I couldn't help but think this is something that could have been in Knuffle Bunny: the signs posted all over the village last weekend with a mug-shot photo of a very cute lovey with the name and number of the owner.
I really hope they found it and I'm amazed at the parents who made the effort.
I don't want to be one of those snarky people who joke about the French always on vacation. But...how the heck does one cope with all the school holidays? It seems one is over and the next one is right around the corner!
It goes something like this:
Luckily, the Education Ministry figured out long before I was on the scene to stagger school holidays by region into three overlapping two-week periods. Which means that if you are single and want to go on vacation and not be bothered by little kids then you have to wait a full month from the start to the end of the period. And if you intend to travel between the winter and spring holidays you only have little more than 3 weeks before spring holidays begin for some students. Confusing? Thats why they publish this handy calendar:
What this means is that every 6 weeks there is a two week break until the spring when they go 8 weeks (gasp!) until the two-month summer break. Seriously!
So what are you supposed to do with all this time off from the rigors of academic life? For a 3-year old with two working parents it's not obvious. There are LOTS of activities for 6 years and up - camps, sports, cultural classes,etc to occupy kids with working parents (or to give parents some time off during a school break period). Boo is at the Montessori school this week and next week we are heading off with the rest of the hoards into the mountains to teach our tots how to ski. Don't ask me about spring break.
How do you know you've reached your limit on toys? For those who have, or have had, small children I imagine you confronted this question. We flood our kids with toys. And it's easy because for the most part they are cheap. Even the nice ones.
And hey, I like toys. I like watching Boo and Little Guy play with new (or new-to-them) toys. Now that Boo is older he really imagines things with his toys and enjoys building trains day after day.
However, I feel like we may have too much. how do i know? Because I'm sick of picking them up. Even when Boo helps they are still *everywhere.*
The cloud hanging over me is Tiny House. Where are we going to put all of our stuff? What's really needed? How can we live without the kids toys taking over our entire house and yet still have space and things for them?
Any recommendations (besides pitching them all out)?
With the highest birth rate in Europe (2.02 children per woman) France is facing a crises of available pediatricians. A petition with 130K signatures of doctors and parents was presented to the Health Minister with resulting press coverage. They key statistic:
One pediatrician for every 6000 children.
As I read this, I realized - it's not just us! One year ago our glamorous pediatrician, Dr. Hepburn, decided to only open her office part time - Tuesday to Thursday. Woe to you if your kid got sick on Friday! Trips to the ER abounded. Recently the news arrived that she's closing and moving altogether, and that she didn't find anyone to take her place. The map below says that we, living in the Alpes-Maritimes, are benfiting from a high-density of pediatricians.
In our agglomoration of towns it's about one pediatrician for every 4500 kids. (oh - and for info the government policy in the US is 1:1400 by 2020) And those pediatricians are all, except for one, located just next to the coast in one street in Antibes. Practially that means that in order to see a pediatrician I will have to spend a half-day schlepping back and forth.
If there is no local pediatrician (pediatre de ville) for state funded well-care or easy diagnosis of childhood illness then people have to rely on family practise generalists - which is what most people do with success. The problem I see with using generalists is that unless that family doctor has training in, and a practise of treating kids of all ages then they may not be up to date regarding policies for vaccines etc., be more likely to refer a sick kid to specialist (i.e. pediatrician) anyway, and have less knowledge regarding child development and behavior which can help parents identify potential problems before they become crises.
The alternative is to take time from work to visit the local hospital clinics which have pediatricians on staff or find a pediatrician further away from home.
So why don't med students want to become pediatricians in the first place?
As I was reading the press on this topic it was hard to tell. Everyone is hand-wringing about the problem and how France should graduate more pediatricians every year but not *why* students avoid the specialty in the first place. My own hypothesis is this:
low pay / hard work.
Dr Hepburn charged 31 euros a visit. For comparison my OB/GYN charges 65 euros. One thing I read is that for those that choose the specialty their hospital training can be greuling since there aren't enough to go around so that time spent in ER on-call rotation is demoralizing.
So what now? Well...we will have to find a new doctor one way or another. I'm pessimistic about a pediatrician coming back to our town so we will, like the other families, have to make do.
Image 1: Le Figaro. Image 2: Sophia-Antipolis.org
Little Guy is going through his tasmanian devil destruction phase. He plays quietly, happily, wickedly. The other night, as E was running his bath, he thew his doudou, aka Kitty, into the tub. From the kitchen where I was preparing dinner, I heard him make his particular noise that meant: I want Kitty. I can't get it. Come get it for me. (It always amazes me how pre-lingual children can make themselves understood with different sounds)
Oh no. E forgot to close the door. I looked over LG and into the tub and sure enough, there was Kitty half sunk in the water. I pulled it out. It was full of water. No Kitty tonight. Bad. Bad. Bad.
