Half Term Chaos

I've not been around and blogging as its half term here and its MAD!! I'll try and do a quick catch up though.

Monday Little Prince's friend and his mum came round. Little Prince became more and more manic as the visit went on!! Not sure if he was out of sorts because he is out of his school routine, or if he couldn't cope with sharing my attention or what? In the end I had him on 'mummy lock down' where he has to stay in the same room as mummy at all times, or he breaks things/gets exceedingly silly.
Tuesday Took Drama Teen to her orthodontist appointment over the other side of the country. The orthodontist says treatment is getting near to the end, and her brace could be removed before next Summer Holidays - she is VERY happy about that. She is less happy about the elastic bands she has to wear holding her top and bottom teeth together! Fraulein was supposed to come with us and we were going to visit a Museum on the way home, but a boy from college invited her to the cinema, so she's going there instead. Drama Teen's friend from CLAPA Camp arrived to stay at our house for a few days soon after we arrived home from the appointment.
Wednesday Little Prince went to a friend's house to play. I took Drama Teen, Fraulein and Friend to the Supermarket to get sweets and choccies for a midnight feast. Once we were home again I managed to get most of my new Squish fabrics cut out too. While picking Little Prince up from his friend's we took Drama Teen's friend on a short tour of the village - it had to be short there isn't much to see!!

Weight Watchers Update

I went to my first weigh in today and I've lost 2lbs - I had hoped to lose lots more, but its a good steady start and hopefully I can keep that up :-)


TWO pounds down thirty six to go!!

Grumpy day all round!!

Mr Messy was dragged out of bed just after we'd gone up, and kept up till 1am by the latests problem with this week's deployment job. Then Little Prince woke up scarily early, and to I got up with him to let Mr Messy get some sleep! Drama Teen had stayed up late watching TV last night, so she was out of sorts and I'm not sure why, but so was Fraulein!! So we all had a grumpy, irritable day with each other - no out and out arguments, just lots of grumbling and sniping at each other. And because everyone was either ignoring him or too tired/grumpy to play Little Prince was a little monster all evening!!! Oh dear - I hope tomorrow is better, especially as the kids are all at home all week on half term!!
Me, Mr Messy and Little Prince went out in the afternoon, to buy computer innards for Mr Messy's computer (video card I think?!). While we were at the shop, I saw a Disney kids MP3 player!! Apart from the fact that it was pink and Princess themed it would have been perfect for Little Prince for Christmas. Luckily I found a Cars themed one on Amazon - so that will be winging its way to Father Christmas soon :-) Although I'm in two minds whether or not to give it him to keep him amused during our travel to Disneyland Paris!
Then this afternoon Mr Messy decided to make his trademark American chocolate muffins - made with English chocolate, which we prefer to American choccies!! Aaaaargh! How can he do this to me?? He knows I'm dieting!!! Oh well - so far I've managed to resist temptation, hopefully I can remain strong till they are all gone. Which luckily never takes long as they are sooo yummy :-) Its making my mouth water just writing about them lol

Do you know what it is yet??

Just for Kate who isn't feeling very well - I'll let you in on the secret...

Its DARK FADER!!!! (aka Darth Vader)

No I can't see any resemblence either!! Is he having a girlie day?? Has he got, hitherto untapped feminine sensibilities?? Or has Little Prince got a better imagination than me??? Probably the latter :-)

Hope you feel better soon Kate - thinking of you and sending you big hugs and cyber choccies :-)

URGH!!!!!

I've been fed up all day, don't know why, probably because I'm over tired. But the Rugby result hasn't helped AT ALL!!!!! I'm off for an early night :-( Perhaps things will look better after a good nights sleep. Please sleep through the night Little Prince!!

Drama Teen is home :-)

Late last night, too late to blog about, Drama Teen arrived back at school after her trip to France. I'd expected her to be tired, but she was bubbly bouncy and desperate to tell us EVERYTHING that had happened while she was away. She's given me her notebook/diary so that I can blog it all, which I'll do later as it might take me a while!!

Little Prince is thrilled to bits to have his big sister home again, and has hardly left her side all morning. Except just now, as Mr Messy has just arrived back home from a shopping errand - Little Prince has to check if he has been brought anything!! The answer is yes - a cake in the shape of a ghost!!

Guess what this is???

