They're off :-)

Little Prince went to my Best Friend's house this morning, as me and Drama Teen had to head off to her orthodontist - to have her brace REMOVED :-) Little Prince was very excited to go to Best Friend's house as she has big boys and a bouncyline (trampoline lol), he isn't too impressed that she has dogs and cats though! I do call her the mad cat lady as she currently has SEVEN Persian cats!! Me and Drama Teen arrived at her appointment with time to spare, despite being stuck in quite a few traffic jams. She was seen by the head of the department as her own orthodontist had been called away, but as he is the husband of her usual orthodontist he had been told exactly what to do lol. Drama Teen was ecstatic to have her brace off, but is now wondering if bare teeth suit her!!! It has been a LONG time since we've seen bare teeth lol. She also had some cosmetic dentistry on the tooth that her bridge is anchored to, as the metal bracket holding the bridge made the tooth look decidedly grey (and dead!!) but it now blends in beautifully with the rest of her teeth :-) She can't seem to stop grinning and admiring her new smile - and she looks so different, its not just her who will have to get used to this new look. Although I have to say she does look stunningly gorgeous - but she always has :-) She had to have yet another impression for an Essex Retainer (does she have to start wearing white stilettos now?!?) that will be posted to us, and she has to use day and night until we next see her orthodontist.
We got home quite a bit earlier than expected, but Best Friend said she would still pick Little Prince up from school so that he can play on the bouncyline. I think if me and Drama Teen had shown up at school he would have refused to come home with us!! We are going to go and pick him up soon, and no doubt he will be full of sugary junk, hyped up to the max by playing gunning games on the Egg Box (X-Box!!) with the big boys and tired out from lots of bouncing :-)

The Meeting!

I have been on pins all morning, as we are meeting with LA Team Leader and our Social Worker after lunch. This is the first meeting to discuss our plans to change our application to adopt to Ethiopia, rather than China. I am so nervous! Luckily (ha!!!) the downstairs toilet is blocked, so that has distracted me!! Especially the bit where I splashed the boiling water I was pouring down the loo on my foot!!! I've got a list of the Ethiopian dossier requirements (one each for me, sw and Team Leader) ready to take to the meeting. Me and Mr Messy have discussed that we would like to apply for a female child with special needs, under the age of 2 years. Which is pretty similar to the 'profile' of child we applied to adopt from China, so hopefully we won't have to do too much faffing about with our homestudy update and can get our papers off to DCSF pretty quickly. I'm trying my very best not to count on that though, as our LA are probably the slowest known!!!
UPDATE: Well it was even worse than I could have imagined!! We had our reasons for changing country pulled apart. When told of the estimates for referral of between 5-7 (or more) years, we were told ICA is always unpredictable. We had our reasons for choosing Ethiopia trashed. Team Leader (despite all the info pointing to this not being needed) is still insisting on a full new homestudy and full panel visit, which means we will be lucky to get to panel before Xmas knowing how slowly our LA works. Is it worth it? Should we just pull out completely now? I'm not sure :-( We were totally blindsided by this approach as we were under the impression (after emails and phone calls with Team Leader) that this had all been dealt with!! If we had known that this was the form the meeting would take, then we would have been a LOT more prepared.
UPDATE 2: I pulled myself together, after stuffing copious amounts of chocolate, and got hold of tonnes of evidence that it is quite normal in ICA applications to change countries and doesn't show a lack of commitment, and that Ethiopia is a legal and viable way to go. I will continue to gather this sort of evidence and send it to our LA until they see reason!! I did get a terse acknowledgment of my first (very long!) email that the info contained would be taken into consideration, and Team Leader would get back to us after next week.

Quiet House

Our lovely Spanish HOST student guest went back to his university yesterday closely followed by LMS. We had about an hour between their respective trains, so me, Mr Messy, LMS and Little Prince went for a quick bite to eat at McDonalds before heading back to the station to drop LMS off. Little Prince clung to her legs and said he wanted to go with her and cried when she left. He misses his biggest sister when she isn't here, and is especially upset that its her birthday this week and she won't be here so he can 'help' open her pressies!! She has promised to wave to him on the webcam on her birthday, and save some pressies for when she is home again next weekend (to celebrate her birthday with all her friends), so he was slightly happier. It was hard to watch her lug her bags onto the train and wave her off, but at least I didn't cry this time.

Wii Fit

Mr Messy managed to get hold of a Wii Fit last Friday! He just walked into a computer game shop and asked if they had any, and amazingly they did! We had been scouring the internet to find one we could pre-order but everywhere had oversubscribed pre-order lists, so we thought we'd have to wait months. Mr Messy and the kids played on it all weekend, but I declined till I could play in private - it gives you your weight, BMI and Wii fit age!! Not something I want the kids laughing at! But this morning Mr Messy showed me how to set things up and I had a go. I'm not happy with my weight and BMI, but my Wii fit age is only +6 years older than me, so that's not bad!! I then did some training and am now in 1st place on the leader board on the Hula Hoop game, and in the top 3 for Jogging, but my Stepping is atrocious, so I think I'm last in that. I want to try and get on it each day once I've dropped Little Prince at school, to try and get fitter and more active. And its a lot of fun too :-)

HURRY UP!!!!!

