Playmobil house - model no. 5302

I chanced upon this playmobil house on the internet and thought that these will be a great investment for the children. My mind was on one thing when I bought the full sets - only when the children are good, I will add in characters and other house themes (one at a time). This is one of the methods that I use when they demonstrate appropriate behaviour. Please note that the house only comes with 2 characters, flowers and some small accessories.  The rest of the characters have to be bought separately.

They really love the house very much. It took me 2 nights to build the house. The instructions given was easy to follow. I didn't give them those tiny accessories as I'm afraid Erica would swallow it.  The playmobil playhouse is actually for children aged 4 and above. I will wait until Erica is around that age and then give them the smaller accessories.

Well, I love the playhouse too.

Relocating - being the expats in Toulouse France - Part 2

We took KLM airline to Toulouse France as we wanted to 'break up' this long haul flight to stay a night in Amsterdam and to recover from jet lag (for the sake of our young children). We never regret it. The place is nice, friendly people and they speak English!

The next day, we arrived at a service apartment in the downtown of Toulouse to meet my in-laws. They flew in a separate flight. Yes, they came with us to help us with these difficult time for 6 weeks. I really appreciate them!

Staying downtown helps, as you get to see so many things, so many people and learn how to use the public transports. The only bad thing is that it can get really noisy , especially when you want to sleep at night. We didn't move straight into the rented house that we choose as the house has not finished its renovation. So we ended up staying in the service apartment for 2.5 weeks. The saddest and anxious days of my life! My in-laws we're be flying off in another 3 weeks time, our shipment have not arrived and we are running out of money!!!

Well, you may wonder, didn't the company give us any settlement allowance before hand? Yes, they do but really not enough when you actually convert base on the exchange rate.

Tips - before you relocate, ask for these from your company (if you can. Certainly the requests are not greedy):

1. If you have to put up in a service apartment for a while, make sure your company pays for it first. We got a nasty experience, we thought the company will handle the service apartment fees but we got a shock when the hotel staff asked us for money and said if we do not pay up now, we have to leave by tomorrow. Two weeks of stay for 2000 euro!! It's not a fantastic apartment mind you. We cleaned the apartment ourself (cleaner comes once a week). 
2. If your house is not furnished, make sure your company give you the cash first to buy the necessities. Do a calculation on the average cost of the furniture and household appliances in that country. If you pay first using your money that you brought with you ( which you are not going to bring so much hard cash) and then claim from your company, it can take weeks to pay you back. 
3. Open up a bank account in France once you are here. It's easier than trying to do it from your county. This also helps to speed up your company to pay you back the money for claiming purposes. French people prefer to pay using a debit card, so having a bank account set up, will definitely be more convenient. 
4. You need a car, France is big and calling a taxi is very very expensive. You can cry by just staring at the meter. If you have children, it's good to have 2 cars. One for the husband to drive to work. And the other for wife to send the kids to school and for emergency purposes. Please note that certain places are not safe even if there are public transport available. If the company could pay for the cost of a car will be good or have them to pay you the car allowance first. All these paying, can really eat up all your savings. 
5. If no car, the public transports are good too. You need to purchase their bus or train tickets. The funny thing is that you need coins to buy a ticket from the ticket machine, they don't accept cash notes. We like to buy the 10 trips tickets for 12.90 euro (so you need 12.90 euros in coins) Or if you have a France bank account, you may use your debit card to purchase the ticket for a trip or you can also buy an annual ticket. But when you just arrive in France, you might not have set up any bank account yet.

I will add in further notes if there are other important things that I think of. Of cos don't ask for the sky and want to live like a king. Be reasonable and what is needed for your family. This is more important. 

Relocating - being the expats in Toulouse France - Part 1

I keep telling myself that I must put up this post for people who are relocating , especially to France. I am not an expert but I just write what I went through or want I know.

When Ken got offered a position in Toulouse France, we only have about 4 months to prepare and go! I got to quit my beloved job, transferred our maid ( which truly upset her), packed up and told friends we are leaving, learn french language(crash course), etc etc.

The thing that come to my mind was to buy things that maybe France won't have. I mean, you will definitely be homesick, you need to have something from your hometown to keep you sane, right? I went crazy with shopping, online shopping too. I bought chinese herbal soup in packets form, winter clothes(Singapore is hot, you don't need them), chili sauce, noodles, 3in1 coffee if you like to drink coffee(very important!!), chrysanthemum tea, red tea, similac milk powder (we could not get the same brand in France so I bought 6 big cans for Stacy, merries diapers (I swear merries diapers is the best) etc etc. mostly food and household items. I did not buy any household appliances except to bring what I already have, as France uses 2pins plug, we uses 3pins plug.