This is Little Prince's latest creation from school :-)
Any ideas what it is??? You'll never guess it mwahahahaha :-)

Pyjama day

Little Prince's school had a pyjama day today! The kids had to pay a £1 and were allowed to wear their pyjamas all day :-) Even the teachers joined in, although there were quite a few suspiciously new looking pyjamas being sported by the teachers lol. Then again I had to buy Little Prince some new pyjamas for today as he either wears shorts/t-shirt ones (much too cold for that) or long legged/sleeved ones that are way too short! He didn't have the pyjamas in the picture he had Transformer ones that actually transform - there's a flap that lifts up and velcros to the shoulders that changes the picture from the good guy to the bad guy (don't ask me what they are called as I can't remember!!).

Unfortunately Little Prince had a bit of a bump at school today, and has a right bruise and bump on his cheek. He also has a bruised finger nail where he says a big boy dropped a stone on his hand!! Its half term now or I'd be going into school to check what is going on!!

No Gym today

My friend, is the village Post Woman, and she was snowed under with post this morning and won't finish her shift in time for us to go to the gym. Oh well :-( I had myself psyched up to go with her, but can't quite seem to force myself to go on my own!! No motivation.

First Day of the DIET!!

Today has gone really well, I've stuck to my alloted quota of Weight Watcher's Points, although by mid evening it was getting harder and harder to resist snacking on something. Especially when I made Little Prince and his friend their tea and knew it would be another hour before Mr Messy would be home and I could start our tea!! But I think I've made a good start, and hope I can keep it up :-)

Thank you Secret Buddy :-)

I received a parcel this morning in the post from my Secret Buddy on my July LID group. Littly wouldn't let me take a photo of the beautifully wrapped gift, he was too intent on ripping it open!! So I'll just have to describe it - it was a square parcel wrapped in white tissue paper, with a thick pink ribbon tied round it in a big bow. There was a little card, also pink, with a message from my Secret Buddy :-) But the best was yet to come - inside the present was a beautiful pink, cotton blanket with embroidered and appliqued bunnies in the corner :-) Its absolutely gorgeous and I LOVE it :-)

~*~
THANK YOU SECRET BUDDY
~*~

Weight Watchers!

I (re)joined Weight Watchers last night! Since finishing the LighterLife diet I have put back on way way too much weight and I'm not happy. The LighterLife helped me lose massive amounts of weight, but didn't help me learn to eat healthily and sensibly. So I thought Weight Watchers would be a good way to relearn healthy eating and lose the weight I want to. I've also decided that this is the last diet!! I either lose the weight and keep it off this time, or I quit dieting! I've been on an almost constant diet since Little Miss Sensible was born 18 1/2 years ago!! That is WAY too long!!! I've got a wardrobe full of fashionable clothes, that I bought when I finished LighterLife, and I want to slim back into them, hopefully that will keep me motivated.

I need to lose 38lbs - you didn't think I was going to reveal my actual weight did you?? lol :-) NO WAY!!!! I'll try and update my loss each week, and hopefully knowing that I've 'gone public' about this will keep me on track!! Wish me luck :-) Just off to the supermarket to get the new style weekly shopping :-)

Not so interesting happenings

Well yesterday was busy, and for a change I managed to get quite a lot done!! Usually I run round like a loony but never seem to get anywhere, so I'm quite pleased with myself that I've ticked lots of jobs of my 'To Do List.'
I made and posted some Squishes for some more individual swaps, I did a mass mailing to all those listed on the OHGWQ database and 5 out of the 10 have replied wanting to swap, so that's good. And they are all willing to swap for both Little Prince and MeiMei's quilt, so that's even better :-)
Much more mundanely I got loads of loads of washing done! And I even managed to get them dry without them smelling musty/damp!! The last few times I've washed clothes they've ended up smelling icky once they are dry, but if I get them straight out of the washing machine when it finishes and dry them straight away they are fine. It does mean I can't put a wash on overnight though, which is a bit of a pain!
Little Prince unexpectedly had a little friend to play after school, and they seemed to be playing so nicely that I spent some time on my computer. Me and Fraulein even managed to email a lady in Belgium in French and arrange to swap Squishes!! It took both of us, Alta Vista Babel Fish translation site and a lot of laughing to achieve this! I'm so glad Fraulein was here I would have made a complete hash of it without her lol. We got so involved in that that I almost forgot to get Little Prince and his friend some tea!! Luckily I had some quick cook stuff in and managed to feed them before it was time to drop friend off at home. I left Fraulein and Little Prince to tidy up the lounge, which was covered in toys - you couldn't see the floor!!! I found out later that they'd done the same to his bedroom, and 'cleaned' the bathroom floor with bath bubbles!! So much for playing nicely huh?

