgot that I was wearing a short skirt and as I was stepping out of my car in a crowded public car park, in front of the Saturday market crowd, I inadvertently flashed everyone.

What's more, it doesn't help that my little car is a 2 door, so I had to bend over to retrieve Lucas from his car seat - and again, my skirt rode up to my bum :(

Walking down the street I was so conscious about the length of my skirt I would keep pulling and adjusting it. This comes from many many years of not wearing a short skirt so I am out of practice.

In the cafe where we stopped for breakfast, I again flashed the nice middle aged couple in front of me when I stood up from my chair. I should have twisted both legs out from under the table but I didn't.

And then Lucas decided he wanted to be carried - and I carried him but his foot stuck under my skirt and yanked it up in front of the kids at the carousel :(

Luckily no one screamed. But I was mortified. I don't think I will be wearing this dress again anytime soon...

Spring!

Spring is here! The radio announced that today is the first Spring weekend. Although its cloudy here in Tarbes, the temperature is supposed to be 20 degrees today. Yesterday was beautiful - when Lucas & I went shopping it was 25 degrees.

We went clothes shopping for both Lucas & I. Lucas is growing so fast a lot of his clothes do not fit him anymore. So we went to Kiabi yesterday and got him 3 year old clothes. Kiabi is a leading French retailer with clothes and accessories for women, men and children. The clothes for Lucas are very reasonably priced and good quality - and yesterday Kiabi happened to be on an 8 day sale, so Lucas got new jeans for 6 euro and Tshirts from 3- 6 euro. I like buying Lucas' shirts from Kiabi but the few pairs of pants I got from here previously did not fit well so I was surprised that the pair of jeans was a good fit. I find that when I get pants from Obaibi, it fits Lucas much better as it has adjustable inserts.

We then set off to Centreville for my shopping - among my purchases, I bought a pair of shorts. Because I saw a 40 something wearing shorts with tights, a waistcoat and bottines and she was a knockout! So I thought to myself, what the heck, I will disregard my age and buy that pair of shorts!!!! Anyway I was watching a makeover show on M6 replay and one of the candidates dresses like me (before the makeover!!!!) And the public said that the dressing was not sexy or stylish at all. I was getting used to wearing a sweater with jeans, boots and my puffy coat everyday but after watching that episode, I've decided to "glam" myself up - so I bought tights, shorts, tunics, off shoulder sweaters, and a short dress. I am drawing the line on leather leggings tho'...
Today's mission is to find accessories to go with my new look...

Warmer days

The days are staring to be longer and warmer :) Its so nice to have the sun shining and be able to go out for a walk without my heavy coat that makes me look like the Michelin man!
The past couple of days were heavenly. Lucas and I have been out everyday.

I hope this means Spring is here - the daffodils are in full bloom, I have started spring cleaning (yes, I know.... amazing!!!! ) and am waiting to see if I can pack up my winter clothes and replace them with my spring and summer clothes...