Little Prince has a private swimming lesson on Sundays, but I couldn't remember what time it was. I'm not just being a dizzy blonde he hasn't been for the past two weeks, and before then the teacher kept changing his regular time!! So I rang the pool up at 9.10am and the teacher said if we could make it by 9.30am he could have an early lesson!! AAAAAAARGH!!!! Neither me nor Little Prince were dressed, he was still eating his breakfast!! I rushed round like a lunatic and we managed to get there only a few minutes late!!! I was amazed!!! He had a great time in his lesson, he managed seven front crawl strokes before having to put his feet down. He discovered he could walk on his hands on the bottom of the pool. And as usual grinned from ear to ear throughout the whole lesson :-) I so glad that he is so happy and confident in the water :-)

Celebrating

Yesterday we went to an American style restaurant to celebrate my birthday. There were 18 of us there, so it was lively and noisy :-) Little Prince sat with his Girlfriend and her big sister (my friends little girls) and was in his element surrounded by girls!! At one point we were talking about Little Prince and Girlfriend's homework (draw something beautiful) and when asked what he was going to draw, Little Prince turned to Girlfriend and said her name. All us sloppy grown ups went "Awwwww" it was so sweet, and then she turned to him and gave him two big kisses, even more "Awwwww" he had a grin from ear to ear :-) Little Prince and Girlfriend then decided they didn't want a dessert (kids saying no to ice cream - unheard of!!) and wanted a cocktail instead (non alcoholic!!) they had one each, but insisted on sharing each others drink, with a straw each, how romantic lol. It was fabulous to celebrate my birthday surrounded by my family and my closest friends and we all had a great time.

Letting you in to a SECRET!!

I've had a birthday this week! A BIG birthday!! I am now, gulp, 40!!! I was dreading the day, but I don't feel any older - and any comments about me looking that old (Little Bro, Baby Sis and Drama Teen - I mean YOU!!!) will be deleted!!!! Little Prince allowed me to open one of my presents (and the boring cards), but he insisted on helping me with the rest!! I got some lovely gifts :-) Lots of Disney stuff from LMS and Drama Teen. A Disney photo frame with the 3 girls and Mickey from Fraulein. Lots of lovely things from Best Friend. Oxfam gifts in my name from another friend. Mr Messy had the day off, so we went out for an early lunch in a local organic cafe. Then in the afternoon I had a very relaxing facial at the Beauty Salon. All in all a very nice day :-) But from now on my birthday's are going backwards - here's to being 39 again lol :-)

Another Student

We have another HOST student this weekend, a young man from Spain who is studying electronics in Birmingham. Mr Messy has just confirmed that he has met him at the train station and they are on their way home. Me and LMS have spent the day tidying the house up, much to her disgust!! Although we did take a break to go out for lunch at the local Tea Shop :-)

My Girls are home :-)

The Big Girls arrived home safely from their trip to Disneyland Paris :-) They had a great time, although they thought that 5 days could have been a bit too long! They had time to do everything they wanted to (twice)!! Their journey home was straightforward and uneventful :-) Mr Messy picked them up from our local train station at just after midnight!! And parked in the space next to him was Baby Sis' fiance - he had missed her that much he couldn't resist going to collect her :-) They were all completely bog eyed by the time they got home, and not too happy to get up for school and college the next morning! And even LMS didn't get out of the waking up early, as Little Prince wanted to see ALL his Big Girls, as he'd missed them lots. And poor Mr Messy got up earlier than any of us and had to go to work, where he coped but was extremely tired by the time he got home.

Yet more rambling!!

Once we'd dropped Little Prince off at school, me and Mr Messy set off in the car to the local DIY shop. We realised part way there we didn't have enough time to get there and back before the supermarket grocery delivery and a scheduled work conference call, so we turned back. Mr Messy stayed at home while I went to the small but nearer farming supply shop, to get a new wheel for our wheelbarrow. It cost £25!!! I checked on the DIY shop's website once I got home and we could have got a whole new wheelbarrow for less than that!! Urgh!! Our builder had already started work when I got back, clearing the last bits of the footings trench out and as soon as Mr Messy had fixed the new wheel on the wheelbarrow, he started mixing the concrete and ballast and laid the footings. He carried on working really hard and finished the job up by just after lunchtime. We now have to leave it "a good few days" before he can start building the wall on it. I also have to get the reclaimed bricks too!! I've finally got hold of the man from the reclamation yard (who has supposed to have come and looked at what sort of bricks we need three times now!!) to find that he is going on holiday at the end of the week!! I got him and the builder to talk to each other, and they decided that we needed 3" handmade bricks, after hearing how much that would cost Mr Messy decided we didn't need them to match that well!! The reclamation man says he is coming round tomorrow (I've heard that before!!) and will see if there is anything any cheaper that would work ok.