Forgetting!!

Little Prince has just got some new school sweatshirts, so I've taken the nametapes out of his old ones and was about to offer them to school for the uniform storage. The nursery and reception classes keep a stock of uniform just in case the children need to get changed while they are at school - and Little Prince has so far made a lot of use of this resource so far (between paint, mud and water play he often needs to get changed!!). Then it suddenly struck me that we are 'expecting' another child who will also need to wear this school's uniform - so I've put the jumpers away in the 'one day' cupboard full of other things for MeiMei. Isn't it funny how our minds protect ourselves from hurtful things, I've obviously in a lot of ways 'forgotten' that I'm expecting :-( Which is probably good for getting through the wait, but its sad that it has to be like this as I so wanted this waiting time to be an exciting preparation time. But if I let myself get too excited and prepare too much, we could be looking at an unused nursery for years :-( And the let down as each month's referrals fall short of my expectations (they have so far!!) will be huge. So this way is probably for the best.

Catch up post - Monday

Today was a lovely relaxing day :-) I went to a Spa with a friend. We set off immediately after dropping off the children at school, and then left the car at her parent's house and got a bus to the centre of the town, where the spa was. We were booked in for three hours in the spa and a short treatment!! I found the spa bit, a bit too hot!! I could hardly breathe in some of the hot rooms!! And I didn't enjoy the ice room, where you get handfuls of ice and rub it on your body brrrrr! And there was absolutely no way I was getting in the ice cold plunge pool either!! My favourite room was the sauna, where it was more of a dry heat than a damp steamy one, and I found once I was used to it I could actually breathe in that one. I know it doesn't sound like it but I did actually enjoy myself lol. Our treatment was a salt scrub, the therapist rubbed grainy sea salt mixed with body lotion all over, to get rid of dead and dry skin cells. I have very pale skin, and the therapist commented on how quickly I went red with all the rubbing and scrubbing!! I still looked like a tomato when we left a few hours later!!! But my skin feels so soft and smooth :-)
We got back just in time to pick the children up from school, despite having the dad's on standby to get them, just in case! Mr Messy had to go straight off to a business meeting, he was VERY relieved that he didn't have to take Little Prince with him lol. Little Prince wasn't impressed that I wouldn't take him to the park on the way home, but there is a water main that is leaking nearby and most of the park is a quagmire, so there was no way I was taking my mud magnet in there!!!

When Fraulein came home, I asked her how her day had been and she said "horrible" but despite probing wouldn't tell me, Mr Messy or Little Miss Sensible (when she rang up) what was the matter. I hope she is alright and can sort out whatever it is! We'll see how she is on Tuesday!!

