Holiday Time is here again!

Fabien and I used to go for short trips out of Singapore at a drop of a hat. A change of underwear, passport and credit cards was all we needed, and we loved last minute holidays. In line with the philosophy that we don't want our lives to change too much after Sophie's arrival, I agreed on a spur of a moment to a friend's proposal to join her for a week in Sicily.

It is time to bite the bullet and live out that philosophy, but I am nervous taking a lil baby from Turin to Rome, then change to a tiny charter flight to Trapani, and then a transfer to the port, and then a hydrofoil to the island of Favignana, and then (I dunno probably by mule!) to the villa (finally!). It is daunting how much more luggage having a baby on board entails. I almost laughed when I booked the ticket and read that airline will allow up to 5 kilos of free additional luggage per baby below 2 years. 99% of the suitcase space is already devoted to Sophie, and it sure aint 5 kg! You can't tell that something so small needs so much STUFF to be happy - here we are lounging at home..



I am considering a U-Haul truck. Of course there is no one to drive said truck because Fabien has to work so I am flying solo!

I am sure it is all going to be a beautiful adventure and utterly worth it.

Am rushing around like mad preparing the trip. Leaving on 2 Aug and returning on 9 Aug. WIll post the photos. when I come back!

update from Sophie as at 30 July




We thought we would leave some photos for Daddy to look at whilst we are on HOLIDAY ...

This is me and Daddy playing in the morning. He'll have much quieter mornings this week!

Here Comes Trouble

Sophie is growing so fast. Mum bought her these little cotton bodysuits when she came to visit, which were far too big 2 months ago, and Sophie is filling them out nicely now (see photo) - the words say "here comes trouble" which is incredibly appropriate.

Someone asked if the photos of Sophie on this blog are "posed", and the answer is - not really.

What happens is that Sophie's day generally involves showing her stuff by theme. So for instance, we can spend a couple of days with anthromorphosized fruits. Like Alfred the Apricot and Prufrock the Prune (Alfred J Prufrock geddit?). I try to let her smell, touch and generally interact with the fruit or whatever I am showing her, and sometimes she is so damn cute that I cannot resist taking a photo - like with her and Kiko the watermelon, or with this i-book.

When the photo lighting is bright, it is probably taken in the morning, when I open the windows and let her get exposed to natural light. If it looks a bit dark and grainy, it is probably cos we've shut up the house to reduce the afternoon heat, and I don't use the flash cos it disturbs her.

Look what I can do!

Today I am 10 weeks old. Mommy has that overwhelming maternal pride thing going (it's so hard not to become obsessed huh?) so she wants me to record some of the cool stuff I can do at 10 weeks (for those cognitive developmental psychologists out there - this is counting from my chronological age and not developmental age, cos I popped out a bit earlier than expected)...

1. track stuff really well with my eyes (I love looking at objects waved in front of me)


2. do a mini push-up from my tummy (mom tries real hard to make tummy-time fun, but sometimes I got other plans)


3. laugh out loud (daddy ran to mommy to announce that he heard me laugh out loud for the first time on Sunday night - he was so amazed! Silly parents - don't they know I am always laughing at them?)


4. sleep through most of the night from 8pm to 8am (Mom was threatening to "Ferberize" me so I thought I better get with the program), though I usually still have a midnight snack or two.
   
   Mom wants me to remind her that moderation is the key - as backed up by:
   this study from Pediatrics
   
   


5. have gurgly conversations with my parents (Mom and Dad are always trying to talk to me, so I figured maybe I should answer whilst I can get a word in edgewise)


6. smile and completely charm random strangers on the street - people are always stopping my mom to tell her what a cute baby I am!


7. swat at stuff with my hands - the reason why Mom loves this photo so much is because I am hanging on to the camera cord in my hand (it is a bit out of the frame, but you can see from my completely satisfied look that I got it!) Sometimes I get to grasp it, but more often not. Grasping at this stage is still pretty much a reflexive thing, which is why it's so fun when it actually happens!

Oh yeah, just for Dad, I better note that I am 5 point something kilos (numbers! BAH!) But for a 10 week old baby that's pretty good.

First Vaccination!

Hey everyone - This is Sophie blogging again... I am a big girl now, and I got my first shot today at the ASL (Italian health service thingy) at Via Della Consolata 10 (Mommy is making me write it down so she doesn't forget either).

