From the moment we moved here, I felt quite a lot of pressure to have William enrolled in some sort of daycare. Be it the crèche system or a Nounou (childminders/PORSE), people kept asking me if I wanted to register William, and letting me know if there were spaces available where their kid was. But, I resisted. I continued to remind myself that I had extended my maternity leave to be a full time mum, not to put him into daycare. However, by the end of September, everyone I knew had very-much returned to their usual term time schedule, and it became very obvious that there just weren't the same range of acitivies available to us that we had done in NZ. I enrolled William in gymnastics on a Wednesday morning and started taking him to swimming, but there were never really any other kids in the pool, and the parks were always deserted. This can quickly become quite isolating. So, after chatting with some of the mums I know through playgroup, I decided to give the crèche system a whirl. After reading Pamela Duckerman's book, "French Kids Don't Throw Food", and speaking to few people, I knew this wasn't going to be easy but I figured, if you want to win the lottery you need to buy a ticket. So, off we trotted to the crèche round the corner from us. Purpose built and council run, this seemed like the right place for William. The girl on reception even let us have a wee play in one of the areas while we were waiting. She's made an appointment for us to meet the Director and from this, William's name will then be put forward for the November "commission" where they discuss all the applications and work out who gets what starting in January. From what I understand, preference is given to working parents (fair dos) but at least I'm trying to get him a spot. I think it will be really good for him, especially as a stepping stone for Maternelle in September. We now wait.
The green fingers are out again and we took at trip to Leroy Merlin for some garden supplies. No before and after shots yet.
I'd heard some of the girls chatting last week about a new playwark in town that's recently opened. Its sort of in a subterranean section of the town called Hédas and I finally got around to checking it out this week. It's really cool and easy to cycle to. I'm sure it's going to become a regular hangout!
We also made some changes to our sleeping arrangements, moving the bunk beds to the mezzanine of the sleepout in anticipation for Heather coming over with the girls. Poor Iain was ready for launching the whole thing out of the window though as it became such a complicated process to dismantle and reassemble. But, they're up now and it's really created a cool space for guests to come and stay. Just need to get some home furnishings. I sense a trip to Ikea on the cards!
Like I alluded to in the header, getting things organised can be demanding. Someone in our house was struggling a little bit this week. Oh dear...
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