Wednesday

We had an uneventful morning getting ready for school. Well apart from when I washed and conditioned Princess Lollipop's hair, she didn't cry as much this morning, but its still hard for her :-( I wish I knew a better way of keeping her hair in good condition, but I am using shampoo/conditioner formulated for black hair, and am following the advice of the local black hairdresser and any tip or hint I can get from anyone/anywhere! I bought a Tangle Teezer recently that other parents of Ethiopian daughters have been raving about and it made her cry more than the regular combing through that I do :-( And my black friends just say use LOTS of conditioner - which I do! I wish I knew the secret :-(

Little Prince took his tooth back into school as they are going to try and dissolve it in Coca Cola as an experiment. He is much too literal to even entertain the idea of the Tooth Fairy, and experimenting on his tooth interests him a lot more than getting some money from Mum and Dad! However, I've just been looking this experiment up on the internet and apparently its an urban myth! I seem to remember trying to clean (or dissolve!) coins in all sorts of different solutions with either LMS or Drama Teen years ago - can't remember what the results were though lol.

The visitors at OUR shop today included a woman asking if we could make a pretty ropey photo on an old work security pass into a proper photograph!! I told her to bring it in and see Mr Messy, but also warned her that it wasn't always possible - he's a photographer (a VERY good one) not a miracle worker!! I also had a lady come in and ask how much it would cost to frame a very long thin picture, I don't have the pricing information on framing, so again she has to come in and see Mr Messy! Then the Grandma, Mother and Baby from last Friday's shoot came in and asked to see the photographs!! They said that Mr Messy had told them they would be able to see them either online or at OUR shop today!! I was totally thrown as Mr Messy hadn't mentioned any of this to me, and of course I had no access to the photographs from my laptop! I spluttered some excuses, apologised profusely, took their mobile number and said I'd get in touch with Mr Messy and find out what was happening and get back to them. Mr Messy said he didn't say that - he said the photos would be ready this week, but no specific day and time!! However, he said to let them know that he would upload the photos to a secure online gallery tonight and email them the details. I rang them straight back, apologised again and gave them this message and took a note of their email address. Hopefully they will be alright about this, fingers crossed! And even though its their mistake, the customer is always right and we can't point that out!!

I closed OUR shop early today, and took Princess Lollipop to her last session of Stay and Play at Little Prince's school. Due to budget cuts the school can no longer spare the two staff required to run the sessions, and so they are having to close it :-( Princess Lollipop LOVES going to her school, and it is such a lovely nurturing group that its a huge shame its closing. Princess Lollipop was a lot more vocal during the session than she normally is when surrounded by non family, and everyone was surprised at how well her talking has come on! It hasn't really taken such a jump, its just she usually refuses to speak lol. The children all got a small cake after their snack, but Princess Lollipop preferred to eat the raisins, or Janes as she insists on calling them!! Jane is a friend of ours who owns a local children's boutique, and gives Princess Lollipop a small snack box of raisins every time she goes in!! So now raisins are Janes!!

There was no point going home after the Stay and Play session finished, so we played in the car for 15 mins till Little Prince finished school. Against my better judgement I allowed Little Prince's friend J to come home to play! The boys bickered, fought and argued from the moment they sat down in the car till the moment J's Dad arrived to pick him up!! I was tearing my hair out by then!! And it wasn't helped by a phone call from Mr Messy saying the motorway was blocked and it could be 9 or 10pm before he got home!! Argh!!!! Drama Teen was a star and made mine, hers and the littlies tea - thank you Drama Teen I really appreciate it :-) After tea she went and did some editing for her Dad, who really appreciated it too :-)

Little Prince was very tired and he was in bed before 7.30pm, closely followed by Princess Lollipop!! As I thought I'd be "home alone" I decided to watch some of the Quantum Leap episodes I'd got saved on Sky+. Then I got a surprise phone call from Mr Messy saying the Sat Nav had managed to find him a route home that didn't delay him too much. He also wanted to know if I wanted some chips from the chippie! I knew that if I said I'd already eaten that Mr Messy wouldn't bother getting himself anything either, so I just said I'd love some!! I made enough of a show of eating them that he doesn't know lol.

Mr Messy was up and down to his office editing and uploading the photographs all the rest of the evening, so I carried on watching Quantum Leap :-) Mr Messy even sat and chuckled through some of it too :-) Its cheesy but fun :-)

Drama Teen asked me to order her a hat from fashion shop's online shop. I tried but the website wouldn't accept my card, the bank has recently moved to a different type of card and some websites haven't caught up yet. She asked me to take her to the nearest actual shop, I told her fine, but I wanted her to ring first and check they have the hat in stock first. She sulked and said I should know she hates ringing people up (which is true) but we had already agreed that she was going to have to start trying to do it! So I've left her to choose between - ringing and finding out and then driving over OR not ringing and not going!! I'm sure her fashion sense will outweigh her phone reluctance :-) I know she can do it :-)