Back to School

Little Prince started back at school today, much to his disgust. I think its because he was ill just before the holidays as he isn't normally like this, but he has been dreading going back to school through out the hols. We packed his bag together and put things in to remind him of home, but he said none of them were going to work and he would just cry and cry :-( Me and Mr Messy walked up to school with Little Prince on his scooter, and he was his normally boingy Tigger-like self most of the way there. He was so excited to see various of his friends as we walked, and I thought that he would be ok. He met his best friend at the gate and told him all about Legoland and then they went running round the playground together quite happily. Until the lining up bell was rung, at first Little Prince ran to be first in line, before running back to Mr Messy and sobbing. He had to be carried to the door and handed over to his teacher. I tried to stay and see that he came out of the cloakroom happily, but one of the other kids Grandmother's kept (literally!!) pushing me away saying "He'll be fine they all get like this!" Grrrrr!!!! We haven't had any phone calls from school to say he isn't coping, but I don't think they would do that as they just think I'm an overprotective mummy!! I hope he has been alright...

Just me and Little Prince

On Monday we dropped Mr Messy off at the train station as he was going to a work meeting in London, and the rest of the day it was just me and Little Prince. I don't think he was very impressed with this turn of events and he kept saying that he wanted his sisters to come home. Once Mr Messy had confirmed which train he was returning home on, me and Little Prince went shopping in the train station town. I had hoped to buy some more school trousers, but couldn't find any in the right size. I know it isn't 'school uniform season' but little boys (and Little Prince in particular!!) seem to go through the knees of their pants on a regular basis, so trousers should be more widely available!! Once we met Mr Messy we went back into the town centre and had a coffee and cake together before coming home. Little Prince was angling to go to the restaurant with his favourite dessert (fruit pieces with melted chocolate dip - VERY messy!!), but we had eaten out enough over the weekend and wanted to come home for tea.

Legoland was BRILLIANT

After a while Mr Messy's dizzy symptoms improved enough for us to set off Down South. We stayed overnight in a Travel Lodge nearish to Legoland, which wasn't the best place we've ever stayed but it was ok. We'd prebooked breakfast, and once we'd eaten (or I'd persuaded Little Prince he had to eat or we wouldn't go to Legoland) we stuffed our bags back in the car and set off for Windsor. The Travel Lodge website lies - we were a LOT further away than it said we were!!! But we arrived before opening time anyway, Little Prince was fascinated with the Lego figures dotted around on the way to the car park - he couldn't believe how much bigger they were than his little Lego man!! Once we got in the park, we had a look round the shops and promised Little Prince we would buy him something later on, I didn't fancy lugging a tonne of Lego round the rides with us!!
The first ride we tried was the Viking River Splash, and they were right it splashed!! In fact I think most of the rides we went on got us wet!! Luckily it was warm(ish) so we dried off again pretty quickly, I didn't want to pay £2 for the coin operated walk in driers!! I let the boys ride the Spinning Spider ride by themselves, and despite his dizzy symptoms Mr Messy enjoyed it. I also let them ride the Log Flume by themselves too - they got DRENCHED!!! Its a good job I was holding Mr Messy's posh camera, its just a pity I couldn't work out how to turn it on and take their photo lol!! The food in the park was well above usual theme park standards, Mr Messy and Little Prince shared a very nice and meaty rack of ribs and he also shared a chicken strips meal with me and their was plenty to go around. We all went on the Boating School ride, but it was spoilt by Mr Messy and Little Prince arguing over who was steering - both wanted to!!! Big kids!! True Little Prince did just want to crash the boat into the banks everytime he got hold of the steering wheel, but still... Little Prince was almost heartbroken that he wasn't quite old enough to go on the Driving School (kids drive round a road circuit in Lego cars) but then we found the L-Drivers school for younger kids, and all was well with the world again. I think that was one of the longest waits we had for a ride and it was only about 15-20 mins, so not bad :-) Little Prince was BRILLIANT at driving :-) He steered round the simple course with ease, and would probably have been fine on the older kids ride!!
NO that is NOT a picture of Little Prince, its from a holiday website :-)
After his driving adventure Little Prince was presented with his very own driving licence, and of course the proud Mummy and Daddy HAD to upgrade it to the photo one :-) I can't remember what other rides we went on, but they were all a lot of fun :-) We finished off the day with a wander round Miniland, where various famous tourist attractions were recreated in Lego - the detail in the models was fantastic, it even captured Little Prince's imagination :-) We set off for home and Little Prince desperately wanted his comfort blankie, but we couldn't let him as after all that walking and excitement he would have fallen fast asleep and would have been foul when we woke him up for something to eat. So we endured about an hour of whinging and wailing before we found a service station and stopped for tea. Once back in the car Little Prince got his beloved blankie and was soon totally zonked :-) He only woke up when we got home, just long enough to tell me that he LOVED Legoland and wanted to go again in the morning, before falling back to sleep in his own little bed :-)

Setting off or not?!?!

