Introduction to solid food

In Malaysia when kids start eating solid food, they usually have rice soup cooks with some potatoes, carrots or tomatoes. One year ago I had no idea what babies eat in France, now I start to have some ideas. The most common baby food are those come in jar in the form of puree, which you could find in supermarket with different favor: vegetables or fruits for young babies.

Aelig's baby sitter showed me the brand the other baby was eating, and I was going to start feeding Aelig with it. However, hubby has his own plan, he chose to prepare Aelig's food himself, it makes sense as it is more healthy and economical.


The day she turned 6 months hubby fed her some mashed carrots and ham, she took them all without problem.


When we finished the first batch of mashed carrots, hubby proceeded to introduce her mixed vegetables: zucchini, potato and carrot, thoroughly cleaned and peeled.


The vegetables were boiled and then grinded using a traditional food mill. This food mill is from hubby's grandma, so I think it is pretty old.


It yielded quite some purees for her, this could last for at least one month.


We borrowed some small jars from my MIL. We give her one jar per day.


All jars are sealed with plastic bags and stored in the freezer compartment in the fridge.

The result of the solid food introduction is imminent: her stool changes from liquid texture to paste texture. These days when I feed her, sometimes her face turns red and I see her pushing, then she would start crying. As soon as I remove the stool from her she would be a happy baby again.

I think we should prepare her some fruit purees: bananas, apples, strawberries, or maybe some durian? lol

When you want to yell and say arggghhh

Arghhhhh, such bad luck!

Last Friday I received a letter from the company health insurance partner saying that they are downgrading our health coverage due to the skyrocketing cost over the years. I didn't know how it affects us until I see the coverage for laser eye surgery: they now only pay for 1000 euros a year per eye! Argghhh, they used to cover 100% of the surgery for both eyes in the same year, I know of two persons already from the company grabbing this good deal.

I have been wanted to go for this surgery even since I know that the company supplementary insurance will take care of all the costs. I got hold up because my BIL who happens to be an optician told me that there are some side effects so I better look into them first before going for the surgery. Then I got pregnant and during the pregnancy and 4 months after delivery one could not go for it since the vision changes during this period. Now that I'm ready for it, I got this letter and the downgrade will take effect starting the 1 of July. The cunning company! They only allows us one week to react so it is certainly too late for me.

Someone recommended me la Clinique Sourdille in Nantes for this surgery so I went to their website to see how much it costs to perform this surgery. I simply chose a doctor and in his website it states that it could cost anything from 1000 euros to 1480 euros per eye depending on the technology using. Sigh, it means that I still need to chip up from my own pocket and could only go for one eye per year.

It is the moment I want to yell and say arggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

She is six months old

Another milestone in her life!


From six months on we could start feeding her solid foods. In the health book (carnet santé, every kid will have one in France) it states that apart from milk she could try out some mashed vegetables and fruits, daily products (yogurts, cheese) and meat. However, since one of the parents is allergy, our doctor advised us to only give her egg, celery, nuts and fish after she turns one year old.


We bought this cake for her but of course eventually it ended up in our stomach. It was super delicious! Anyhow hubby cooked some mashed carrot for her and she also took in some hem. So far so good.


I still breastfeed her in the morning and during the evening as she refuses to drink in bottle before going to sleep. It seems that she understands at home she could have breast milk and at the sitter she could only have bottle milk. Anyway, from time to time when I run out of milk or during the weekend we still feed her in bottle and she drinks very little compared to when she was in the sitter's place. In the past when she wanted to stop drinking she would play with the nipple but one day she decided to shut her mouth, firmly. It cracked us but at the same time it was annoying because she always decides to stop when there are only 10 to 20ml left. Is it possible to teach a baby that she needs to / has to finish her milk / food?


We also discover many ways to make her laugh. She loves to be held high and fly to the sky. When we do this she would burst into a chain of laughing.


I finally managed to clear up her crib, it was taken by whole bunch of clothes and toys. We let her play in there but she still sleeps in her bassinet beside our bed. At this point, I still hesitate to put her in another room, as it is more practical for breastfeeding (she still wakes up during the night for milk) and it is so sweet to be able to see her the first thing in the morning. We will probably send her to her room once she starts sleep through the night.