The challenge came when we have to pack what we need for the luggages. The rest of the items (which we think we might not use that much), we shipped it. Shipment took 6weeks to reach France. So do not ship over important documents which you will need when you arrive in that county. Unless your shipment comes almost the same time, you reach France. We got not much time so we only managed to ship our items 1week before we were scheduled to fly.

 We have 5 luggages and 2 hand carry for 2 adults and 2 children. We arrived during the colder months in Autumn.
In our luggages,
- mostly long sleeves clothes
- winter clothes (shawls, gloves, beanies, winter shoes, etc)
- jeans /long pants
- children toys (we have to bring quite a few as 6weeks they will have no other toys until the shipment arrive)
- English books (children books, your favorite books, very important!)
- phone chargers
-universal plugs
- baby and toddler's food and snacks (we brought quite abit as France did not have those from USA but their own brands)
- diapers
- milk powder
- toiletries
- medications (for children and babies especially. France have their own brand but if you prefer your own
- documents ( children's birth cert, our marriage cert, and you need them to be translated to French, etc.)
- I will add the list if I remember anything important

In part 2, I'll blog about when we arrived in France and things we need or do.

Dinner in France

After my bad experience of bringing my kids to a restaurant in France, I told myself I would not bring them to a restaurant (except asian restaurants and fast food joints) here anymore till they are older. When we first went to a restaurant here, as usual my kids talked loudly, cried, laughed and wanted to walk around - we got stared at by other patrons (disapproving stares actually).

Ken and I felt embarrassed. You mean it's not normal for children to do that!??  Somehow, the children in France are really behaving well at the tables or we see no children at the restaurants. Really? I guess l'll do more 'research' and talk about it on my blog later.

Anyway, my friend invited us for a dinner last night at an Italian restaurant. I'm like ' you sure? I think I better don't bring my children'. She insisted and said that the restaurant is open by her Italian friend and it is perfectly ok to have children running around and making noises. I felt better and I am glad I went with my children.

Amazingly, my kids behaved (with some hiccups of cos'). Or maybe we are less stressful. I am really happy that my friend made these arrangement and so Ken and I got to be in a nice restaurant with the children again!

Easy peasy Nutella cupcakes

I love chocolate! I could eat them everyday but I got to watch my weight too. Agh!
Today when the children were taking their nap, I decided to make some cupcakes for their tea time later. And I need to make them real fast! Once they wake up, means no time for me, I got to read, teach, play and cook their meals. Busy busy.

I searched the net and found this receipe which only require 3 ingredients!
- 2 eggs
- 1cup of Nutella (I used a table spoon to measure instead, about 16 scoops)
- 10 tbs of flour
Preheat oven to 175 degree Celsius (I preheat to 165 as my oven is force-fan). Whisk the eggs until smooth. Add in flour and Nutella till well blended. Scoop into cupcake moulds. Oven bake for 12mins or until toothpick comes out clean.
Voila!

Yummy! My kids love it and that's more important!

kiddos' telescope made from empty milk bottle

Everyday or every other day (if I'm lazy), i will tried my best to do arts and crafts with the children. Today, we made a telescope using stickers!  Stacy has alot of stickers and she keeps asking me if she could use these stickers on cupboards, walls, etc and I won't let her. Haha.
Its an easy task for her, she peeled off the stickers herself and sticked it on the bottle. I tied some strings around the bottle to decorate it as I don't want it to be too bare.

Tada!

My breastfed children

I breastfed my 1st child till she was 18months old and I am still breastfeeding my 2nd one. She is now 15months old.  I think I could continue breastfeeding Stacy but then I got Preggy with Erica and the milk might have changed.  Stacy weaned off on her own. I read an article saying that if a child wean off on their own, they will be more independent.  Well, we see...

Breastfeeding has never been easy. You can ask any bf mums. Dealing with engorgement,  fever, pressure at work, disapproval, etc, etc. when I am struggling with Stacy on her latching and getting enough milk to feed her, I searched the net, helpline for breastfeeding mums, consulted friends who bf... I cried a lot. It was really a struggle and not many people understand. Others asked if it is so tough, just give the bottle. Sigh.. I don't know, why I never give up and I see my efforts and perseverance pays off. It gets easier and easier. I even gave advises to friends who want to breastfeed and were successful!

Some people say after the child is 1year old, should not breastfeed anymore as breastmilk has no nutritional value for them. I prove them wrong. I did my homework of cos'.  It's my decision. http://sg.theasianparent.com/extended-breastfeeding-need-to-know/

My intention is to breastfeed Erica until she could hold a cup really well and I will let her drink powdered milk.  So need to worry about have a milk bottle when traveling!!