Mr Messy got up with Little Prince this morning, and then we they came to wake me up Mr Messy snuck back in bed for a little kip. As he is going to be driving us down to Windsor ready for our Legoland trip tomorrow I didn't mind. Me and Little Prince watched some TV, had showers and got ready. When we went to wake Mr Messy up, he felt awful - dizzy, cold and clammy. Everytime he lay down or tried to sit up he felt worse. We left him to see if a bit more quiet rest would help, it didn't. I offered to take Little Prince to Legoland on my own, but Mr Messy said we would just rearrange it for another time. Little Prince sobbed, he has been so looking forward to this trip for ages now. After some toast and a cup of tea, Mr Messy feels better so we will give him another hour and see how he is and then make a decision.

More Disney news

The Big Girls got up early (wow they don't manage that often at home!!!) so there wasn't a huge queue for breakfast. They are visiting the Studios Park today, they've been on Rock N Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, all except Fraulein (I didn't think she would have got THAT brave lol). They ate at the burger place near the entrance - which is famous in our family as the phoof phoof cafe!!! When eating there years ago we couldn't find the straws, and my French isn't up to that much, so I had to try and mime 'straws' to the attendant!! The kids laugh, but at least I tried!!! They've seen the Cinemagique show, which is very good :-) And they are going to see the "Lights, Moteurs, Action!!" show soon.

End of their first Disney day

It is raining hard in Disneyland Paris, and the Big Girls are all soaked! Fraulein's coat doesn't have a hood, so Drama Teen wouldn't wear hers in support!! Fraulein was persuaded to go on Big Thunder Mountain (The FAST Ride to Little Prince) and really enjoyed the ride :-) I'm glad, as she told me before they went that when out with her family she went on some sort of ride and it was so scary she cried for two hours afterwards!! That would spoil your Disney day!!! They ended their day by eating in the Sports Bar in Disney Village, and according to LMS it was awful and she doesn't recommend it! They are now settled in their hotel room Baby Sis and Fraulein are asleep, Drama Teen is Gameboying and LMS is reading. Hope they don't stay up too late - Disney days start early :-)

Disney happenings

The Big Girls successfully found a cash machine, right where I told them it was lol. I've been to Disneyland Paris too many times, hey that's not right you CAN'T go to Disney TOO many times lol. They then headed off into the Disneyland Park (like Magic Kingdom in Florida). They had Barbar Papa for their pre-lunch snack - any guesses what that is?!?! They also took Fraulein to meet her absolute favourite character Alice In Wonderland, so Fraulein is now very happy, and very squeaky :-) Then they made her lead them round Alice's Maze - she wasn't happy about that, she doesn't like being in charge lol. They had lunch in Videopolis whilst watching some of the brilliant Lion King Show, they are going back another time to watch it properly :-)

They've Arrived :-)

I was beginning to wonder where the Big Girls were this morning, as it was getting closer and closer to the minimum check in time and still no word from them all!! A few minutes later I got a text from LMS to say that they had just gone through check in and were off to find their platform. A while later than that I got a really excited text telling me they were OFF, one more station in England then off to France :-) She then confirmed when they reached France, and when they got to Disney :-) Everything went without a hitch, apart from the fact they had to go and find the Eurostar Disney staff, to check into their hotel and get their door keys and park tickets!! You'd think that as Disney booked their tickets they would have made a note of where they were sat and come to them, but he just made the excuse that there were two passengers with the same name and he had trouble finding them!! At least it was only a minor irritation and not a catastrophe and everything is sorted out now. Once they arrived they left their luggage with the Disney staff to be delivered to their room (what service!!) and went off in search of cash machines, food and fun! I'm not sure in what order lol. Have fun everyone and tell me all about it when you get back :-)

Lonely Little Prince

Little Prince is NOT impressed that he got his LMS sister back yesterday only to lose her again today!! Add that to the fact that they are all off to Disneyland, Paris without him, has made him a sad and lonely little boy :-( Me and Mr Messy have decided that we very very rarely get the chance to concentrate fully on just Little Prince, in fact I can't think of a single weekend that we have ever had JUST Little Prince!!! After we'd waved the big girls off on the train we went for a sandwich, drink and cake at a local cafe and then to one of his favourite shops - Woolworths :-) We were lucky enough to find some Disney Cars he hasn't already got, so that solved the problem of what to buy him :-) We then paid a call to Wilkinson where they have a range of kids cutlery and tablewear, in blue with footballers on it. The fabulous thing about this set is that the cartoon footballing kids are of all different ethnicities - PERFECT :-)
Tomorrow I can't plan anything exciting, as we are waiting for the building supply company to deliver the ballast and cement for the new garden wall's footings. And if they are delivered early enough our builder can come round and get the footings laid. But on Saturday we are driving down to Windsor and staying over in a travel lodge, then on Sunday we are taking Little Prince to Legoland :-) We will be able to fully concentrate on what he likes doing, rather than him having to wait while we do things his much older sisters enjoy, and I'm hoping that it will make up for missing his Big Girls :-)

They're off!!