I will certainly miss this scene whenever we move her crib to her room. One day she will be in her bed and we will be in ours, no more co-bedding during a nap.

I'm certainly not in rush to move her out. She grows up so fast I would really like to treasure the moment with her as much as I can.

Daycare or baby sitter?

We got a call from the Town Hall saying that the daycare center close to our apartment has a spot for Aelig in September. It comes to us as a surprise as we applied one year ago and didn't think that they would have an opening for us.

It is a tough decision to make. The advantages for the daycare are that they are very close to our place, literally just down the street where we live, and financially it is a lot cheaper compared to having a babysitter. Besides, Aelig gets to play with a bunch of kids which would help develop her social skill since her young day. By the time she turns 3 she will be well prepared to go to pre-school.

On the other hand, we have a babysitter who helped us through the tough time, who is flexible with her schedule and most importantly, she loves Aelig dearly even though Aelig could be quite difficult compare to another kid she is having.

Well, we need to reply them the latest tomorrow so a decision has to be made tonight.

Hubby and me both lean towards keeping the sitter as we think the most important factor to consider is that she takes good care of Aelig.

Falling in love

We started land hunt again. The project was put on hold last year when I was pregnant.

We saw this piece of hand, I felt in love with the scenery, but we are not getting it.

Imagine sipping a beer in the porch enjoying the picturesque landscape after a long day at work.

Unfortunately, it comes with many negative points. There is a power line passing through the land, right above where people are supposed to build the house as the remaining of the land is for agriculture purposes only. Plus, the countryside scenery is facing north so there is unlikely we will build a porch against the sunshine. The other issue that disturbs us is that this land is situated in a historical town so chances are we will have strict rules to follow when building the house.

Well, the hunting continues...

Is childcare free in France?

A while back someone commented that childcare is free in France. This is not true. As far as I know, you can get many form of helps from the government but at least 15% remain at your own charge.

If both parents are working, there are several childcare options, the most common ones being putting your kid in a government / community runs daycare center or hiring a baby sitter.

Apparently daycare is a cheaper option but it is difficult to get a spot. In our community, we have 3 daycares with about 70 spots, considering that every month we have on average 15 newborns and daycares are open for kids from 0 - 3 years old, it would be very lucky if you get accepted since the first try. I do not know what are the selection criterias, we enrolled since Aelig was 4 months in my stomach but we didn't get accepted.

So, we opted for the second choice: a baby sitter. We got a list from the Town Hall and tried to contact some of them who lived in our areas, but a lot of them do not work on Wednesday, or they do not want to work after certain hours. We consider ourselves lucky as after browsing through the list, only one was still available. To have more choice, I called the Town Hall and got a contact of someone who just got certified. We got a nice feeling with her during the interview and decided to "hire" her. Ever since, she has been magnificent and supportive, she helped us through the difficult period when hubby hurt his ankle. We are very blessed to have someone who adores Aelig and who do not mind working long hours.

So, how much a baby sitter costs actually? That was a question I asked before having Aelig. It depends pretty much on your household income as the government does provide some helps to finance the childcare. There are two principal rates : gross wage per hour and maintenance cost (water, electricity etc) per day. Our sitter charges us 3.80 euros an hour + 2.81 euros per day. She takes care of Aelig 45 hours a week which translates into 741 euros a month. She has to pay for her part of social charges which is around 170 euros per month. Her net income = 741 euros - 170 euros = 571 euros. As her employer, we pay her net income plus the maintenance cost of 2.81 per day. Overall, we pay her around 630 euros every month. The government takes care of 100% employer social charges (retirement, medical care; work accident, unemployment insurance...) which results in around 300 per month.

So, we have an outflow of about 630 euros a month for childcare services. However, depending on your household income, you might get some inflow as you are qualified for childcare stipends. For household who does not earn more than 43365 euros in 2008 with only one child to support, you could get the basic stipend = 177.95 euros a month until the kid turns 3 years old. Besides, there are 3 categories of stipend specifically for childcare, ranking from 167.07 euros a month to 441.63 euros a month. No matter in which category you are, a minimum of 15% of the sitter net income is on your charge.

