Welcome to the madhouse!!!

It's been one of those weeks when you want to shout "stop the world, I want to get off!" On the work front, it's that coming-up-to-end-of-term time that means last minute marking, filling in school reports, starting all over again when the computer eats all the bits you've already filled in (you come to expect it now !!!) and getting the end-of-term class meetings prepared. Plus today I had my visit from the inspector (first one in eight years of teaching so I can't really complain!) so I had to sort all that out too.

And Juliette's decided she wants to go up in the world. Not content with learning how to sit up all by herself (and giggling when I go to get her up in the morning and find her sitting up in bed), she has now mastered the art of holding on to the bars and pulling herself up to standing. Then she proceeds to bounce up and down doing a happy dance and laughing at anyone she can see through the doorway. Earlier, she even stood up (while I was holding her under her arms) and walked across her changing mat. Where did that helpless little baby go?!!! And what happened to the crawling stage? Did we blink and mis that one?!!!

Sorry about the bogey nose !!!

Best friends in the world

Now the post-pregnancy diet has finally kicked in, Sophie's getting worried to see I'm not eating the same as the rest of the family at lunchtimes, so she kept asking me why. I eventually said, "It's to get rid of my big fat tummy". That did for a day, until she came sidling up trying to bribe me with her sweets and said "But Mum, I like babies and if you haven't got a big fat tummy, you won't be able to have a baby in there" !!! There's a certain logic to it !!!

Sophie's now decided to try her hand at photography too ... except she hasn't figured out she can point the lens up, she makes me get down on the floor until I'm in frame !!!

Remember our donkey made out of a sugarbeet? Well today was the day all the participants could go along to the town hall to pick up their prize - I thought everyone would get a bag of sweets (like after the St Martin processions, which is when most towns do their lantern competitions). And there WERE sweets (a handful) but also .... CASH !!! Each child got a crisp €5 note (about £3.50) and also a couple of tickets to a toy fair at the weekend. So we headed straight off to Babou so Sophie could spend her prize money !!! Needless to say, she picked out a princess doll in a wedding dress and a big box of beads - I said she already had loads of beads but she said "yeah, but they're new ones and I haven't got those ones". Couldn't fault her logic there so that was that !!!

If they give out money to all the local kids, I wonder if that explains why our local taxes are so high !!! (Ooooh I sound like a grumpy old git !!!)

I feel like I've spent the entire week sitting in various doctors' offices !

Monday was Juliette's 9 month checkup (first time she didn't need a jab but she looked at the doctor and sceamed so I think she remembers !!!)

On Wednesday afternoon, I gave Sophie a bath and when she got undressed, she had pink spots all over her body except on her face and hands (the bits you could see with clothes on !) Got a doctor's appointment for the evening but as the day progressed, they got paler and paler. By the time we saw him, it just looked like eczema. He said you can't know what it is without doing a bloodtest but it could be German measles or something similar.

Thursday morning was Sophie's eye test - she's got a serious "astigmatism" problem - which means her eye is oval as opposed to round, so straight lines are blurred and it's hard to differentiate between letters that look alike like H or N (or for her, a boat and a house). It's a condition that doesn't get better so she'll need glasses for the rest of her life. Went off to the opticians and chose her glasses - a pink pair and a blue pair (she's all chuffed and thinks she's very cool !!!) You buy one pair and get one free, which is just as well at those prices - €250 (about £175), but some of that (not sure how much yet) will be reimbursed by the health cover. We'll pick them up next week so I'll take photos then !

And to top it all off, I feel like I've got the flu ... and Juliette screamed the house down from 3-5am last night (maybe she's feeling rough too). But it is a 3-day weekend so everybody can rest up and chill out !

Watching her video tape of kids doing singing & dancing songs :

"Mum, can you let me go in the telly?"

"Ummmm how do you want me to do that then?"

"Just cut it open with a knife or some scissors and I'll climb in and play" !!!

*sigh* why do we have to grow up?!!!

"Sophie Sophie Sophie .... what about me?!! Get a picture of me looking gorgeous on here right now or I'll wake you up in the night screaming the place down ...."

Oops, OK, here's Juliette looking cute as ever ...

Anything big sis can do, I can do better ... (They had free reign of the softplay area on the boat back to England ... and I've decided I want one installed in the living room !!! They can roll around and do what they want and can't get into any trouble !)

Best of friends ...

We only got two kids (together) for Halloween this year - I opened the door to two boys (aged about ten), with a pumpkin-shaped bucket who yelled "sweets please"! I said .... "Ummmm you're supposed to be dressed up for Halloween you know?!" And they went "Oh yeah, we've got masks but they're in our pockets" ....then pulled out rubber masks that were so old and broken they wouldn't even stay on and that was it ! So I put in as much effort as they did and gave them all the skanky penny sweets kicking around in the bottom of Sophie's sweetie tin that she doesn't like !!!

France kicks back against anything English/American anyway so they don't really like Halloween, they prefer St Martin, which is next week on the 10th. They carve out sugarbeet (the bog standard local crop) instead of pumpkins (which is what we did this afternoon ). Then there's a night-time procession of all the kids with their carved sugarbeet lanterns (or modern cardboard ones!) following St Martin (who looks a bit like Father Xmas with a red robe and big white beard) and his donkey, who gives out sweets, and at the end, they all get volaaren, little bread rolls (normally with raisins or chocolate chips in). The tradition is that St Martin lost his donkey in the dunes (because he was in the pub, according to the traditional song !!! ) so he sent out all the kids to help him find it .... and when they found it by following the piles of poo, he turned the poo into bread ... so the volaaren are supposed to be donkey-poo shaped !!! (I'm not making this up, honestly!!! )

Anyway, I'm sounding much too much like a teacher and I'm still on holiday for one more day so I'll just show you the pics of our hard work instead !!!

Before ... a virgin sugarbeet !!!

After - the left one looks a little bit too Halloweeny so the donkey one (no, it's not a rabbit or a kangaroo !!!) is the one Sophie will be entering into the competition!!! All entrants get a prize !

"Look judges, all my own work, honestly !!!"

Even if we didn't go round trick or treating, Sophie played at dressing up and looked very regal ...

Until she got the giggles and looked more like Pippy Longstocking !!!