I spent the morning trying to persuade (I'm sure they'll say bully lol) three teenage girls into packing their things for 6 days away into two SMALL pull along suitcases!! Have you ANY idea how difficult a task that is for them?!?! The cases are stuffed full, but after some persuading over how much to take, everything fitted in :-) Then me and Little Prince took LMS, Drama Teen and Fraulein to meet Baby Sis at the train station as they are travelling down to London today, and getting the Eurostar directly to DISNEYLAND PARIS tomorrow morning!! I'm SOOOOOO jealous, never mind that I went last November lol. I spent the whole morning giving them instructions and advice, and I'm fairly sure it all went in one ear and out the other lol. So long as LMS and Drama Teen can refrain from killing each other, and they can all enjoy themselves its all ok :-)

EXTRMELY angry!!!

Something happened yesterday that made me so so cross!! I can't blog about it, and there is no use asking me as I won't say what it is either here or privately, but I am so ANGRY about this issue and the implications that it has.
B*ST*RD!!!!!!!
My only comfort is that, as Mr Messy said, it is instant Karma :-)

Museum Trip

Me and Little Prince went to the local Museum with my friend and her two little girls, one of which is in Little Prince's class at school and the other a year or so older. The Museum had a kids trail to follow round the exhibits, with pictures they had to spot and they had a whale of a time trying to find all the pictures and tick them off on their sheets :-) Although they didn't look at the exhibits too much as they (especially Little Prince) were too busy running to find the next picture lol. There was an art gallery attached to the Museum which we also took the children round, probably not a great idea with Little Prince as he kept touching one piece of art that looked like giant footballs!! Way too tempting for a little boy!!! In the end he had to sit on my knee on a chair for a few minutes before he decided that looking and not touching was much more interesting than sitting stil on mummy's knee!! There was a giant chess set, set up in one part of the museum and my friend spent a few minutes trying to teach her elder daughter the rules, but it all went way above her head so that was abandoned. All three kids had fun putting their heads in the holes of pictures to make funny scenes, like you see on seaside postcards :-)

Tae Kwon Do

I took Little Prince to the village hall to have a try at Tae Kwon Do this evening. He is mega keen as its the same fighting as the Power Rangers!! But he still isn't well (fell asleep on the sofa this afternoon!!) so I was going to wait till next week to take him. However, he was so keen and excited about going that I decided we would give it a go. He was bouncy and happy all the way there, but as soon as we entered the building he changed his mind and wanted to go home. I had a chat to the teacher and he said not to worry and we could sit at the side and watch the session. There were only three kids there, as its the school holidays at the moment, and the teacher had them demonstrate quite a few different moves for Little Prince. Little Prince was quite impressed but the shouting made him nervous and after about 20 mins we came home. The instructor said there had been kids who had sat and watched for weeks before joining in, so if Little Prince wanted to do that it was fine. I'm not sure what Little Prince will want to do next week, but if he can overcome his nerves at new things/environments then I think Tae Kwon Do will be a good outlet to channel his bounteous energy. And fingers crossed that when he's back on top form, it will help tire him out a bit!!

Thumbs down for the spa

What did I honestly expect hmm?? Mr Messy did not enjoy his day at the spa!! He said it was full of women in groups who glared at him if he went in the jacuzzi, or sat gossiping in the quiet relaxation rooms. He felt out of place and didn't like it. The massage was 'alright and interesting' but he needs days to unwind not just half an hour! And despite me arranging that he could spend the whole day there, he was told that he had to leave after his massage. Normally he is assertive and would have pointed out the mistake, but for some reason he didn't bother.
The weather was foul, hail storms and cold, so he decided to try and get hold of Drama Teen and try and beat the crowds leaving the park by leaving early. Drama Teen's phone was on silent so she didn't get his calls, so he kept ringing me getting more and more irate all the time!! We ended up rowing by text message as I warned him to cut it out and not to dare spoil Drama Teen's birthday by throwing a tantrum!! According to Drama Teen he wasn't happy when they finally got back to the car, but he wasn't obnoxious either!! He refused to stop and feed them on the way home, which meant me and Little Prince had to make an emergency dash to the supermarket for frozen pizzas!!
Young Man was returned home after frozen pizzas, but the rest of them are staying here for a sleepover!! While taking Young Man home I discovered that he'd lost most of his money during the morning and hadn't had enough to buy any lunch. I felt absolutely awful for the poor lad! He is scared of heights, but went on the rides for Drama Teen, bless :-) And to end up being cold and hungry on top of that too - I hope he still had a good time!!