I hope this information could provide some helps for people who do not read French. We got a booklet when I was pregnant and it explains very well all kind of helps you could get. For those who could read French you have more accurate and updated information on the government website
here.

The practical side of eating lunch at home

In my earlier years in France, I couldn't really understand when people tell me that they go back home during lunch break. Since eating out is relatively cheap, most Malaysians would go eating out with coworkers, or they bring their own lunch to work. I hardly hear people going home for lunch no matter how close by they live compare to where they work. For me, it is an important moment to hung out with coworkers, plus, it relaxes me thinking of which restaurant and what type of food I could eat that afternoon.

Little by little I understand the logic, eating out is expensive here so people prefer to have lunch at home. Plus, lunch break is longer, some people take around 1 hour 30 minutes compared to 1 hour in Malaysia. If you pay with restaurant ticket lunch is still quite affordable but not everyone has restaurant ticket, it depends on the company size. One of my coworkers told me that by eating lunch at home, she could eat in her garden during a sunny day and eventually take a nap.

Now that I'm working in my city 2 days per week, I'm seeing the practical side. My company is located a little more than 10 minutes from my apartment, it takes about 25 minutes for a round trip from the office and it still leaves me one hour to do my errand which I didn't manage to do when Aelig is around. I fix myself a quick lunch then I have time to sort through letters that need reply / action; tidy up the apartment; turn on the washing machine or dryer and do some ironing, make doctor appointments, thaw meat / fish for dinner later.

Now my company is trying out the working at home method. I hope it will come out successfully and that I'm entitled to it. In this case I can avoid all those travels to / from work and more time to take care of my own business lol.

5 months old: like father like daughter

My baby is 5 months old today. How time flies.

Most of the people commented that she looks more Asian than French, which I totally agreed. When she was born, she didn't look like hubby at all, someone said she is Bee No 2 with her almond eyes and pear shape nose. We joked that people might think hubby adopted her if he goes out with her alone.

5 months passed by and her features changed. Me and hubby think that her face starts to resemble hubby little by little. Browsing through hubby's baby photos we found that she has the same smile as hubby, just look at this photo.


Everyone says she has slanted eyes but our grandma disagreed. Well, my eyes are smaller but she certainly has my shapes.

We will see whether she will show more European features next month.

Aelig has a friend

R: Hi Aelig.
A: Hi R.


R: You have a nice toy here, can I borrow it?
A: No.


R: Can I touch your face?
A: No.


R: You are such a NO girl. I want to touch your hair and I'm touching it.
A: No!


A: Why can't man understand that a NO is a NO?


A: Could you stop touching my hair?
R: No.


A: Daddy, someone is bullying me, can you come save me!

What muguet reminds me of

1 May = labor day = the day people offer muguet (lily of the valley) to each other. As for me, muguet reminds me of my first job ever in France.

After attending one year of French classes at the University of Nantes and another year taking all kind of government French classes for foreigners, I had hard time finding a job that matched my qualification simply because I didn't speak and write good French. I was desperate and would accept any kind of job that would give me salary. I went to temporarily agencies and they told me I needed to have experience to apply for factory or cleaning post. When I heard that people are hiring for the muguet season, I rushed to register and was hired on the spot.

I remember waking up at 5am to be able to catch the company bus at 6am. We started work at 6.45am. We have to bend the whole day picking up muguets and tied them with rubberbent. At one point I felt like going back to the 18 century being the black slave working in the cotton field. Most of the seasonal workers are either black, Hispanic or Asian and white workers were the minority. The field belongs to white bosses who hired white watchdogs to supervise us. We were not allowed to talk nor rest. The watchdogs yelled at us with comments like "you are not paid to chit-chat here", "you are not paid to sit down here". Interesting enough, most of the foreigners didn't dare to talk back, but some local white students fought back by saying "Don't I have the right to sit down after bending the whole day?".

