My favorite thing this summer

Undoubtedly, my favorite thing in Paris this summer was the Paris Plages - the Paris Beaches. 

Ten years ago the mayor of Paris had the idea to bring a little beach life to Paris.  He shut down a major road that hugs the riverfront and dumped in tons and tons of sand for the Parisannes to feel like they were at a beach.  The event grew and this year over 2,000 tons of sand were dumped on a mile of riverfront to create the "beach." 

It is impossible for me to describe the scale of this thing.  This picture attempts to show you but picture this for over a mile... 

I took the kids to the Paris Plages twice the last weekend.  It usually runs for about a month.  There you are, watching the world go by alongside the peaceful river, and the kids are happily digging in the sand.  The sun was shining and the churchs bells of Notre Dame could be heard in the distance.  Perfection. 

Here was my view across the river one day we were at the beach...  See?  Perfection. 

If the kids got too hot, they had misters everywhere for them to run through, squealing in delight.  Or we could snag a beach umbrella to get some shade.  There were public restrooms, little restaurants selling snacks - everything you could want. 

Disneyland Paris even got involved this year, making a huge sandcastle meant to look like the top of Sleeping Beauty's castle.  They also made a smaller Mickey and Minnie lounging in the sun nearby. 

I only wish I had taken the kids before the last weekend.  We would have definitely gone more often! 

Our Summer

With fall upon us, I am finally cleaning out the photos I took all summer.  I thought everyone might like to see the random things we did this summer. 

We swam with our swim caps...

We saw Harry Potter in 3-D! (well not the kids...)

We worked on our "fine motor skills" aka cutting and holding a pencil correctly. 

We had lots of picnics at the beautiful parks in Paris.

We played trains, lots of trains.  We even learned that our beloved Madelines (sweet little cakes you eat for breakfast here) can be "cargo" for our trains:

We spalshed in the puddles on rainy days. 

And finally, we visited the exotic bird market. 

Whew!  I hope the kids had fun.  I did! 

Ear infections

This was from last week - again I a little behind on my posts: 

Mary Martin starting complaining last night that her ear hurt.  Uh oh.  She felt a little warm. Double uh oh. I got out the thermometer:  temp of 100.9.  Oh hell.

We had family photos planned for the next morning. A hurting, feverish toddler was not good pictures going to make. Forget going to the doctor before the photo shoot. Shoot starts at 9:30. Doctor probably gets in about 11. I loaded Mary Martin up with Tylenol and off we went. She wasn't great but we managed. I am sure there are some perfect shots. I will send the link to the gallery when they are ready.

The doctor thankfully could see us today. MM does in fact have a ear infection in one ear and drainage in her throat. The docteur said her ear tube was completely blocked. I got a prescription for an antibiotic, French Tylenol, and something else for pain with CODINE in it. CODINE for my two year old!?!  Really?  This only reinforces my theory that French children are meant to be seen and not heard. But that is a post for another day.

A word on our docteur:  he looks a little like Doc from Back to the Future, is not very patient with kids ( i.e. the kids can't put their shoes on the couches in his office).  But he came very HIGHLY recommended, has always had an appointment time for me when we needed it, and is willing to give out codine regularly, apparently.  So to the good docteur we go.

Sometimes though we go twice. You see the doctor doesn't have any vaccines in his office.  They are at the pharmacies. We get a prescription for the vaccine from the doctor, take the prescription to the pharmacy, get the vaccine, then go back to the doctor to have it administered. The French are masters at efficiency.

I was a little nervous that it would be a similar situation today. Perhaps that Mary Martin's antibiotic could only be administered by the doctor. We were saved that extra trip at least.  What I was not expecting, however, was that I had to mix MM's antibiotic myself. I got home with all our medicine - thinking can we all just take some of the codine and nap? - to find the antibiotic was in powder form. Oh hell.

So I get out the instructions which are in French of course. Mary Martin is in tears she is so tired and hurting. Once mixed, you administer the antibiotic with a spoon. Oh hell again. A spoon?!?!  Like MM is really going to let me place an entire spoon in her mouth and swallow all of its frothy white mixture I just whipped up.  Um, no.

Plan B:  you know those squirter things you get with children's motrin? I have perhaps a dozen of them. Good thing too. It was the only way to get that funky stuff down MMs throat.

Total time to fill and get antibiotic down MM:  45 minutes. Sheesh. She deserved a nap at that point. Hell I do.