Catch up post - Sunday

I was really looking forward to Sunday, as Little Miss Sensible was coming home for Sunday lunch, on the way back to university after visiting The Boyfriend at his uni. Trouble was Mr Messy was on call as senior support on a huge deployment happening over the weekend, and all through the night he was getting calls and messages - neither of us got much sleep. Little Prince then decided to wake up even earlier than usual, as he was excited at seeing his biggest sister! I got up with Little Prince and after breakfast we just slobbed on the sofa, when Mr Messy woke up he found Little Prince playing and watching TV and me comatose on the sofa! We had a LOT to do so unfortunately I had to wake up :-( Went off to the supermarket to buy meat for the Sunday Lunch, planned on chicken and ended up with pork as that's all they had left!! Then went off to the train station to pick Little Miss Sensible up, got caught in road works and ended up being late, but I had been extremely naughty and rung her while sitting in traffic, so at least she knew I was on my way.
Once we had battled the traffic back home again, we had a lovely lunch and Little Prince totally ?? his big sister, and they played and read books for an hour - its lovely seeing them together :-) This gave me a chance to check how Drama Teen was getting along with tidying her room, and packing her suitcase ready for her school trip to France. The packing was going better than the tidying!! Fraulein had had enough of doing her homework and decided to help Drama Teen with her tidying - and Fraulein is a very neat and tidy and ordered young lady!! Look out Drama Teen!!! Between them they managed to make quite an impression on the tip, I mean the bedroom :-)
All too soon it was time for Little Miss Sensible and Mr Messy to load up the car and set off back to university. Me and Little Prince had been planning to go with them, as we haven't seen her room yet, but due to Drama Teen's trip setting off tonight we couldn't go. If we had got caught in traffic on the way home and not got back in time, Drama Teen wouldn't have been able to go on the trip. Probably because I was over tired to begin with, the fact that I wasn't going with them, and won't get a chance to see the room for another month made me so upset, I cried :-( It was VERY hard waving them off. Will this ever get any easier?
I then took Drama Teen off to the shop to buy her some snacks for both the journey and during the week, as she is quite a fussy eater and might need some topping up if she doesn't eat much of the meals provided! Fraulein was a star and agreed to look after Little Prince while we are out, which made the trip a lot quicker lol. Once back from that Drama Teen and Fraulein did some more tidying, while I kept Little Prince entertained and out of their way!! His help wasn't much appreciated lol.
Once Little Prince was in bed, us girls had a trashy TV night - we watched 'Are You Smarter Than A Ten Year Old?' (the answer is no!) then an episode of 'Wife Swap' and as usual neither of the families portrayed came out of it smelling of roses! Then we watched a few episodes of Billy Connolly's World Tour of the UK, very very funny :-) Drama Teen was in stitches watching it, although Fraulein was a little more straight laced and didn't laugh quite so much!! She couldn't quite believe that someone could get away with saying those things on TV!!
Mr Messy arrived home in time for the midnight dropping off of Drama Teen at school for her trip, him and Fraulein took her and waved her off (Fraulein had asked if she could go, so I had to stay home and look after Little Prince). Mr Messy was livid when he returned, as he (and all the other parents) had overheard the teachers in charge talking about Drama Teen and guessing that she wasn't going to turn up as she was so disorganised!! She was already on the coach waiting, but the teachers had been too busy gossiping to notice she had got on - even though they had ticked off her friend as being present and they got on the coach together!!! He is threatening to complain to school tomorrow, and I don't blame him. Fine if that is the teacher's private view of my daughter (I do agree with them) but to gossip in front of all the parents about it is not on!!
UPDATE: We have received a text from Drama Teen to say they have safely arrived at their hostel :-) And that she will keep a diary and tell us all about it when she returns :-)

My Kitchen

I've been tagged AGAIN by Kate. This time I've got to show you 8 things about my kitchen!! So here goes :-) And yes I tidied up before taking the photos lol. Sorry for the underlined words - I've managed to make it type like that and now can't work out how to turn it off lol.
This is the corner of my kitchen. The units were all there when we bought the house almost 10 years ago, but were an old 70's dark wood (yuk). We couldn't afford to rip it all out and start again, and I'm too superstitious to do that too!! We moved out of our last two houses within 6 months of gutting and refitting the kitchens!!! So we decided to paint the doors instead, and I think it looks pretty good :-) We just need to redo the tiling, we've even bought the tiles ready, but Mr Messy keeps looking at the job and putting it off!! The current tiles go up behind the wall cupboards and it would look odd to just tile over them, so its quite a big job and will probably wait till we finally do refit the whole thing!!
This is the view out of my kitchen window, into the garden. You can see the patio with my lovely cut tree logs - a workman was getting rid of them and let us take them off his hands, they make excellent seats (when they are dry lol). You can also see our posh gas barbeque that we bought last year and have only used about twice this year!! Oh well hopefully the weather will be better next Summer. Luckily you can't see the lawn which desperately needs mowing and is scattered with Little Prince's toys :-)
This bit shows the bright orange ceiling!! I chose the wall colour, he chose the ceiling colour, which I didn't think would work but it does :-) Its a lovely bright, happy looking room :-) You can also see the various kitchen gadgets (juicer, breadmaker, mixer and sandwich toaster) that we bought thinking they would make our lives easier and then they ended up stored up on top of the cupboards as they are just dust catchers lol. You can also see the bare plastered bit, when we moved in this was a hole (!!!) which we had boarded up and replastered, but haven't got round to painting.
This is the door to the utility room, that we had specially made. The door is made from reclaimed timber, so it looks old and in keeping with the age of the house. The stained glass is proper pieced/leaded stained glass that a very talented friend of ours designed and made - it looks gorgeous when the sun is shining through it.