We were divided in many groups, some picking the muguets and some picking the green leaves. The employer hired local women for packaging who worked inside the factory. From time to time a watchdog would approach some people to go help in the factory. Everyone liked to work inside the factory as they didn't need to be exposed under the sun and bend down. Sometimes the work finished at 2pm and those who got chosen would continue to work until 4pm in the factory. People who had to leave at 2pm were disappointed as people seemed to want to work longer to earn more money. I was working in the factory for several days and it was indeed a lot more comfortable compared to working outside. We were treated nicely in an air conditional room.

I hurt myself the first day which leaves me a permanent scar on my wrist. Well, the muguet is separated by alley and were covered by glasses. The allies were very narrow and we were bending down back to back. When a fat lady got up she bumped into me and pushed me onto the glasses. Blood running out from my wrist and a woman helped me stop the bleeding. I didn't pay much attention to it instead I insisted on continue working. I only went to the doctor one week after and it was too late. The scar remains and it itches from time to time especially when I breastfeed.

Well, the muguet didn't bring me luck even though it is supposed to be a porte-bonheur (a bringer of happiness and luck).

4 months old

Aelig turned 4 months during the weekend so we bought her a cake. It looked indeed mouthwatering, see how she was so eager to eat it!


This time I managed to order a black forest cake from our neighborehood bakery. It was too creamy plus they didn't use fresh cherries. I was kind of disappointed with the taste plus it was quite expensive = 14.5 euros. We let Aelig tasted the cream but she had hard time swallowing it.


The spring weather is so adorable and motivating. We brought Aelig shopping as hubby needed a new suit. When we were in the shopping center, I heard people screaming "oh a baby" as I didn't put her inside a stroller. We were wandering around with her on my arm, a pratice not so common in France.

We also brought her to the park and let her enjoy the sun. She seemed to like it a lot!

No see no cast

I accompanied hubby to CHU Nantes today to remove his leg cast.


Last glimpse of his cast before the removal. Judging from the hole in his cast we can tell that he has been walking with the foot even thought he was not supposed to.


Through vibration this tool managed to cut off the cast.





It needed several tools to finally break through the cast.


Finally cast free after six weeks of walking with this heavy thingy.


It sure needs some cleaning after all the sweating that were caught inside the cast.

Life is sure good without a heavy cast.

It is time for discipline

Gosh she knows how to show middle finger now. I told hubby it is time for discipline and we shouldn't let her continue this misbehavior. lol

Aelig on the show

Even since Aelig was born we have received many presents from family, relatives and friends. A lot of them gave us clothes ranking from 3 months to 2 years old. She is growing so fast I realise that I should dress her with all the clothes she received before she outgrows them. So instead of the boring body + pajamas combo, we change her every day with different kind of dress. Here is a series of photos with her on the show.


Hello Kitty dress from Malaysia.


Hand knit dress from her great grandma's sister.


This set of dress is from South of France.


Not sure who gave her this. There are so many clothes I lost track on who gave which dress.


Love this photo. Hand knit from her great grandma.


It has a beautiful bottom part.

It is a nice feeling dressing her. However, I think she doesn't care less on what we put on her as she keeps making bubble from her mouth and leaks all over her clothes. :-)

Children born abroad to Malaysian mothers qualify for citizenship

Kim sent me the link to this article and I'm very grateful she did that.

You can read the full text here.

A little background from this topic could be found in one of my posts here.

I hope this is for real and Aelig could automatically quality as a Malaysian soon. She will most likely need to choose between being a French or Malaysian when she reaches 18 years old as Malaysia doesn't recognise double citizenship. However, seeing how serious the brain drain phenomena Malaysia is facing, I wouldn't be surprise if one day the government starts granting double citizenship to overseas Malaysians.

Birthday cake

I bought Aelig a cake when she turned 3 months old. When browsing through the cake section in the bakery, I found that I don't have much choice. I selected this as I love strawberry and I think they have raspberry inside.


