May Day!

Its been a long time since my last blog - picking up on the meeting with Noelle, she actually sent the school nurse to our home for a meeting with both parents on how to make Lucas eat. But as it is easier said than done, Lucas is still not eating his veges or fruits - though he is eating baby carrots now :) He started munching on them when he saw Sandra, our pregnant friend eating them and he wanted to try, saying that it was so cute (cos they were "babies" , like him!!!)

Speechwise, Lucas has improved tremendously, even invoking feelings of panic in me when I noticed that he is speaking more french than english sometimes. When we received his class photo, I was surprised that Lucas could name all of his classmates (all except one, that he refused to say her name - I will explain why later). 

For my 41st birthday, Lucas sang me "Happy Birthday" - yes, the full song :) And he also sings in school, according to Eliane, his favourite song is "Petite Escargot". Yesterday, on a day trip out to a farm for kids with other moms from Gepetto, Lucas sang "Petite Escargot" for us! He also loves singing after his BeeBo "Sing, Sign & Play" CD, he dances and plays his piano and guitar (I bought him a child's guitar, an authentic guitar with real strings that he can strum and pluck) AND he loves singing Myley Cyrus' "See you again"!

A week after my birthday, when I went to pick Lucas from school, one of the mothers from school (who also happens to be my MIL's friend) stopped me and told me that she'd arrived early at school that day and heard Lucas screaming for help behind the hedge of the school. She ran towards the cry and found 2 girls beating Lucas. One girl held his hands behind his back while the other bashed him repeatedly. This was during playtime and none of the adults in the school heard him or came to his rescue. 

The girls are sisters, one of them is in Lucas' class - the one he refuses to name. In fact, when I told Lucas' friend's mother about the beating, she asked her daughter if she knew who has been beating Lucas and she immediately said "Olpha". And I found out that she was right. This beatings must have been going on since school reopened in April, because Lucas would cling to me and refuse to let me go when I dropped him off. He did not know how to tell us he was being bullied in school although now I realize that he said "beat, beat" many times - but I thought he was saying that to our newly adopted puppy (more on that later!) 

The girls were also calling him "bridé" which means "slit-eyes". We wrote a formal letter to the school and the headmistress immediately told me that when the mother alerted them that Lucas was beaten by the 2 sisters, they already took action to punish the girls. And the girls were also being punished for another week in school - no playtime for them, instead they have to sit in the headmistress' office and she will continue to lecture them on beatings and racism. She also called the girls' father and told him about Lucas and he has also said that he took action - I noticed that the girls were away from school for a week or so before I bumped into Olpha and her dad in class last Monday. It was a bit tense in class when I walked in - I could feel Eliane and Noelle tensing up , I think its because they saw how very upset I was when I talked to them about the beating and they were expecting me to go off at the dad; but I kept my mouth shut and didn't say anything (I will trust Noelle and her team to take care of the matter and keep Lucas safe). 

Back at home, both Fred & I told Lucas that we know what is going on and that he has nothing more to worry about - that he can trust us to protect him. After we reassured him, he slept well that night, and the next day when he went back to school, Noelle told him that the 2 girls are being punished and he nodded to show he understood, and told Noelle that they beat him (in french). In the end I noticed that as a result of the beating, the area behind the hedge has been cordoned off - great but it had to be Lucas who had to take a beating for it to happen. That area is in fact unsafe and hides the kids from the adults.

Back to the puppy, we adopted a gorgeous little pup, Lucas named her "MoMo" and she stayed with us for 3 weeks before I gave her away to Sandra & Didier for her safety (and Lucas'). Lucas was very rough and almost cruel with her, jumping on her repeatedly and pulling her ears and she was starting to fight back. On the day we decided to give her away, she bit Lucas. 

Anyway last weekend, we visited MoMo in her new home - she has grown so much and is happy, I saw her eating confit and paté from the gité!!!! I now realize that adopting a puppy is like having another child in the house; double the mess, double the fatigue, double the mischief!!!!! And I had to "potty train" the pup :P Each time I scooped up crap, I was telling myself "oh noooooo....!!!!"   

Now life is back to "normal", no more waking up early to take the pup out for its toilette (only she doesn't want to do it outside, she always waits for us to come back and she does it in my garden, killing my plants!!!!!), no more screaming in frustration at both Lucas & MoMo to stop trying to hurt each other and the best is, no more scooping up poop for me :)

Next time, I will adopt a mature dog who is already toilet trained and is calm enough to be with Lucas (but we will also wait for Lucas to be ready which will be a few years from now...)