This is the bag of snacks bought for Drama Teen to take with her on her trip to France! There is a lot there, but it is supposed to last her a week and have stuff she can share with the other girls in her dorm.
This is my Lakeland Plastics egg chicken - isn't he cute? You can make up to four boiled eggs in it automatically. It times them and they come out perfectly every time :-) Little Miss Sensible wants to steal it to take it to university, so I'll have to buy her another one just for her, I can't lose mine!!
This picture is my Art Gallery. All the pictures there are Little Prince's creations as the big girls don't create that much any more, now they are so grown up. I miss there pictures and paintings.
This last picture is one of my birthday presents from my Best Friend. She bought it while she was in Guangzhou on a business trip. Most of it is an ordinary Chinese tea set - apart from the figure of a little boy! Apparently if you put him in boiling water, then in cold water he will wee from his little willy!!! We haven't tried it yet, but its typical of my Best Friend's sense of humour (well and mine too if I'm being honest lol).

I now tag Rosie :-)

Busy busy day

Today Mr Messy and Little Prince had a boys day out. They went to a museum dedicated to weapons - very Boys Own!!! Little Prince apparently ran through the galleries making gun noises for an hour, then announced he was tired and hungry and wanted to go home!! So they visited the cafe and even that didn't revive him, and they reluctantly came back home. Little Prince meant it when he said he was tired, and was fast asleep in the car when they arrived!!
My Best Friend came round and we sorted out the final details and BOOKED our trip to Disneyland Paris NEXT MONTH :-) We are staying at Disney's own Hotel Santa Fe, which is the cheapest hotel, but we only use it to sleep so there's no point being in one of the nicer ones. We also prebooked a character breakfast and the half board option (we are given vouchers to spend in any of 7 restaurants for each of our nights stay). I'm so excited - I just can't wait :-) Little Prince is excited too, as there is a new ride in Paris based on his favourite film - Cars, guess where we'll be spending a LOT of time lol. We are travelling to Paris via the Eurostar, which is something we haven't, in our many trips there, ever tried before - so that should be excited too :-)
Me, Drama Teen and Fraulein were meant to be having a girlie shopping day, but I spent so long sorting out Disney with Best Friend and then chatting for ages, that we didn't have time!! I'm sorry girls. We had to take Drama Teen straight to her Stagecoach club, and then me and Fraulein went to the shops. She had never been in a Primark before and was very excited and impressed with the range and prices :-) We had a lovely three hours wandering round the shops and luckily managed to get all the last minute bits and pieces that Drama Teen (desperately!!) needed for her trip to France with school tomorrow!!

Jonny does it again :-)

England 14 - France 9 YEAH :-)
Dream start to the game with Josh Lewsey's tackle giving England their first try.










Go for it Jonny :-)

More inspirations

More pictorial inspirations for Little Prince's room - when he finally moves into Little Miss Sensible's old room!! Not sure when that will be, as she does need somewhere to sleep when she's home from univeristy lol. And Little Prince's room isn't needed for MeiMei any time soon :-( Just so I remember these are available at Pottery Barn.

The BIG announcement!!!!

HE DID IT!!!!!!!! HE DID IT!!!!!!!!!! HE DID IT!!!!!!

Little Prince stayed at school ALL DAY
for
~the second time today~

I couldn't be prouder of him if I tried :-) He made the decision himself to try it, and wanted me to talk to his teacher about it. She sits with him at the lunch table (the noise in the dining hall scared him) and then he goes and plays out with his friends. He was happy coming home from school last night :-) AND he was happy going to school this morning :-) He is such a brave little man to have managed this :-) Don't tell him but he wants a Transformer (been pestering for ages!) and we're going to get him one for when he comes home on Friday - as his BRAVE BOY present :-) Shhhh now :-)

Teaser Post!!!

I could have BIG news to tell you, but you'll have to wait till tomorrow to find out!!! Sorry to be mean, but I can't resist mwahahahah :-)

LID

I've heard on the adoption grapevine that people with similar DTC dates to us have been given their LIDs by the DCSF YEAH :-) I tried emailing - no answer. So I've just tried ringing - and they don't have ours :-( The very helpful lady on the phone suggested ringing again in a few weeks time, to see if they've received it then. So I'll do that and if they still haven't received it, I'll cave in and pay to join BLAS. The suspense is now killing me I NEED to know!!!

Being the youngest is GOOD

I've just finished sorting out two huge bags of clothes sent to Little Prince by my sister in law, her youngest (Little Prince's cousin) is 3 years older than Little Prince but is quite small. So all the clothes he grows out of are passed on to Little Prince :-) I was looking through Little Prince's wardrobe recently thinking we'd have to go out and buy loads more clothes (jumpers, long sleeved tops, Winter stuff) and lo and behold they are delivered :-) Little Prince will be thrilled as he adores his cousin and wants to be just like him, and they do in fact look very similar lol. And I am thrilled as cousin is very trendy and all the clothes are good quality and hard wearing - thank you sister in law :-)

URGH!!!!