The whole adventure made me miss (a) the "pink stuff" aka amoxicillian we had as kids that was cold and tasted like bubble gum and (b) my pharmacist dad.  He would have had that stuff mixed in 30 seconds.

Now, where is that codine?

Spot goes to School

Both James and Mary Martin started school last week (okay about a month ago - I am a little behind on my posts!).  James attended four days last week and this week was his first full week of Pre-K.  Mary Martin had a very gradual transisition and today was her first full day, though she is only attending half days from nine until noon. 

I was so excited to send them to school.  James was ready and eager to be engaged again.  His little brain needs exercising!  And he was ready for some friends.  I mean, younger sisters can't comprehend the complexities of the railways of Sodor like other boys. 

I thought Mary Martin was ready for some friends and fun as well.  I knew she needed to be around other kids her age and Jim and I both thought a break for me would do us all some good. 

Well...  Let me tell you about today.

Drop off is at 9 am.  The ride in was typical.  Mary Martin was a little whiny on the bus but all was well.  James was very excited as today was SWIMMING!  His class will swim one day a week and today was the first day.  So James was all smiles as we approached school... 

Until we heard from another mom that the pool is broken.  Wait, what?  It is an indoor pool, how did it break overnight?  Come to learn, a pump was broken and only discovered this morning.  So, no swimming.  Crap. 

It's okay James.  Y'all will still go to gym and you like gym, right? 

No mommy, don't go.  I don't want to stay here and go to gym.  You stay with me, please...

Great. 

I left James in tears.  And believe me, he doesn't cry that often any more, but they are big and round tears complete with a pouty lower lip.  I just had to walk away.  The teachers were helping but I just had to leave, because it was time to take Mary Martin to her classroom.

So Mary Martin has not transisitioned easily.  This is due to three things I think:

1.  I assumed she would transisition easily and left her too soon and for too long.  In the first couple of days, I left quickly and just knew she would recover.  But so did the rest of the parents.  It was a free for all for the first few days with Mary Martin the clear looser.

2.  She hasn't bonded with her teachers.  Mary Martin has two teachers for 16 kids (!).  One speaks English and one speaks French.  They are both fluent, of course, but they try and speak in their native languages so the kids can get used to hearing both languages.  It is a bilingiual school after all.  Mary Martin's English teacher was one of James' teachers last year, so again I assumed, Mary Martin would love Sophie right away.  She "knew" her after all - having seen her with James last year.  No go.  She is nervous, even frightened around Sophie.  Ok, so can the other teacher step in?  She can, but it is not, how shall I put this, "the French way."  The French school system is general can be seen as harsh by American standards.  Let's just say they are much less touchy feeling.  MM's French teacher is very sweet and great with kids.  But I don't believe she will sing Mary Martin into being comfortable.

3.  There are 16 other toddlers also having separation anxiety as well.


The result was that Mary Martin's teachers asked me to just stay with her a few days in the classroom.  To make her more happy with the room and the system, first, and then work on mommy leaving.  I didn't think this was the right approach with Mary Martin but I did what they asked. 

Which meant I was around school all day.  Today, after I left James in tears over the no swimming day, I started to go with Mary Martin's class out to the playground.  And as we started to leave, here comes James' class going to the playground too.  They tried to get me to hide from his class but there was no where to go.  We were all going to the same playground after all.  And why were we all going at the same itme, anyway?!?!  It has one slide, people.   

More tears from James, upon seeing mommy.  But I was tied up with Mary Martin and couldn't go with his class.  His class can make it the block and a half to the playground much faster than Mary Martin.

So I inched along with the toddlers, sliently praying that James would calm down.  I started to debate whether we should just call it a day and take both kids home when I realized something was wrong with James on the playground.  As got closer and closer to the playground, I saw James' two teachers hovering over him...  Then I figured it out.

Nosebleed. 

James was having a nosebleed at the playground.  Which he gets every six months are so.  Great.  Cue Mary Martin getting upset again...  Which she did of course.  New tears as I left her unattended to help James with his nosebleed. 

Awesome. 


Mary Martin has this little book in her classroom called Spot goes to School.  Spot does not want to go to school but throughout the course of his first day there he gradually learns to have fun.  Of course he makes a big mess in the process with the paints at art class.  But he has fun and learns how great school can me.

My crew?  Just a trail of blood and tears. 

Keeping our fingers crosses that things improve.