Never leave home without it!

Not your visa, but just as important: Doudou.

We went to the Marina to spend a weekend at the beach without Doudou. This was completely unintentional and a grave error that I will never ever commit again. Doudou is the French word for whatever is most precious to a child - after her own parents of course. Mia has two of them, which I didn't fully understand until I forgot one of them this weekend. The Doudou that I chose for her is a soft cloth diaper, and I bought about 10 of them in case one was ever lost. The Doudou that Mia chose is a little white baby seal (bebe phoque) that Thomas chose for her when we went to Lisbon for a weekend. (BTW, his nickname for Mia is bebe phoque.) Apparently both are essential for her to be able to fall asleep. I came to this realization on Saturday night when, despite an afternoon at the beach, she was still awake crying two hours after her normal bedtime.

Yet another item not to be forgotten when we leave for the US in just under 3 weeks.