Our prediction for LID 2007-AUG-16

Our best guess - a weighted average of recent CCAA velocities, guessing that CCAA will perform about as well in the future as they are performing now, but might return to previous trends: 2012-OCT-22

That's our best guess for when you might receive your referral. Just at a guess, we can suppose that the CCAA either speeds up or slows down significantly, and show you those dates. If they speed up: 2010-AUG-07. And if they slow down: 2019-FEB-21.

Decision about Dinner Lady (sort of!)

After talking the Dinner Lady situation over, with both Mr Messy and Little Miss Sensible I've decided not to do anything at the moment. Anything I did do would get straight back to Dinner Lady, and could make the situation a lot worse for Little Prince, and I don't want that at all. Plus Dinner Lady could deny everything and it would end up being a 'he said - she said' situation which would benefit none of us. There could be an innocent explanation for Dinner Lady's childs reaction, I doubt it, but for now I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. I will be keeping a close eye on the situation and if anything more happens I will be taking it up with Little Prince's headmistress.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to give me some advice, its really appreciated :-)

Yesterday

I didn't get much chance to blog yesterday as Little Prince was home from school, recovering from the weekend's sickie bug. And any spare time I did get I was trying to catch up with the jobs around the house I didn't do on Sunday. How come if you ignore the washing for a day, the laundry basket explodes?? Where does it all come from??? Anyway, Little Prince managed to eat (lots he was obviously making up for lost time!) and keep it all down, although he was pretty tired and dozy. We spent a lot of time cuddled up on the sofa watching tv or quietly doing jigsaws. By this morning he was raring to go to school and really looking forward to seeing his friends again :-) Even the fact that we were running late and his class had already gone into assembly didn't phase him, and he happily kissed me goodbye and went off with his teacher to join his classmates. This is such huge progress for him, and I'm so proud of my brave little man :-) So long as he carries on like this, I think we will start to plan his integration into full time (no lunch breaks with mum) school quite soon, probably after the upcoming half term.

What do I do??

I've written before about the Dinner Lady who decided she knew best and that I was causing Little Prince to have issues! And ever since this 'intervention' I have been bringing Little Prince home for the whole lunch hour, and taking him back to school at the beginning of Afternoon lessons. I've always considered this to be a temporary, settling in measure, but now I'm not so sure!

Mr Messy, Little Miss Sensible and Fraulein all walked up to church earlier and crossed paths with Dinner Lady's eldest child. This child went through school with my elder two, and is now in college with Fraulein - child came round to chat to Fraulein about college and agreed to 'mentor' her. Well today child was walking down the opposite side of the road, with no traffic and no earphones plugged in, but completely ignored the greetings called out by my family. Odd but maybe child was distracted? After the service when walking back home again, they again saw child, who this time crossed over the road to avoid them (the side child crossed to doesn't even have a pavement) and again blanked the whole family. Fraulein was nearly in tears as she hadn't realised what had been going on and I am furious! For this child to act like this, Dinner Lady MUST have said something - breaking confidentiality. I have not said a word to any other parents (or friends in the village) about my misgivings surrounding her views on Little Prince, but she has obviously been badmouthing me to her family. How on earth can I let Little Prince stay at lunchtimes when he is ready, under this woman's 'care'???

It is the only school in the village. Taking him to a different school in the area, would set back his settling in and take him away from his group of friends (they've been together for a year and a half in nursery and in Mum's n Tot's before that). He would end up being the 'odd one out' in the village if he didn't go to the same school as everyone else, and given the close knit atmosphere of the village that would be social suicide. When he is confident and settled he is a very sociable little lad, so homeschooling him would detract from that and again make him the 'odd one out'. I have no idea what to do!! I don't even know if/how to raise this with school - should I?? Its something that happened outside of school so is it really something they need to know about/deal with?? It could be explained away and dismissed very easily by the school (and Dinner Lady) and give them even more ammunition in labeling me a neurotic mother.

So I'm totally upset. Don't know what to do. And don't know if there is anything I can do :-(

Disturbed night and poorly day

Littly Prince threw up in the night, I managed to get him cleaned up and back asleep but didn't sleep well for the rest of the night wondering when he would wake up again. He didn't!! But Drama Teen and her gang of friends were having a sleepover, to watch High School Musical 2 that she had taped when it premiered. And being over excited teen girls, I was woken again at 1.30am and then again when they went to bed at 5am!!!!! I was so tired this morning when Little Prince woke up at 7.30am.

