a crazy afternoon

This day was so chock full of stuff, I don't know where to begin! First of all, I am getting over the worst cold in history. Well, it may not be that the cold is so bad, but Wednesday night I think I slept exactly two hours thanks to the return of Snorey McChainsaw, plus Fry had a little freak out at 4:00 in the morning and wouldn't settle back down so I ended up sleeping in his room for the rest of the night (morning?). So that set me back pretty bad, but I'm finally getting over it.

Anyway. This morning Fry and I ran a bunch of errands like stopping by the pharmacy, the Friday market and the butcher's, whom I love. Today she actually came out from behind the counter to coochey-coo Fry! So I was thinking that was our big outing for the day, especially with the crap weather coming through, but oh no! Stéph came home at lunch with a newspaper clipping about - get this - an itinerant halte garderie that is coming to Tiny Town! (You can read about us trying to get Fry into a halte garderie in Troyes in this post.) Every Friday afternoon, they set up in a large room in the old school and can handle up to 15 kids at a time. This afternoon they had a welcome session where you could come with your kids and check out the set up and get the information for signing up.

The only problem was that I didn't know exactly where the old school was. I didn't get very good directions, so after looping around the same block three times, I took a break and popped into the photographer's shop to get Fry's passport photos done. He was a real trooper and actually smiled at one point and we had to wait until he got serious again to take the picture!

So I ran back home and jumped on the computer and figured out where it was supposed to be (so frustrating, the directions I had were this close!) and we ran out again to try to find the place. I was so anxious I would miss the whole thing that when we did arrive, I was all red in the face!

So, long story short, I needn't have worried about getting a place since only one other child had been there before us and three toddlers came as we were leaving, it is incredibly inexpensive (it should work out to less than 5€ a month for us), Fry will get to meet other kids his age, get used to being around other people, and I will have three hours a week all to myself! Woohoo!

So, we have a new dossier to fill out and a meeting next Wednesday to do all the official child care stuff, and then we can start going on Friday afternoons together until he's comfortable enough to stay on his own. Now I just have to call the service in Troyes to cancel our meeting there, because I don't think we'll use that service now. I'm so excited and relieved that this great program has come to Tiny Town! All we've wanted was a program that helps Fry socialize with others for a few hours a week, and it fell in our laps!