On the way home, I suddenly realize one of the differences between bakery in Malaysia and bakery in France : I hardly see any cartoon cake for birthday celebration. In Malaysia, bakery usually has a catalog for clients to choose any kind of cartoon or theme to put as decoration on the cake. Most of the time my family will select some cartoon deco for my nieces and nephews.


I asked around and in fact this is not common in France. Hubby said in France they value the taste more than the deco. Ok, I just want to clarify that having a deco on a cake doesn't mean it tastes shitty. In fact some of them taste wonderful, but they are quite expensive, especially if it involves complicated cartoon drawing.

Cakes in France are quite different from what we usually find in Malaysia. One of my favorites is Black Forrest, I bought this whenever I was in charge to buy for friends birthday celebration. I have never seen this available in any bakery here but hubby said it is quite common in France. Well, in this case, I would like to order one when Aelig turns 4 months old. I haven't eaten this cake for like 10 years.

Baby and leg cast

New laptop?

My laptop died on me last week. I was trying to grab the 100 photos for 8 euros promotion by uploading all the photos online and then suddenly the screen went blank. A message popped up saying that Window couldn't restart due to failure in one of the hardwares.

Hubby said the hard drive broke so we bought a new one. Unfortunately it didn't work after replacing the hard drive, and the light was off eventhough it was plugged.

Should I wave fairwell to this 5 years old IBM Thinpad or should I repair it? I'm struggle to come out with a decision. This was my first laptop I bought from US. We ordered it online and it arrived on a fine day while I was sleeping. Hubby installed everything and when I woke up, I got a laptop really to function. It was a wonderful laptop, never had much problem, I had been traveling with it to Malaysia many times.

Hubby suggested me to buy a new one and he started researching online. For me, I prefer to repair this old laptop and pay the minimum. I do not need a super advance laptop, just something to store photos, surf the net and probably use the webcam function from time to time. I do not even watch DVD nor listen to music with it.

It is yet another hard decision to take. I do not even know where to get this repaired.

Learning to be stronger

Aelig was admitted to the hospital on Monday after being diagnosed with the seasonal flu virus attack. She was very weak on Tuesday and refused to eat due to the blocked nose, heavy coughing and difficulty in breathing. She was given oxygen and milk through a tube. It was very hard to see her so lifeless and with two tubes attached to her nose. Thank God she recovered little by little and was discharged on Wednesday evening.

Her admission to the hospital was like adding salt to the wound for me as hubby broke his ankle a week before and is still relying on crutches. Since hubby couldn't drive and only one parent can stay at night to take care of Aelig, I was jiggling between home and the hospital for two days. While fetching and sending hubby home I had to leave Aelig alone in the hospital. She cried hard during our absence until she lost her voice. Each time we arrived we could hear her crying and it hurt us so much that we rushed to her bed to comfort her.

It was so tragic to have a sick baby in the hospital and a husband with crutches. I cried while driving, in the shower, while pumping my milk and while eating. I needed to cry to release all the stress gathered over the weeks after hubby got injured. I felt so helpless and lonely without my family here. Since none of my French family lives here they couldn't provide immediately help. I wished so much that someone could be there to take care of Aelig while I was gone or someone could fetch and send hubby.

I realized this is just the beginning of the challenges in the motherhood. There will still be many hurdle along the way. I need to let go the dependency on family and start to face each bump on the road myself. Looking back, in 2007 when hubby broke his arm, I was forced to drive as my family was here visiting, and eventually I was less afraid when my job needed me to commute long distance everyday. Now with this incident, I got familiar with the CHU Nantes and know where is the emergency room and where to park next time I need to go there again.

During the hard time, I'm learning to be stronger, for myself and for my family.

Moulin Rouge show

While planning for our Paris trip I thought about Moulin Rouge musical show. My friend went to see it once and she highly recommended it. I know there is no chance hubby will bring me there as it is more a tourist stuff, so it was a good occasion to see it with my aunt.

We were worried about the right attire as my aunt didn't have nice dress and high heels with her. Turned out it was not strict at all, while making reservation at Moulin Rouge the salesperson took a look at how we dress and assured us that we could enter without problem. At the end, we entered the show with normal black pants, T-shirt with sweater. I wore a pair of boots but my aunt had a pair of black flat shoes.

