Hands on approach to sex education and making slaps illegal

Today the Guardian published an article about a teaching programme targeting 14-17 year olds in Roman Catholic Spain of all places. The article explains that the programme aims at teaching "how best to set about "sexual self-exploration and the discovery of self-pleasure" – or to put it less delicately: masturbation." (click here to read the article)

Simultaneously, the French are considering a law which would make spanking children illegal - a law which apparently already exists in 19 out of 27 EU countries.

So? Well, both "activities" (sex-ed and slapping) used to be considered "family property" and are now being handled by institutional entities. I'm generally not too thrilled about that although it seems that one of the reasons this is happening is due to parental negligence.

I'm all for sex ed. as long as it's carried out in an appropriate framework, at a reasonable age and by professionals.

And, don't get me wrong, I am absolutely not for physical punishment although I have to admit that Emma has had the occasional slap on the hand or squeeze of the shoulder - although my preference goes to, removing her plate if she is "playing" with food or standing her in the corner of the room for a couple of minutes, but how do you do that when you are walking down the street?!

Studies show that children brought up with physical punishment are more aggressive and violent themselves (I do believe in leading by example) and so one can hope that such a law would perhaps also have an impact on violence against women (read some facts). On the other hand, I have to admit that when I first heard about actually making a slap illegal, my first reaction was "that's a bit far-fetched isn't it?
However, the more I think about it, the more I think that it might not be such a bad idea.

What do you think?

Laternefest - a year gone by

Today Emma celebrated Laternefest* with her kindergarden for the second time. Only last year she was sitting in her buggy because she was not yet walking, not really standing much and certainly not singing.

Emma holding her paper lantern at Laternefest* November 2008:

Emma at Laternefest* this November (due to the rain it was held inside) with friends Marie (left) and Isabella (middle):

*Laternefest is celebrated in Catholic Germany (and Austria it seems) on November 11th, in commemoration of the burial of Martin of Tours who ripped his cloak and gave half of it to a beggar. In celebration of this act of kindness children participate in paper lantern processions while singing about St. Martin and their lanterns.

This date is also the first of a fast period of 40 days which was later called "Advent" by the Catholic Church. At St. Martin's eve and on the feast day, people ate and drank heartily for a last time before they started to fast.
In kindergarden this celebration is also an opportunity to talk about sharing and kindness.

Beyond packaging

Had the below not been strongly recommended to me, I would not have given them a second glance. Wrapping does matter.

What are they?
Although they look like chubby sausages and are often found next to the skinnier sausages, they are in fact freshly made delicious soups. Indeed.

You can freeze them or pour them right into a pan, warm them up for 5 and serve with crunchy bread. They have all sorts; potato, pumpkin, goulash, bean, mixed vegetables, chicken... And every one is scrumptious!

Find them at your nearest "Radatz"

Ever since I can remember, every evening I sing Emma a good night song which actually wishes a good night to all family members. Well that's how it started anyway.

The idea was to overcome one of the challenges of expat-life and keep grand-parents, aunts, uncles and cousins living around the world "alive" in her mind in between visits.

So I sang "bonne nuit" (good night) while pointing to pictures around her room and naming "Grand-maman", "Nonna" and "Gogo" "Deda" and "Tallie" "Grand-papa François", "Pata", "Tata-yéyé", "Aka et Bruno"... (Talk about stimulating! here it's simply "Opa und Oma" while Emma has a totally different name and language for every grand-mother and grand-father!!!)

Anyway, gradually, we started to include friends' names (both hers and ours) in the "bonne nuit" song as well as objects like dolls' names, the swing at the park, flowers and leaves, the sun and the moon, the ducks and the cat and any new vocab. we had come across in the day...

Now Emma not only adds on names to the song and sings it to herself when she does not fall asleep right away, she also sometimes sings it in the middle of the day pointing to photos up in her room and wishing them good-night.

So if you occasionally feel slightly drowsy in the middle of your dinner or tea, think of Emma wishing you a very good night...

Thyroid Schmiroid

For the first time in 10 weeks* my dose of thyroid medication has not needed to be adjusted - and I've being going for blood tests every 2 weeks. That's a BIG Yay!

Next check up in 3 weeks time!

For more info on hypothyroidism and thyroid regulation click here


*my first check this pregnancy was during week 6. I have been taking thyroid medication since February 2007 following discovery of hypothyroidism at the end of the first trimester of my first pregnancy.

The "terrific" in terrific twos

So while we are still in the midst of the terrific twos and Emma does still spaz out (stomp feet, growl, lose her temper, pout and run away) some truly wonderful things are happening too.

Emma is a huge chatterbox! Talking is incessant at dinner, in the car, at breakfast, while playing - Emma is telling us about something or more likely how to do it or not. In fact on top of being a pipelette she is a bit of a dictator too; she often tells me to stop singing "arrête maman!" so she can listen to the music, tells me to finish my meal or asks us if we want more "encore salade Papà?". During the day, she'll command "c'est Papà/Maman qui fait" depending on who she wants bathing her, dressing her, etc.

On the upside of this, she is quite happy to chatter away in bed to her doll and animals if she awakes before we get her up and frequently does a solo repeat of our goodnight song should she not fall asleep right away. She gets very creative with this and once she has run out of names she wishes all sorts of things goodnight. Quite funny and freakin' fantastic as far as I'm concerned!

Another relatively new trait - or maybe it is appearing more clearly now - is that Emma is incredibly possessive; "meine Mummy!" "meine Papa" and "meine caca" are favorites. And, yes, "caca" is "poo" in our house.
She actually gets into verbal fights with "colleagues" from kindergarden where each one shouts out "meine Mummy" or "meine caca" (both have happened but with different friends) and it was incredibly intense. The mummy part was easier - both children's Mummies were present and so we could explain that each one had "meine mummy" but the caca? Why on earth?
On the same subject, although Emma is still utterly disinterested in using the potty or loo, she now asks to see her "caca" in her nappy. Mmm. I wonder.

And what about the baby? Well, she understands that there is a baby lurking somewhere and most of the time she understands (or at least indicates) that it is in a belly. Only, she points to hers... So now, when we say goodnight to every family member at bedtime, she also says goodnight to Mummy's baby and to Emma's baby. Oh, and she also attributes one to her good friend Isabella on certain days, a sure indication of true love.


Yesterday was Tata yéyé's birthday and although we had quite successfully practiced singing "happy birthday to you" during the afternoon, when the time of the evening phone call came - no cigar. Below the filmed version over dinnertime just before Daddy got home.
Tata yéyé, I hope you will not be offended by the association with the "tomate" (tomato) and "assiette" (plate). As I mentioned above, Emma uses all sorts of vocabulary in her creative singing.

Enjoy the movie!

Terrific twos?