Trip to Nouméa

On 18 May my grandmother on my mum’s side passed away. This brought to four the number of losses in our families since Eloïse’s birth; starting with my father’s mum, then Bastiaan’s grandmother, followed by his father.

So we headed off to Nouméa for the funeral and caught up with some of my family from France.

Pictures:

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2nd meeting with Bà Ngọai and Ong Ngọai

 

 

Spending some quality brother-sister time

 

 

 

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At the Baie des Citrons. The little water gun that he’s holding was scored at the Bilboquet Plage restaurant, when we ordered a kid meal. We noted that in overly PC New Zealand, this would never happen.

 

 

The typical New Caledonian “winter” - it was stinking hot for us.

 

 

When you’ve experienced proper pain au chocolat for breakfast, Sanitarium cereal is just so dull. Demonstrated here is a technique developed by Nico. 1) Start by eating the chocolate in the centre. 2) Offer the rest of the pain to Maman. 3) Ask for more.

 

At the Buddhist temple, offering a bit of relief to Bà Ngọai

 

 

 

Both Nico and Eloïse were fortunate enough to be at the temple to celebrate Lễ Phật đản (Buddha’s birthday), which we celebrated on 23 May.

 

 

 

 

 

With my uncle Minh, who adores kids.

 

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At the funeral procession.
Under Vietnamese tradition, blood relatives wear white gauze over clothes, a white headband, a white shirt and black trousers. Prior to the funeral procession, a lengthy ceremony held by a Buddhist Monk is held, followed by the wake. My grandmother was cremated so her ashes could be brought to a Buddhist temple in France. 100 days later our family will celebrate the ‘end of the tears’ ceremony.

 

The morning ritual was: wake up, eat have a baguette, a croissant or a pain au chocolat, feed the bunnies, feed the chickens, then check out the fishes. Rain or shine.

 

 

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At the Aquarium de Nouméa, which would be great if they had better labelling so we actually knew what we were looking at.

There’s a beautiful rockpool with coral, clown-fish, starfish, a sea turtle and a big fat hermit crab. There are also two dark rooms, one with nautilii and the other with colourful coral.

Nico was so excited, pulling me everywhere, that my fingers were sore in the evening.

 

 

 

Yo. ‘sup, man?

 

 

 

 

Papa could only stay 9 days as he had to go to Australia. He gets to have his own porter at La Tontouta airport.

 

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With Bà Ngọai and Ong Ngọai, waiting to go back to Auckland.

 

 

Without Papa’s presence, Nico was a handful. Trunki helped keep him busy and happy.

 

 

Travelling with a baby and a toddler is so much more difficult than with one child. If we were to do it again (which we will in December), here is my bare essentials checklist:

• Kids’ suitcase - we got a Trunki, which Nico loves to ride and pull along. In there were snacks, changes of clothes, nappies, wipes and change mats, cuddle toys, and things to entertain the kids with.
• Portable video file player - Papa’s iPod had Hairy Maclary and Maisy loaded on it. My iPod Nano had Spot the Dog. Invaluable as an entertainment centre, and I’m not ashamed to say it, as a bribe to get Nico to sit on his seat on the plane.
• Sun shade/tent - I didn’t want to carry around the Kindercot that we have, so I bought a Baby Moov anti-UV tent. Good when going to the beach as there isn’t much shade at midday.
• Paracetamol - Doliprane, Pamol, whatever the brand. As long as it brings the fever down. Nothing spoils a trip like a child who’s feeling miserable.

How to do your chores smiling

Nicolas is 2yrs, 7 months and Eloïse is 4 months and 2 weeks today.

Last night Bastiaan and I were having a small conversation in bed, in hushed tones so that Eloïse wouldn’t wake up. Of course she did wake up, so I took up the opportunity to feed her while we continued our conversation. Being the lovely polite girl that she is, Eloïse didn’t say anything with her mouth full, but after she was done with her feed she thought she’d join in and vocalise all throughout our talk. When we finally stopped, so did she… I wonder what she had to say about Opa…

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Oma’s back from Holland and Nico spent the day with her. He was looking forward to it when I told him this morning.

I was upstairs in the afternoon, cleaning the bathroom under Eloïse’s supervision when the phone called. It was Nico on the line, who just wanted to wanted to say Hello Mama. Four times. In case I didn’t hear it the first three times. It was just a quick chat and after putting down the phone, I went back to my mopping. It wasn’t until a minute later that I realised that for the first time in my life, I was smiling while mopping the floor.

 

 

Walking Lily for Camilla

Deed poll

Nicolas has always been very quiet in the presence of strangers, and really clingy when they're in his face. So I've been trying to teach him manners, particularly greeting and farewelling them. Hellos have been a bit sparse (OK maybe I should start remembering to ask him), but bye byes have been pretty successful. He's been saying bye bye to shop keepers, bank tellers, friends and family etc. Today as Mana left us to go back to his office, Nico was very willing to farewell him.

Mana: Bye bye Nicolas...
Nicolas: Bye bye Banane...