When Mr Messy got up later and it was pretty obvious me and Little Prince were fit for nothing, we went back to bed. Little Prince slept for a few hours then wanted to go downstairs to see Little Miss Sensible, he knew she was going back to university today. About an hour after that I was woken by a sobbing Little Prince, with Little Miss Sensible in tow holding the sickie bowl. He'd just been sick again. The rest of the day was spent either hugging him to sleep or staying close by while he slept - just in case he was sick again!

Mr Messy, Little Miss Sensible and Fraulein went to the Harvest Service at Church, where LMS was presented with a grant from a charity affiliated with the church, that is to go towards her university/study costs. Little Prince woke up when they got home, and got upset that his big sister was going back to university. In the end I took him into my bed and he eventually fell asleep. Only to be woken up a couple of hours later by the phone ringing, LMS letting us know they were safely on their way and about an hour away from their destination. I think the phone ringing scared him as he sobbed and sobbed, and ended up coming back downstairs to watch a bit of TV (he isn't fit enough to do anything else). Once Scooby Doo had finished it was dark, and I was able to persuade Little Prince to go to bed in his own bed. He has been fast asleep ever since - I'm listening on the baby alarm and there isn't a sound from his room. No school tomorrow!

Dieting!!!

I have put back so much weight since finishing the stupid diet (aka LighterLife!) that I've finally decided that I MUST do something about it! I've got a weeks worth of LL packs left and I'm kick starting with those - its hard, I've got a headache and can't stop going to the loo (you have to drink FOUR litres of water a day!!!). But in ONE DAY I've lost FIVE POUNDS!!!!!! Knowing my luck that will be my total loss for the week, but still its a great loss :-) And next week I'm going to rejoin Weight Watchers with my friend. I figure that I won't quit or mess about with it as much if I'm going with a friend!! And she's been going for a while, so is obviously committed, so I won't be able to give up because she does! Wish me luck - I've dieted so many times before that I need all the luck I can get!!!

Harvest Festival

Drama Teen was off school today, as there was a teacher training day, Mr Messy was working from home and Little Miss Sensible is home from university for the weekend. So it was a full complement of us that accompanied Little Prince to his school Harvest Festival, at the local church. Little Prince's reception class sang two songs, complete with actions :-) And Little Prince was a Star - literally lol. One of the songs had a verse about stars twinkling and Little Prince held up a large silver star :-) He coped really well with the change in routine, and sitting still and quiet (both ish!!) during the service. At breakfast he had been complaining of his tummy hurting so I had been a bit concerned about how he would cope, but he managed beautifully :-) He seems to be getting the hang of this school thing now :-)

R. I. P.

I've just found out that the little one we sponsor through Love Without Boundaries has died. He was born in July 2006 and had multiple health problems, poor little mite didn't get even a half decent crack at life.

July 2006 - October 2007 only 15 months old :-(

Rest in Peace

My Baby is home :-)

Little Miss Sensible arrived home for a visit today :-) She met Mr Messy at the train station and he brought her home while me and Little Prince were at a schoolfriend's birthday party. Its LOVELY to see her again, although I think we are all finding it a bit strange to have her here - nice strange!!!

Little Prince was very excited when he came out of school, about going to the party. But by the time we had got home he was complaining of a sore hip (!?!?) and spent a lot of time on the toilet (nerves??). He kept checking that I would be staying with him for the party, and needed a lot of cuddling on my knee. Once we were picked up by his girlfriend and her mum, he seemed very quiet and listless. At one point in the car journey I thought he was going to be sick he went so pale!! Luckily we were almost at the party venue (Wacky Warehouse type place) and he perked up once he saw all his friends and could play on the slides and things. At first he kept coming over to me and needing a hug, but after a few minutes he was totally confident and happy. He did manage to lose one sock, even after he and girlfriend searched it was nowhere to be found!! Me and girlfriends mum had a lovely (quiet lol) dinner in the adult restaurant, while the birthday child's parents supervised all the kids hehehe.