LG started life undecided with comfort objects. We tried the dummy but he didn't really take to it and rejected it outright at with his first cold. In the early weeks we could tell he wanted to get his thumb and finger into his mouth. He finally settled on his index and middle finger. It was at Christmas that Kitty came along. His 12 year old cousin gave it to him as a gift and I didn't really pay much attention - it was just another animal. Boo never developed a relationship with an Only One - he goes from one animal or blanket to another without hesitation. So it didn't really occur to me that LG would need that.
He was attracted by the little tag. I remember Boo going through that stage - when he was learning his thumb/index dexterity and was more interested in the tags on soft toys than the actual toy itself. Gradually, LG started falling asleep in his bed by rubbing the tag. I realized, too late, that he'd chosen *the worst* toy as in our arsenal as his doudou and rejected the most awesome teddy that he'd been given at birth.
During the summer I took the teddy along with us and tried to convince him to adopt him. No going.
The only upside that I can see to Kitty is that it's already dirt-grey. Otherwise it's fur is this awful, matted and scratchy acrylic.
We made it though dinner last night no problem. But bedtime was a disaster. He started crying right away - Where is Kitty?! I tried to comfort him with the teddy and to sing to him which worked for a few minutes but I knew we were in trouble. Also, we needed for Boo to go to bed soon and since they share the room we couldn't have LG screaming until he passed out. I found Kitty. Wrang him out. Stuck him in the dryer, displacing the pile of laundry that included the next day's school clothes. Let him tumble for 10 minutes and pulled him out, hot and damp. Stuck him in the bed next to anxious child who knew right away, even in the dark, who had arrived. He immediatly curled into his sleeping position and although he was awake for a few minutes longer, he was quiet.
To School. There was all this angst about where to send him, and then finally I just settled with the knowledge that no matter where Boo (and later, Little Guy) goes to school it will be different from my own experience. It's their life after all. Thanks to those who patiently listened to my writhe over the past few months and who shared their own experiences. I came to terms with the French system (for now anyway, but I'm reserving the right to change my mind!).
So off to school Boo went! There's been plenty of recording of La Rentrée and Boo wasn't too different from other new students - exhausted at the end of the day and apprehensive about the whole enterprise (as was I, frankly).
Until today, that is. When he got to ride the bus for the first time. Now Boo LOVES buses. Going to school is way more cool than it was a week ago.
Le Petit Ecolier waits for the bus
Hurry up!
Bye, Maman! (He didn't even look back, *sniff*)
Bye, bye Boo!
Boo used a pacifier (in French, tetine or sucette) from the time he was two weeks old (or maybe less). In "What to Expect..." the writers and editors gently suggest that a pacifier is not great and if you can avoid it, do. But he was sucking (and not eating) all.the.time. for comfort and was just too little to grab anything. It never occurred to him to suck his thumb (or fingers like Little Guy). I asked a more experienced mom and she bluntly said that I should just get over it. So I stuck it in his mouth and those pacifiers became his doudou, lovely, transitional object, whatever you call it. He didn't have a specific one, but several, and he held on to them in bed like some kids cuddle stuffed animals or blankets.
Unlike stuffed animals or blankets they are not cute. Around the beginning of the year, he was only allowed to have them in bed. When he turned 3 I was beginning to get ready to get rid of them. And so the Tetine Fairy arrived. She lives in the forest, and loves tetines. When little boys and girls are ready to give them to her, they leave them overnight and she will give a present. Here she is, up close. Boo thinks she is beautiful:
Boo received:
A ball, a balloon, a rocket, an airplane, some bubbles. Ready in the wings was a construction vehicle set. It stayed in our shed for months.
And then came the day of school registration where the principal said that the kids could bring a stuffed animal but definitely no pacifiers. That's it!, I thought. Luckily, he would lose that last one from time to time and this one was finally lost for a couple of days. I finally found and threw it out and let Boo draw a card. We wrote a note to the Tetine Fairy explaining the loss and she duly understood and delivered his last gift.
No more tetines!
I have to thank my friend C for this idea, but have found a downside. He's getting ready to give up the sleeping diaper (which is now more a habit than a necessity) and guess what? He's asking about the "Couche Fairy". damn.
Read on about me.