Look out Alton Towers here comes Drama Teen

Amazingly Drama Teen's friends all arrived here on time, I thought 8am on a Saturday would be a bit of a killer for teenage girls, but they managed it. Mr Messy was taking them, via Young Man's house (he had problems getting a lift here, but it was more or less on their way so Mr Messy said he'd pick him up - Drama Teen would have been gutted if he wasn't there!!). Little Prince was quite upset that no matter how much he demanded to go too, no one would let him. He did cheer up when the Power Rangers Mighty Morphathon came on Jetix though!
I got a phone call from Mr Messy later in the morning to say that they'd all arrived safely, he'd made sure the teens got their tickets (using supermarket vouchers, saved us a fortune!) and got in and then went over to the spa. I hope he enjoys it and finds it relaxing.
Mr, Fraulein and Little Prince went to the supermarket to get Drama Teen's birthday cake - he chose her the High School Musical one, and tonnes of junk food for a midnight feast. They aren't going to sleep anyway, so it won't make much difference filling them full of sugary cr*p!! Little Prince was a pain in the bum at the supermarket, messing with things on the shelves, whining constantly and being a right royal pain!! Things didn't get any better when I took them to MacDonalds for a treat!! He ate two or three bites and refused to eat any more, he kept dropping things on the floor and tried to go to sleep at one point. He ended up with two MacBalloons but on the way to the car he let go of one (his green one) and sulked and whinged about that. He had a pink one to give to Drama Teen for her birthday, but he was so cross about his own balloon that he pulled the stopper out of hers - so no more balloons. Cue even more whinging until he fell asleep, he is now lay on the sofa having another nap!! He hasn't had daytime naps since he was little, I'm getting quite worried about this now!!

Spa Day :-)

But this time its not me - its Mr Messy!!! He is taking Drama Teen and some friends (is the group name for teenage girls, a giggle?!?!) to Alton Towers to celebrate her 14th birthday. I can't believe my baby girl will be FOURTEEN soon!!! Where did the time go?!?! Anyway, he has no intention of being ignored round the theme park by the teens, or spending the day wandering round on his own and has been looking for alternatives. After getting exasperated with him not being able to chose what else to do, I jokingly suggested he spent the day at the Alton Towers Spa. He laughed off that suggestion as ludicrous, and as he is unreconstructed Northern Man, I left it at that. Half an hour later he rang me asking what he would do at a spa, and would it cost a fortune! I looked into it for him and booked him a day's relaxation and a back/shoulder massage. I asked the receptionist to look after him - she'll recognise him by the fact he will look like a fish out of water!! I think a lovely relaxing day reading by the pool and then a massage will do him the world of good, as he's been working so hard lately. All of his team are off work at the moment, so he is left carrying the can on his own and its highly stressful, and on top of that he's been working quite a few weekends lately and hasn't had time to unwind. Hopefully this spa day will help :-)

Getting better :-)

Yesterday I thought Little Prince was much better, until he chucked up his breakfast, and then had a 3 hour nap in the afternoon!! This morning he was much bouncier and energetic, and much more like his funny silly self :-) We went to town to meet my mum and dad for lunch, they came over on the train to drop off Drama Teen's, LMS's and my birthday cards/pressies :-) Yep, poor Mr Messy has the birthday's of all three women in his life within three weeks of each other - bad planning or what?!?! Little Prince was fairly subdued and didn't eat anything at the cafe, although he did play with the toys and read the books quite happily. He fell asleep on the way home and again had a long nap, which is so unlike him that I don't think he's completely better yet. His appetite is growing and he is quite a lot more bouncy so I think he's well on his way to recovery :-)

Poorly Prince

Little Prince is still poorly, he has an upset tummy, cough and general icky feeling. So all my plans of things we could do over the school holidays are out the window for now! My days consist of cuddling my poorly boy, who just wants to laze on the sofa and watch Power Rangers. I really hope he's better soon as there is only so much Power Rangers I can take!!!

Changing country meeting

I've just had an email inviting me and Mr Messy to our LA Offices, to discuss with Team Leader and Sessional Social Worker our wish to change to an Ethiopian adoption application. The meeting isn't until the 19th May!!! That will be over ten weeks since we first contacted them and said we wished to change country!! Other families (UK families) have managed to go from first contact to panel, in 12 weeks - I know our LA are slow, but this is RIDICULOUS!!!!! Aaaaaaaaargh!!!! That was supposed to make me feel better, but it didn't!!!!!
UPDATE: After sending a grovelling email to Team Leader, and making up some cock and bull story about Mr Messy wanting to book holidays, we have now been offered a meeting on 28th April (which is a whopping THREE weeks earlier). I'm just waiting to hear from our sw to see if she can make that meeting. Fingers crossed that she can!!
MORE UPDATES: YES YES YES our sw can make the meeting on 28th April. Its not a huge change really, but at least its a change in the right direction, we'll be seeing them and starting the official changeover SOONER :-)

Busy Busy Busy

Mr Messy is home safe and sound, despite the best efforts of roadworks and bad weather :-) Its a huge relief to have him back, and know that the weather didn't get him!!