We hadn't told him Little Miss Sensible was coming home, so when he walked in and she appeared he was stunned for a second and then gave her a HUGE hug and demanded to know how she had got here! He insisted that she took him to bed, which I think she was very happy about as she was very very worried that he would be rejecting and distant with her (punishing her for leaving him). Hopefully he will carry on treating her as normal, and won't be too upset when she goes back to university on Sunday. That is the part I'm dreading :-( But I'm pushing that to the back of my mind and just trying to enjoy her being here while she is here :-)

Aaaargh!!!

I've just about finished sorting out my Secret Buddy's gift and found out there's a Postal Strike until next Wednesday!!! I'll take the parcel over to the Post Office anyway, but it will just sit there until next week - but at least it will be 'in the system' and I'll know I've got it posted lol.

Today's ramblings

After dropping Little Prince off at school this morning, I went to the nearest town to get some shopping done. I needed some more things for my Secret Buddy which I need to post this week, so that was fairly urgent!! Luckily I found everything I wanted and have now almost assembled my package and will definitely have it posted in time :-)

I also managed to get some bits and pieces for Christmas!! Saw some small toys that will appeal to Little Prince so they are now safely hidden away. I'll have to make sure I remember to wrap them up too, I don't want to end up with tonnes to wrap on Christmas Eve!! Which is what usually happens, and then to top it all off I usually run out of sellotape or wrapping paper too!! I'm determined to be more organised this year!! I've managed it before, when Drama Teen had a major operation just before Christmas, and I was completely organised before we went into hospital - just in case there were complications and she wasn't allowed home. It was a close thing, but we were allowed home in time :-) But I still remember the sense of satisfaction (and total smugness!!) that I was organised and ready for Christmas by early December!!

This afternoon I spent hours researching prices for a short break at Disneyland Paris!! My best friend saw a Special Offer (Kids go Free) for the 15th Anniversary of its opening, and suggested we take Little Prince for a few days. Trouble is its me that has to do all the poking around on the internet and trying to co-ordinate travel etc. But I managed it in the end and I'm just waiting to hear what she says!!! Look out Mickey we'll be seeing you soon :-)

Catch up post

I seem to have been mega busy the last few days, but got very little done!!!! I have been running round sorting things out but haven't anything to show for it!!

Well on to catching up! On Tuesday morning I went to a meeting organised by school, to explain to parents how children learn to read and how we can support school with activities at home. One of the things the speaker said that struck me was that studies have shown that children who use buggies that face mum/dad find learning to read much easier than children who face away from their parent! Apparently the early communication, and ability of the baby to see the parent's face and expressions whilst talking is of great benefit. This coupled with Holly Van Gulden's own recommendation for this type of buggy, but for attachment reasons rather than literacy reasons, has made me determined to find a buggy that faces me!! Well I do have quite a long time to chose these things lol. During the meeting I sat with Little Prince's new friend's mum - and I now feel very old!! She said that she had friend, while she was still at university, and had to complete her final year dissertation with a little one in tow - she must be about 15 years younger than me!!! Oh boy!!! Anyway Little Prince went to new friend's house for tea straight from school. It was very strange not to go out and pick him up lol. He was delivered home after tea by friend's mum. The trouble is I'd forgotten to mention that Little Prince should only drink milk or water and he'd had juice, so he'd had an accident. It was straight into the bath, which luckily he still loves so he was very happy about that. And once out of the bath it was time for pyjamas, story and bed - very strange to see so little of him in an evening!! He had had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed himself :-)

Vote for an Olympic Torch Carrier

Jenny Bowen from Half the Sky (American charity that works to help children in SWIs in China) is trying to win enough votes to enable her to carry the Olympic Torch.

Here is her official statement:-
I want to run for the children of China.
Mother to two girls adopted from Chinese welfare institutions, in 1998 I founded Half the Sky Foundation, in order to enrich the lives and enhance the prospects of orphaned children in China. 2008 is our 10th anniversary!
My family moved to Beijing in 2004 to be closer to the work that has become the passion of our lives. Half the Sky (www.halfthesky.org) offers its four nurture and enrichment programs to children living in 36 orphanages across China. We have served close to 15,000 infants, toddlers, young children and teens.
This year, as part of China’s Blue Sky Plan, Half the Sky was invited by the Ministry of Civil Affairs to introduce its life-changing programs to welfare institutions in every province in China. We are so honored!
If I were selected to carry the torch, I would run with the children—8 lovely children from our programs in 8 different provinces. What an amazing experience that would be for them!

Please vote at http://pub1.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/torch/members.shtml?mid=212

If you're curious, www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/torch_page.html is the main page where you can see other applicants and the top vote standings.