We couldn't book the 9pm show so we went for the 11pm. When we arrived at 10.30pm, there were already a long queue. We were told to hand over our camera and coats, which costed us 4 euros to be put in the locker. Everyone was paying the same price, 80 euros per person, if you pay 102 euros it will come with a bottle of champagne for 2 persons. There is no guarantee that the earlier you arrive you are going to get the nearest seats. When we entered the performance hall, some people were sitting on the two sides and people entered after us were slowing filling the middle rows facing the stage.

The cabaret was spectacular. Very Moulin Rouge style with lots of dancers and shinning costumes. Most of the female dancers were topless. The majority of the songs were sang in French, I was glad that I could understand most of them. The highlight of the show for me was the can-can dance, topless dancers were waving their leg with the famous can-can music. The show lasted for about 1 hour 45 minutes.

My aunt was fascinated by the show and she highly appreciated the performance. Well, the goal was to thank her for all her helps during her stay in France. I'm glad she had a memorable last night in France.

Our mission at Louis Vuitton

I don't want to talk about how hubby broke his ankle and created all kind of inconveniences in our life. Instead I want to blog about one of the missions I have in Paris: buying bags at Louis Vuitton.


On the way to Louis Vuitton shop located at Champs Elysee Paris, I got approached by a Chinese, asking if I could help her buy some LV bags. Apparently each Chinese is only allowed to buy one LV bag. I firmly turned her down. It reminded me of my painful experience the second time I was in Paris. Same thing, I was approached by a Chinese woman, she gave me 1300 euros in cash so that I can buy 3 LV bags for her. I believed her story that she has a lot of request from her family but can only buy one so I helped her. Later I realized I took a huge risk, as she could have given me fake cash, and it is a known illegal act as these bags will be sent to China and be produced in mass to be sold in the black market. I was naive and I certainly won't help these people making fake LV bags anymore.


Asians are crazy about LV bags. People pay hundreds or thousands euros just for one bag. When we entered the shop, it was full of Asians. There are a lot of Asian sales persons too. The process was efficient, we were greeted by a sale assistant, she checked the models we wanted then get another person to help us. We wanted to buy two bags for each model but they refused to sell us! Yes, one person can only get one model, as they need to save the rest for other customers.

Why do people want to buy LV bags in France when they can buy those bags in their own country? Well, it is a lot cheaper to buy the bag from France due to the tax return (sales tax is 19.6% in France, but you only get around 12% back and the shop retains the remaining as processing fee). Besides if you buy the bag from your own country chances are the selling price includes import tax from the government. For example, for one of the bag we bought, the selling price was RM5500 in KLCC and 900 euros (about RM4100) in France, an immediate saving of RM1400! With the 12% tax return (108 euros = RM490), the total saving could reach RM1890.


I sent my aunt to the airport and helped her through the tax refund office. She needed to present her passport, her plane ticket (or e-ticket) and the refund form she got from LV shop. The officer stamped the form and I put a copy on the envelope that came with the form and mailed it on the mailbox located just in front of the office.

It was a weird experience to have spend so much money on bags. I felt rich at some point but I was aware that it was not my money that I was spending. The customer service at LV shop is not always courteous as they refuse to sell you bags. Since the Chinese has ruined their reputation by making copies on these bags, the sales persons are on alert and since we are from Chinese origin, the buying process was not as pleasant.

Broken, again

No more KFC

On the way back from Le Passage de Gois yesterday, hubby asked if we would like to have some KFC. My aunt objected to the idea initially but I told her I craved for it so we bought a menu of 2 chicken plus 3 wings. She got one piece of chicken and one piece of wing. During the night, she woke up for diarrhea and vomited several times. We think it was due to the KFC, because I got stomach ache as well during the night. I ate some soup after taken in the remaining of KFC so that was why I was not as sick as her. If the situation persists, she will have to French foods since we are visiting family in Brittany for the rest of the week. She leaves for Malaysia on Saturday morning.

No more KFC for me.