I've been busy while I've been waiting, it stops me worrying lol. I've sorted out MeiMei's Squishes and laid them out into what I think is almost, nearly the final design :-) What do you think??

Buggies

I've just found this Chicco For Me Top Stroller, on Amazon, and its one of the more reasonably priced (£299) rearward facing buggies that I've seen. I really want a rearward (ie looking towards mummy/daddy) facing buggy as it aids both attachment, and studies have shown children who use this type of buggy are more advanced in their language skills. I don't want a trendy three wheel type of buggy (they just look unstable to me and I'm not the Yummy Mummy type to push one either). I don't want an integrated travel system either, I want to be able to chose the car seat that fits best in our car, not have that dictated by the buggy I buy, we had a lot of trouble finding a car seat to fit our car properly when we bought one for Little Prince, so I know how important it is to get one for your own specific vehicle. The other one I'm considering is the Hauck Infinity. But before buying anything I want to try them out - don't want to buy one that's hard to push, handles wrong height, difficult to collapse etc.

They are nearly there

Just had a call from LMS, she and Mr Messy are about 20 miles away from university now. He is going to take her to the supermarket to restock her food cupboards before coming home again. I don't expect him to be home till late this evening, and hope he isn't too tired after the mega-drive.

Little Prince has just gone and tucked himself back in bed, he is still very snuffly and has no appetite (although he is still drinking so I'm not too worried) he keeps retching and feeling sick too. I think an hour or so's nap will do him the world of good, although I'm not sure I'll be able to get him to bed at a reasonable time tonight!!

Fraulein is not a happy bunny at the moment either. She has just found out that the pregnant girl and the on/off boyfriend have got back together, despite her and pregnant girl swearing off him yesterday and agreeing that he isn't good for either of them. She feels lied to and betrayed and a bit foolish for thinking she could change them. She shouldn't though, she's a nice young girl who sees the good in everyone, and I hope this experience doesn't change that aspect of her.

Miss you already

We've just waved off Mr Messy and Little Miss Sensible, as she has to return to university today. Its hard saying goodbye :-( She is back in a week or so, just overnight before the girls (LMS, Drama Teen, Baby Sis and Fraulein) go on their Disneyland Paris adventure, so its not long before I see her again.

Life is complicated!

Fraulein wanted a word with me. She wanted to know if it was ok to invite a friend from college for a sleepover. I'm not that keen on the friend, even though I haven't met her, Fraulein's descriptions of her and her on/off boyfriend's behaviours have been enough to put me off them both. But you can't chose your children's friends for them, so I agreed that friend come come over. There's something else I have to tell you first, says Fraulein - she's pregnant!! Visibly pregnant, hence the having to tell me, before I noticed! That's not a huge deal I suppose, although I find it sad that a college age girl is pregnant at her age, children are a heck of a commitment at any age and she's still mostly a child herself. The trouble is the father is the on/off boyfriend who has also been pursuing Fraulein! Which as the expecting girl lives with his family, he must have known for some time that she was pregnant and still chose to pursue Fraulein. Its not a good situation and I just hope it works out for them all, but especially the innocent little baby that will be born into all of this. I am, however, very proud of Fraulein, she said she has been trying (and thinks she may have succeeded a little) to get the boy to understand his responsibilities to both his future child, and to the child's mother. She also wants to try and make things better for the girl, and that is why she has invited her over here, to get her out of the boys house and the situation there, and give her space to talk. Fraulein can be a dizzy teenager, but she is also a very caring young lady, well done Fraulein.

Today's Blurb

Little Prince didn't have a good night. He woke up a few times, he was sick and he woke up mega early. Today I had to take Drama Teen out to a CLAPA Youth Council Meeting, which meant leaving Little Prince with LMS. A very tired LMS who stayed up really late on her girlie sleepover with her friends, and then had to get up way before she wanted to, so that she could look after Little Prince when me and Drama Teen went out. I spent the whole day worrying about them both, but they seemed to cope very well :-) Although Little Prince refused to go to his classmates party (proves he's ill!!) they just walked to the village hall and dropped the present off and came home again.

Drama Teen said her Council Meeting was boring (as usual!!) and that she wasn't that keen on the food in the restaurant that they went to. Oh well!! I spent a few hours mooching round the shops, sticking to the indoor shopping mall as it was freezing cold and wet outside. Which was a shock to Drama Teen when we arrived there, as she wasn't dressed for that sort of weather!! We had to make a mad dash for the shops before the meeting, to try and get her something warmer to wear, but nothing was good enough to go with the carefully styled outfit, so all she ended up with was some socks!! Fussy teens!!! The meeting finished on time so we were able to dash back to the train station and get an earlier train than I had expected, which was a relief because a) we would get back to the poorly boy quicker and 2) my feet were killing me!! Drama Teen slept most of the way home on the train, which was rather boring for me as I had no one else to talk to, but I decided against waking her up as she would just be grumpy!!

