My week so far...

Last Thursday as my MIL turned up to babysit Lucas, I took the opportunity to stress that she is welcome in our place anytime, and that I don't mind her turning up just for a chat or a cup of coffee without an invitation or even calling up first. I told her she can come anytime and not just for babysitting.
She was a bit non commital with the conversation, perhaps she was in shock...? But I was delighted when she turned up Sunday evening! She'd just been to Roger's house to check on him as he was not well, and decided to visit. When the intercom rang and Fred answered, he turned to me and said "Its my mom!" He was shocked :)
I was so happy to see her, and so was Lucas. She stayed for dinner - we had magret de canard, salad and potatoes and she left after Lucas went to bed!

My new friend Laurence (which is a woman's name in France) whom I met at Atelier Gepetto invited me out to the theatre this Thursday night. The local colleges have gotten together to stage "Sherlock Holmes" in ENGLISH! We arranged for our other half to babysit and together with Julie, the 3 of us will have a nice night out at the theatre.

Today, my French teacher took my class to the Petits As  to watch under 14 tennis players from all around the world play in a junior tennis tournament, held annually in Tarbes. Previously, world class players like Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Marat Safin, Amelie Mauresmo and Anna Kournikova played in Petits As. There were a lot of young kids in the expo, and there were plenty of activities besides tennis to occupy them. There was a rock climbing wall, and a mechanical bull. There was a mini tennis court where anyone could try out and get free coaching. Of course, stalls were set up for tennis equipment, food stalls in case anyone got hungry, coffee kiosks, tennis schools and activities such as a big opening party tonight and another dance party in the discotheque in town. There were lots of people from the press at the center court where we watched a match between a German and a French.

At class today the infuriating classmate of mine (whom everyone has been avoiding since class started after the Christmas holidays) once again annoyed me with her lies. First she tells us that she has never worked a single day in her entire life. Then a couple of weeks ago she announced to the class that she was a coiffeuse (hairdresser) before. Today, because we were learning about prefession, she told us that she was a boss in an office and had staff working for her. Even my French teacher got confused and started asking her what exactly did she do, which she couldn't answer.
Her only friend in class also stopped talking to her since a couple of weeks ago.
I am waiting for my DILF exams in Feb to end so she can move on to another school. Mean of me, I know but right now, even hearing her voice gets on my nerves. I have stopped talking to her completely after she asked the Portugese girl  who has a weight problem if she has ever heard of "weight watchers" and suggested she sign up.

Anyway, Lucas was having a low grade fever for the past couple of days, probably due to his teething. He hasn't been eating much, prefering to drink his milk and refuses to brush his teeth, so I suspect his gums ache. Today when I dropped him off at creche, he didn't cry for the first time. I asked the caregivers to occupy him with arts and craft and brought along his unfinished "project" from home. Instead they let him do some hand painting today which he thoroughly enjoyed and his 3 hours at creche passed happily.
Lucas has also improved leaps and bounds since we became more strict with him - all he needed was to know his boundaries. Now when he is being naughty, we tell him to go to his room, and he does it by himself. He goes into his room and sits in his naughty chair until we get him. If we take too long (no more than 5 mins) he calls out to us to get him. But when he knows he's being punished he sits on the chair and doesn't move til we tell him its OK.
By showing Lucas his boundaries it has also made things a lot less stressful and easier for me. I can now cook dinner without having him underfoot. I just ask him to play in his room and he does that willingly. When I tell him that he will not be watching Barney on TV, he doesn't protest so much. Instead he goes into his room and switches on Barney on the CD player. Some days he knows that when he is finished with dinner and we are still eating, he goes to his room to play by himself. Previously he would pull at us and ask one of us to stop eating and play with him, starting his tantrums if we said "no".