Auntie Gina drove us there, which was great (even though the parking gods did not deem that we get an easy spot). And generally just gave my mom a (much appreciated) hand. We think Auntie Gina is going to have a baby boy, but we'll see.



Anyway, mommy is really proud of me, because I took the shot quite calmly. Okay I cried (just a little) and stopped crying pretty easily. It was all pretty cool. I am normally grouchier if I miss a nap.. Auntie Gina took photos of me being a brave little girly. Here it is!

Still Plotting to Take Over the World

I tell you this kid is plotting to overthrow some governments.

Our little anarchist and her control center right on the living room sofa.

And she's an advert for Steve Jobs too...

Real Men change diapers

I took this snap in a moment of quiet when we first came home from the hospital. Fabien was holding her and surfing the internet while I was having a shower. When I came out of the shower, this is what I saw...



The girlfriends who have seen this picture, with all its dark and grainy colours, tell me it resembles a perfume or fashion advert. There's just something quite macho about a man carrying his baby.
Anyways, having a kid changed our lives alot, but I am glad that I chose to have one with this dude. In our years together (have they all passed so fast already?), it's moments like this which make me fall in love all over again.

By the by - tommorrow is 14 July, and apart from being the French National Day, it is also the anniversary of the "unbirthday" party which I threw for Fabien in 2001. Something a little out of Alice in Wonderland. Happy Unbirthday again Fabien! Me and Sophie love you loads

Somebody asked me what this Alice in Wonderland thing is. It's a bit tough to explain the entire series of internal jokes when we first started dating, but it involves falling down rabbitholes and red pill/blue pill decisions. But the gist of it is that Fabien's reasonably ordered life kinda fell down the rabbithole ever since he met me, but he wouldn't have had it any other way...

Nap Junkie

I've decided our daughter is a nap- junkie. Meaning that if she is not well rested then we can only watch in horror as our cuddly smiley and calm babydoll becomes a whiny fussy little monster.

Right now, it's the world cup season, and there's A LOT of noise in the neighbourhood. This completely messes up our princess's naptime. You would have thought exhausted children are supposed to just drop off to sleep... Well you thought wrong! Our kiddo just goes into completely hyperactive and grumpy mode. She becomes totally difficult to soothe, and just when she finally drops off to sleep from sheer exhaustion, the neighbour's frigging beagle will bark, and I have to start all over again. Oh yeah and the neighbour has started RENOVATION WORK on their house. so there is drilling and banging going on intermitently all day, Is the French Foreign legion still accepting applications?!!

4th July Post Script
Happy 4th of July to all my American (and quasi-american) friends. Sophie is sleeping better today because it was cooler last night so we could shut all the windows to block the noise. She naps better in the day when she has a full 9 hours of sleep the night before. So we have to organize our lives around her nap times (which do not become scheduled until she reaches 4 months).

I could get out more if I found a better way to transport her. We've tried the sarong sling and the baby bjorn carrier, and she HATES them both. She screams like you are trying to kill her when you put her into any one of them. All she wants to do is to be carried in somebody's arms, preferably with her head resting on their shoulder with easy access to her hand (so she can suck it) - this girl accepts no substitutes!

Speaking of which, I thought maybe she should stop using my boob as a pacifier and tried giving her the real thing - but nope, she knows the difference and keeps spitting it out. If you try holding it to her mouth - she cries in angry protest.

Sigh - this one is a high demand kid (or hopefully is it just a phase?) Either way, I have full respect for people like my mum who juggled an infant (me) and a full time job with no helper or maid (just my grandma who babysat me on working days). She told me that in those days, men didn't really help out with raising kids, so 90 percent of stuff was done by her.

Spoilt Ol Me on the other hand, has stopped working, has the cleaning lady to take care of the house, wonderful friends who offer to come babysit, and a devoted husband who takes time off work to carry Sophie in circles around the house (she likes movement) and there are days when I STILL want to throw her from the window....

Okay - in case you think I am serious in that last line (let me stress that it's just a figure of speech like "leave you in the dustbin". My friend's husband thinks I am slandering Sophie because I make her sound so super fussy (when actually she just a normal little baby who prefers doing shots of breastmilk and snoring rather than shots of vodka and snorting).