Little Prince was thrilled to see us when we got home, and more thrilled with his present - a Mickey Mouse car and a Power Rangers colouring book. He started colouring in straight away, and did the best colouring I've ever known him do :-) I spent half an hour or so in the garden, tidying up some more of the stuff the handyman left and I'm beginning to like my garden again now :-) I've got my patio set back and I've got a load of stuff to take to the tip tomorrow, and at some point in the school hols me, Drama Teen and Little Prince are going to get his climbing frame and slides washed. I'll probably drag them to the garden centre (kicking and screaming if I have to!!) and get some bedding plants to brighten the place up a bit too :-) I'll also have to find some way of cleaning the moss off the patio to make that a bit safer and nicer to look at too. I tried the power washer last year, but it didn't work very well and made a huge mess all over the patio doors!!

Surprises in the Post

We got a letter this morning from Little Prince's placing LA, containing a letter and photo from his Tummy Mummy. It was completely out of the blue, as this is only the second time in almost four years that she has replied to our Letterbox letters. Little Prince listened while I read the letter to him, and seemed very interested in the photo (that could have been the vehicles, rather than the person in it though). I'm not sure how I feel about the letter. It was a shock to get it out of the blue like that. I am pleased for Little Prince that he has that contact from Tummy Mummy, and the confirmation that she hasn't forgotten about him. The ongoing contact should be good for him as he grows up and realises more what he has lost through adoption, and may stand him in good stead if he decides to contact Tummy Mummy as an adult. But another part of me is cross with some of the wording in the letter, where it feels to me that I am portrayed as a munificent babysitter, and I'm his mummy. I'm not sure how I feel, happy/sad and thrilled/angry and a whole lot more besides! But I love Little Prince so very very much and all my conflicted emotions are worth it, if it gives him even one shred of reassurance that he is still thought about by his original family.

Poorly Prince

Little Prince has been poorly the last couple of days, 'something' has been going round at school and he has finally stood still long enough for it to catch him! He has had a raging temperature, no appetite and been very lethargic - none of which is like him! I've kept him off school yesterday and today, and he seems to be slowly recovering. He was well enough to play in the garden for 15 mins with Drama Teen anyway :-) Hopefully he will sleep through the night and we'll both wake up feeling better and rested tomorrow. He is that sleepy that he managed to fall asleep and is still asleep, despite LMS having loads of friends round for a sleepover, they go back to their seperate universities this weekend so are having a girlie film/choccies sleepover :-) Mr Messy has set off down South, he is photographing his friend's new baby tomorrow morning, and then in the afternoon they are going to a franchising exhibition in London together - so I'm in charge of large numbers of teenage girls, and am feeling VERY outnumbered!!

Handy Man Heaven!!

My handyman came round today and totally cleared the ground floor of the cottage at the bottom of the garden :-) Its still a wreck of a shell, but at least its not still full of cr*p!! And he also managed to get Mr Messy's pride and joy restoration vehicle in the garage end of the cottage - not as easy as it sounds as its been up on axel stands on the drive for about 12 months!! But he managed to put the wheels back on, start it (using the battery out of his own van lol) and get it safely in the garage. Little Prince's is now in no danger of sliding off the end of his slide and banging straight into the side of daddy's pride and joy!! We just need to redo the wicker fence (it rotted over the Winter) in front of the cottage to keep Little Prince the intrepid explorer out and the garden will be a LOT safer :-) Also my friend's son H came round and will be starting to rebuild the missing garden wall on Monday, well he will be digging new footings ready for the new wall!! There used to be a building next door to ours, and their wall formed part of our garden boundary wall, the building was demolished last Summer and there is no sign of the promised development of the plot!! I have had enough of living with the ugly metal site-fencing, and having my lovely walled garden open to all and sundry to peer in - so H is going to build us a wall :-) If we get him to build it to 1.8m high we don't need planning permission or anything, so that's what we are going to do. I found a local reclamation yard that should be able to supply reclaimed bricks that will be in keeping with the feel of the house and can't wait to have my lovely private walled garden back. Apparently H is a slow but meticulous builder, and that is exactly what I want - a wall that will last and look good for a few hundred years or so :-)

Secret Pal Gift

This beautiful set of love heart themed pyjamas, and bright red, snuggly warm slipper socks were the February (Valentine's Day) gift from my July LID Secret Pal. This was the last of our three swaps, so she revealed herself (oh er missus!!!) thank you ever so much Steph for all the lovely thoughtful gifts you have sent me, they are very special to me :-)